http://www.acf.dhhs.gov/programs/cb/pubs/cm04/index.htm
The government report from 2004:
Child protective services (CPS) agencies respond to the needs of children who are alleged to have been maltreated and ensure that they remain safe. Based on a rate of 47.8 per 1,000 children, an estimated 3,503,000 children received an investigation by CPS agencies in 2004.1 Based on a victim rate of 11.9 per 1,000 children, an estimated 872,000 children were found to be victims. A child was counted each time he or she was A child was counted each time he or she was the subject of a report. The count of child victims is based on the number of investigations that found the child to be a victim of one of more types of maltreatment. The count of victims is, therefore, a report-based count and is a "duplicated count."2 The victimization rates by individual State are illustrated in figure 3-1.
The rate of all children who received an investigation or assessment increased from 36.1 per 1,000 children in 1990 to 47.8 per 1,000 children in 2004, which is a 32.4 percent increase (figure 3-2). The rate of victimization decreased from 13.4 per 1,000 children in 1990 to 11.9 per 1,000 children in 2004, which is an 11.2 percent decrease.3 The highest rate of victimization occurred during 1993, when the rate was 15.3. There has been a 51.3 percent increase in the number of children who received an investigation from 1990 to 2004; there has been 1.4 percent increase in the number of child victims.
First-Time Victims
Based on data from 39 States, nearly three-quarters of the victims (74.3%) had no history of prior victimization.4 Information regarding first-time victims is a Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART) measure. The Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention Program reports this PART measure to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) each year as an average of all States. Individual State data are not reported to OMB.
Types of Maltreatment
During 2004, 62.4 percent of victims experienced neglect, 17.5 percent were physically abused, 9.7 percent were sexually abused, 7.0 percent were psychologically maltreated, and 2.1 percent were medically neglected.5 In addition, 14.5 percent of victims experienced such "other" types of maltreatment as "abandonment," "threats of harm to the child," or "congenital drug addiction." States may code any condition that does not fall into one of the main categories—physical abuse, neglect, medical neglect, sexual abuse, and psychological or emotional maltreatment—as "other." These maltreatment type percentages total more than 100 percent because children who were victims of more than one type of maltreatment were counted for each maltreatment.
Figure 3-3 illustrates that victimization rates by type of maltreatment have fluctuated only slightly during the last 5 years.6
Victims of specific types of maltreatment were analyzed in terms of what the report sources were. Of victims of physical abuse, 24.1 percent were reported by educational personnel, 21.8 percent were reported by law enforcement, and 11.0 percent were reported by medical personnel.7 Overall, 72.7 percent were reported by professionals and 27.3 percent were reported by nonprofessionals. The patterns of reporting of neglect and sexual abuse victims were similar—law enforcement accounted for the largest percentage of neglect victims (26.2%) and the largest percent of sexual abuse victims (26.5%); 60.8 percent of reporters of neglect were professionals and 68.9 percent of reporters of sexual abuse were professionals. The patterns of reporting medical neglect were different. Nearly one-third of all reports of medical neglect victims were made by medical personnel; three-quarters (73.1%) were made by professionals compared with 26.9 percent by nonprofessionals.
Sex and Age of Victims
For 2004, 48.3 percent of child victims were boys, and 51.7 percent of the victims were girls.8 The youngest children had the highest rate of victimization. The rate of child victimization of the age group of birth to 3 years was 16.1 per 1,000 children of the same age group. The victimization rate of children in the age group of 4-7 years was 13.4 per 1,000 children in the same age group.9 Overall, the rate of victimization was inversely related to the age of the child (figure 3-4).
The youngest children accounted for the largest percentage of victims. Children younger than 1 year accounted for 10.3 percent of victims.10
Nearly three-quarters of child victims (72.9%) ages birth to 3 years were neglected compared with 52.4 percent of victims ages 16 years and older. For victims in the age group of 12-15 years, 22.8 percent were physically abused and 16.5 percent were sexually abused, compared with 16.8 percent and 9.1 percent, respectively, for victims in the age group of 4-7 years old.11
...
Children who had been prior victims of maltreatment were 84 percent more likely to experience a recurrence than those who were not prior victims.
Child victims who were reported with a disability were 61 percent more likely to experience recurrence than children without a disability.
The oldest children (16-21 years of age) were the least likely to experience a recurrence, and were 52 percent less likely than children who were the youngest children (0-3 years of age).
Compared with White children, Asian-Pacific Islander children were 59 percent less likely to experience recurrence.
Perpetrators of Maltreatment
Nearly 84 percent (83.4%) of victims were abused by a parent acting alone or with another person.
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