Child Abuse Statistics

Child Abuse in America

Children are suffering from a hidden epidemic of child abuse and neglect. Every year over 4 million reports of child abuse are made in the United States involving nearly 6.6 million children (a report can include multiple children). The United States has the worst record in the industrialized nation – losing five children every day due to abuse-related deaths.

General Statistics

• A report of child abuse is made every ten seconds
• *More than five children die every day as a result of child abuse.
• Approximately 80% of children that die from abuse are under the age of 4. 
• It is estimated that between 50-60% of child fatalities due to maltreatment are not recorded as such on death certificates.
• More than 90% of juvenile sexual abuse victims know their perpetrator in some way.
• Child abuse occurs at every socioeconomic level, across ethnic and cultural lines, within all religions and at all levels of education.
• About 30% of abused and neglected children will later abuse their own children, continuing the horrible cycle of abuse.
• About 80% of 21-year-olds that were abused as children met criteria for at least one psychological disorder.
• The estimated annual cost of child abuse and neglect in the United States is $220 million per day or over $80 per year.

 
Child Abuse & Criminal Behavior

• Over 50% of all men and women in prison in the USA were abused as children.
• A history of child maltreatment doubles the probability that an individual engages in criminal activity.
• A gun in the home increases the chance of teen criminal activity by 30%
• Exposure to firearm violence increases the probability of juvenile criminal violence by 50%
• Exposure to maltreatment is correlated to the abused child engaging in criminal activity at a younger age, especially violent crimes.
• Crime induced by abuse costs society between 6.7-62.5 billion dollars per year.
  
  

Types of Child Abuse

Child Abuse Consequences

• Abused children are 25% more likely to experience teen pregnancy.
• Abused teens are less likely to practice safe sex, putting them at greater risk for STDs.

Child Abuse & Substance Abuse

• One-third to two-thirds of child maltreatment cases involve substance use to some degree.
• Children whose parents abuse alcohol and other drugs are three times more likely to be abused and more than four times more likely to be neglected than children from non-abusing families.
• As many as two-thirds of the people in treatment for drug abuse reported being abused or neglected as children.