Child Maltreatment: Incidence Rates and Costs

Incidence Rates of Child Maltreatment

Task:

Child maltreatment occurs in every society and has stimulated a lot of public attention and research, not to mention support in the form of funding for research, but incidence rates continue to rise (Devaney & Spratt, 2009). Using 2007 value, it is estimated that child maltreatment costs $103.8 billion each year in the United States, and this estimate only reflects costs specific to the victim (Wang & Holton, 2007). Costs, related to the perpetrator or the victim’s family, and intangible costs, including quality of life or pain and suffering, are not included in the estimated costs. According to the National Institute of Justice Research Report (Miller, Cohen, & Wiersema, 1996), if both tangible and intangible costs were included, personal crime would cost victims approximately $450 billion each year, and even though violence committed against children “is one of the least well-documented areas of personal crime” (p. 1), it “accounts for a significant portion of our nationwide victim costs” (p. 2). Due to the challenges associated with estimating the costs of child maltreatment, the estimates are reported to be conservative, meaning that the total costs associated with child maltreatment may be even higher. Reports of incidence rates may also reflect conservative estimates.

The results from three congressionally mandated national incidence studies have been reported and compared in an effort to evaluate the incidence rate, severity, and demographic distribution of child maltreatment (Sedlak & Broadhurst, 1996a). The data collected from these national incidence studies was also compared to data collected in previous studies in order to identify trends. These studies utilized nationally representative samples, two standardized definitions of child maltreatment, and identical definitions for child maltreatment between the second (NIS-2) and third (NIS-3) national incidence study. Regardless of which definition was used, the more stringent Harm Standard or the broader Endangerment Standard, the incidence of child maltreatment increased significantly from the NIS-2, conducted between 1986 and 1987, and the NIS-3, conducted between 1993 and 1995. In fact, the number of children seriously injured and endangered quadrupled over this period of time. Because the incidence rates increased under both the Harm and the Endangerment Standard, it seems implausible to suspect that the increases reflect merely increased recognition and reporting of child maltreatment. In the executive summary of the Third National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and Neglect, Andrea Sedlak and Diane Broadhurst (1996a)expressed that it was “unreasonable to suppose that quadruple the number of seriously injured victims of abuse and neglect existed at the time of the NIS-2 and somehow escaped notice by community professionals” (Implications, para. 2). Since the population of the United States increased approximately 16% from 1980 to 1995 (Lahmeyer, 2003), it also seems implausible that the differences were due to increases in the rate of population. Sedlak and Broadhurst (1996a) report that the increase in incidence rates within the group considered to be seriously injured is significant, and seems to indicate that within the United States there has been a genuine increase in not only the scope but also the severity of child maltreatment.
According to the Third National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and Neglect, children were reported to be 1.6 times more likely to experience maltreatment in 1993 than they were in 1986 (Sedlak & Broadhurst, 1996b). In the United States between the years of 1990 and 1991 child maltreatment reports increased by six percent (Brosig & Kalichman, 1992). Child fatalities resulting from child maltreatment have also continued to increase throughout the years with approximately 1,356 reported fatalities in 2000 (Peddle, Wang, Diaz, & Reid, 2002), an estimated 1,530 in 2006 (Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2006), and approximately 1,760 in 2007 (Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2007a). The National Center on Child Abuse Prevention Research (2002) reported that in the year 2000, child maltreatment was the second leading cause of death for children less than four years of age in the United States. Children under one year of age were identified as being the most likely to experience child maltreatment (2006), and the most likely to die as a result of child maltreatment (Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2007a; 2009).

Straus, Gelles, and Steinmetz (2009) provided verification that American children or adults are more likely to be physically assaulted within the family than within any other context. According to Child Welfare Information Gateway (2006), almost 80% of the individuals responsible for maltreating a child were identified as the parents of the child, and of that 80% over 90% were the biological parent of the maltreated child. According to this estimate, more children suffer at the hands of their adult caregivers or parents than suffer as a result of fires, motor vehicle accidents, suffocation, drowning, choking, or falling.

Many of the perpetrators were also reported to have been victims of violence (Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2009). Evidence has been found that supports the notion that parents who survive maltreatment in childhood are more likely to maltreat their offspring (Kempe & Helfer, 1972). Studies such and the one conducted by Milner, Robertson, and Rogers (1990) have presented evidence that a significant relationship exists between a history of child maltreatment and adult physical child abuse potential. These findings were also supported by Simons, Whitbeck, Conger, and Wu (1991) who reported that grandparents who harshly parented their children were more likely to have adult children who harshly parented their own children. These studies support the ideas presented within the intergenerational hypothesis.