Child Maltreatment 2017 Released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (in Feb 2019)

Child Maltreatment 2017 is the 28th edition of the annual Child Maltreatment report series.

States provide the data for this report through the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS).

NCANDS was established in 1988 as a voluntary national data collection and analysis program to make available state child abuse and neglect information. Data have been collected every year since 1991, and are collected from child welfare agencies in the 50 states, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia. Key findings in this report include:

■ The national rounded number of children who received a child protective services investigation response or alternative response increased 10.0 percent from 2013 (3,184,000) to 2017 (3,501,000).

■ The number and rate of victims have fluctuated during the past 5 years. Comparing the national rounded number of victims from 2013 (656,000) to the national rounded number of victims in 2017 (674,000) shows an increase of 2.7 percent.

■ The 2017 data show three-quarters (74.9%) of victims are neglected, 18.3 percent are physically abused, and 8.6 percent are sexually abused. These victims may suffer a single maltreatment type or a combination of two or more maltreatment types.

■ For 2017, an estimated 1,720 children died of abuse and neglect at a rate of 2.32 per 100,000 children in the national population.