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Re: Child abuse statistics
I have had some questions about how my contention about a leveling off of
child maltreatment reports jibes with the often quoted findings from NIS-3.
NIS-3 measured the change from 1986-1993 (just two points in time) and
captured an increase in reports that was still occurring in the late 1980s.
But NCCANDS for 1993 reported a reporting rate of 43 per 1000 children
and for 1996, 44 per 1000, also 1,018,692 substantiated victims in 1993 vs
970,000 in 1996. NCCANDS doesn't get all states every year, but it is
clear that the picture of dramatic annual increases that occurred
throughout the 1980s has not continued in the mid 1990s. Of course, we can
always point to the big rise in reports and substantiations if we go back
far enough, but I am asking the question of whether we need to keep harping
on those increases to justify concern about child abuse. The problem is
big enough without us having to make it seem like it is still growing, and
if we try to fudge the fact that the picture is changing we will eventually
lose credibility.
At 09:39 AM 11/5/98 +0000, Robert Caldwell wrote:
>Recently, David Finkelhor and Sharon Carnahan both responded to the
>following statement:
>
>> >The incidence of child abuse and neglect has doubled since 1980.
>> >Family service providers are encountering more and more destructive
>> >family relationships. Child and youth violence is increasing both in
>> >frequency and severity.
>
>Professor Finkelhor wrote:
>
>> This is fairly misleading. While child abuse "reports" are up since
>> 1980, in fact reports have stopped their sharp increases since the
>> early 1990s, sexual abuse reports are actually in decline, youth
>> crime and youth homicide have started to decline, child abuse
>> fatalities have been fairly flat for the last few years. Even when
>> reports were rising rapidly many people doubted that CAN incidence
>> was truly on the rise. It's a serious problem, we don't have to
>> exaggerate its importance, and we don't "need" continual increases
>> to justify prevention. In fact, we might be better off claiming some
>> progress for all we've been doing for the last 25 years.
>
>
>How, then, should we make sense of the following two quotations taken
>from documents on the web page of the National Clearinghouse on
>Child Abuse and Neglect Information?
>
>
>"Findings from the Third National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and
>Neglect (NIS-3) estimate that child maltreatment nearly doubled in
>the United States between 1986 and 1993. The study estimates that:
>
> The number of abused and neglected children grew from 1.4
> million in 1986 to over 2.8 million in 1993
>
> The number of children who were seriously injured quadrupled
> from about 143,000 in 1986 to nearly 570,000 in 1993
>
> Only 28 percent of the children identified by the study as
> harmed by abuse and neglect in 1993 were investigated by State
> child protective services (CPS).
>
>NIS-3 is designed to estimate the actual number of abused and
>neglected children including cases both reported and not reported to
>CPS. NIS bases estimates on information from more than 5,600
>community professionals who come into contact with maltreated
>children in a variety of settings. The most recent NIS survey
>examines data from 1993, while the previous survey was conducted in
>1986."
>
>and,
>
>
>" In 1996, State child protective service agencies reported to NCANDS
>that:
>
> Almost 1 million children were the victims of substantiated or
> indicated child abuse and neglect in 1996, an approximate 18
> percent increase since 1990.
>
> The national rate of victimization was 15 victims per 1,000
> children in the population.
>
> An estimated 1,077 child maltreatment fatalities occurred in
> the 50 States and the District of Columbia in 1996."
>
>It seems difficult to claim "progress" in child abuse prevention by
>pointing out that substantiated and indicated CAN cases "only"
>increased by 18% since 1990. The truth of the matter is that
>prevention efforts remain woefully underfunded, reaching only a small
>fraction of the families who could benefit from the intervention.
>
>
>%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%
>
>Robert A. Caldwell, Ph.D.
>Department of Psychology
>Michigan State University
>East Lansing, MI 48824-1117
>U.S.A.
>
>Phone:(517) 353-4548 (office)
> (517) 432-2476 (FAX)
>
>URL: http://pilot.msu.edu/user/bob
>%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%
>
David Finkelhor * Crimes Against Children Research Center * Family
Research Laboratory * Department of Sociology * University of New Hampshire
* Durham, NH 03824 * 603-862-2761 (phone) * 603-862-1122 (fax)
davidf@christa.unh.edu (or)
david.finkelhor@unh.edu
(603) 862-2761 phone
(603) 862-1122 fax
The FRL has a website: http://www.unh.edu/frl/index.html