13 Child Maltreatment 2019: Summary of Key Findings
13 Child Maltreatment 2019: Summary of Key Findings
This factsheet presents data from Child Maltreatment 2019, a report based on data submissions by State child protective services (CPS) agencies for Federal fiscal year (FFY) 2019. The full Child Maltreatment 2019 report is available on the Children’s Bureau website. The report includes comparison statistics for the last 5 years. These statistics indicate an increase in the overall rates of child victimization as well as an increase in the overall rates of children who received a response from a CPS agency.
States voluntarily provide data on child abuse and neglect to the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS) that are used for the annual Child Maltreatment report. States have their own definitions of child abuse and neglect based on standards set by Federal law.1 Additionally, States’ screening policies and responses to maltreatment may differ, as does what each State reports to NCANDS.
1 For more information about State definitions, refer to Child Welfare Information Gateway’s Definitions of Child Abuse and Neglect.
HOW MANY ALLEGATIONS OF MALTREATMENT WERE REPORTED AND INVESTIGATED
During FFY 2019, CPS agencies received an estimated 4.4 million referrals involving the alleged maltreatment of approximately 7.9 million children.2 The national referral rate is 59.5 referrals per 1,000 children in the population. Of these referrals, approximately 2.4 million reports—concerning approximately 3.5 million children—were screened in as “appropriate” for CPS response and received either an investigation or alternative response.3 The national rate for children receiving either an investigation or alternative response was 47.2 children per 1,000 in the population.
4.4 million
During FFY 2019, CPS agencies received an estimated 4.4 million referrals involving the alleged maltreatment of approximately 7.9 million children.2
More than half (54.5 percent) of referrals were screened in for investigation or assessment by CPS agencies in the 45 States that reported statistics for both screened in and screened-out reports. Approximately one-fifth (16.7 percent) of the children investigated were found to be victims of abuse or neglect—a rate of 8.9 per 1,000 children in the population. The remainder of the children investigated (83.3 percent) were found to be nonvictims of maltreatment or received an alternative response. The following, also illustrated in figure 1, are additional details about the dispositions of the investigations (duplicate count):4
- 16.0 percent substantiated
- 0.7 percent indicated
- 56.5 percent unsubstantiated
- 10.6 percent no alleged maltreatment
- 13.8 percent alternative response5
- 1.3 percent closed with no finding
- 1.0 percent “other”
- 0.1 percent unknown
- 0.0 percent intentionally false
2 Over time, the Child Maltreatment report series has transitioned from using duplicate counts to unique counts for most analyses. For example, a “duplicate” count of child victims