The facts about child abuse and neglect
Child abuse statistics
Today, there is no disease, natural disaster or trauma that is killing more children under four years of age than abuse and neglect.
Every day in the United States:
- 3 children die from abuse and neglect.
- 43 percent are under 1 year of age.
- 86 percent are younger than 6 years of age.
In an average year in the United States:
- There are nearly 3 million reports of abuse and neglect.
- Nearly 2 million reports are investigated.
- More than 525,000 reports affecting 826,000 children can be proven every year.
In Wisconsin alone in 2003 (the most recent year for which statistics are available):
- 12 children died due to proven abuse or neglect.
- 1,336 cases of physical abuse were proven.
- 4,076 cases of sexual abuse were proven.
- 36 cases of emotional abuse were proven.
- 2,546 cases of neglect were proven.
While these numbers are staggering, the ramifications of abuse and neglect do not end with reporting and investigating. For the children affected, the impact is life-long. Being abused or neglected in childhood increases the likelihood for arrest for females by 77 percent. Eighty percent of substance abusers, 78 percent of the prison population and 95 percent of prostitutes report being abused as children.
Abused and neglected children are less likely to be school-ready, more likely to be truant and more likely to be teen parents. As they grow up, children who are abused and neglected are more likely to develop chronic illnesses and suffer from depression, alcoholism and drug abuse. They also are more likely to abuse other children.
The cost of abuse and neglect
The cost of abuse is paid by all of us. The cost to house a single prisoner — either an adult who abuses a child or an abused child who goes on to commit a crime in adulthood — is $30,000 per year. This figure does not include capital expenditures. Nationwide, the average annual cost of child maltreatment is conservatively estimated at $94 billion. Of that, direct expenditures required to serve the needs of abused and neglected children account for $25 billion. Another estimated $70 billion in indirect costs is related to the long-term effects of child maltreatment on its victims, their families and the community.
Consider the cost of prevention, versus the cost of treatment, incarceration and rehabilitation:
- $1,000 toward prevention enables eight families to receive support services and parent education through their church staff trained by Family Resource Center professionals. It costs $14,000 per year to provide foster care for one abused or neglected child.
- $2,500 toward prevention provides positive adult mentors for one year for three children whose parents have entered domestic violence shelters. It costs $30,000 per year to incarcerate one person convicted of child abuse.
- $2,500 toward prevention provides a hospital-based parenting assessment for approximately 10 mothers after the birth of their first children and follow-up with parent education programs or home visitation services by trained professionals. It costs $65,000 per year to support one abused or neglected child in a residential treatment program for one year.
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