National Child Abuse Statistics

As of September 2003, compiled by Childhelp USA

12 Eye-Opening Facts

• Each day in America, three children die from abuse and neglect. In 2001, over 1300 children died at the hands of another.
• Of those fatalities, 84.5% were under the age of 6; 4 in 10 were under the age of 1.
• More children (age 4 and younger) die from child abuse and neglect than any other single, leading cause of injury death for infants and young children. This includes falls, choking on food, suffocation, drowning, residential fires, and motor vehicle accidents.
• Nearly one quarter of substantiated causes of child neglect and abuse are associated with parental alcohol or drug abuse. It is estimated that 1 in 4 children in the United States (28 million) are living in a household with an alcoholic adult.
• 1 in 7 victims of sexual assault reported to law agencies were under age 6. Convicted rape and sexual assault offenders serving time in state prisons report that 65% of their victims were under the age of 18.
• Among rape victims under 12, 90% knew their offender, according to police data. Frequently, the person who sexually molests a child is also a child. 40% of the offenders who sexually assaulted children under age 6 were juveniles (under the age of 18).
• 9 in 10 Americans polled regard child abuse as a serious problem, yet only 1 in 3 reported abuse when confronted with an actual situation.
• Child abuse is reported – on average – every 10 seconds.
• The actual incidence of abuse and neglect is estimated to be three times greater than the number reported to authorities.
• More than 2.67 million reports of possible maltreatment involving 3 million children were made to child protective service agencies in 2001.
• The rate of infant homicide reached a 30-year high in 2000.
• Men and women serving time in the nation’s prisons and jails report a higher incidence of abuse as children than the general population. More than a third of women in the nation’s prisons and jails reported abuse as children, compared with 12% to 17% for women in the general population. About 14% of male inmates reported abuse as children, compared with 5%-8% of men in the general population..