Child abuse is recognized as a problem of epidemic proportions, with serious consequences throughout the victim’s lifetime. Violent or negligent parents and caretakers serve as a model for children as they grow up. The child victims of today, without protection and treatment, may become the child abusers of tomorrow.
1.1 Brief History
Child abuse and neglect is not a new phenomenon. For most of human history children had no rights in the eyes of the law and it was unthinkable that the law would intervene in the domain of the family.
In the 1950s and early 1960s, several pediatricians published articles that began to draw attention to the occurrence of fractures and brain injuries in children at the hands of caretakers. In 1961, C. Henry Kempe, a physician and president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, convened a conference on “the battered child syndrome,” in which he argued that doctors had a “duty” to the child to prevent “repetition of trauma.” The Battered Child Syndrome Conference resulted in laws intended to protect children from physical abuse. By 1967, all 50 states had passed mandatory child abuse reporting laws.
In 2011, the Pennsylvania General Assembly created the Task Force on Child Protection, which conducted a comprehensive review of the laws and procedures relating to the reporting of child abuse and the protection of the health and safety of children. More than 20 pieces of legislation were enacted by the Pennsylvania General Assembly as a result.
The new laws took effect on December 31, 2014, which affected aspects of child abuse and neglect cases, including reports, investigations, assessments, prosecutions, and related judicial proceedings. Definitions for perpetrator and mandatory reporter were updated and expanded, a streamlined reporting process was implemented, and rules for mandatory reporting were clarified. The most fundamental and substantive changes in the new laws were revisions to the definition of child abuse and clarification of reporting requirements.
The Child Welfare Information Solution (CWIS), a case management database, was launched in 2015, allowing real-time electronic sharing of state and county information critical to administering the child welfare program. CWIS sped up the processes for both reporting child abuse and obtaining clearance verifications by those who work with children. ChildLine is the portal for new reports of suspected child abuse by mandated reporters.
1.2 Data / Statistics
The recognition of child abuse in its multiple forms—physical, sexual, emotional abuse, and neglect—continues to be a considerable social and public health problem throughout the world. While every state, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Territories mandate reporting by certain individuals, and most require training for those reporters, underreporting of suspected child abuse is an ongoing problem.
Underreporting is often related to confusion, uncertainty, lack of knowledge about the signs of mistreatment, or the belief that the family can fix the problem on its own. A mandated reporter may genuinely feel that intervention will negatively affect the family and the child.
When the suspected abuser is someone trusted or respected in the community, a reporter may fear not being believed. If the reporter is a friend or acquaintance of the suspected abuser, the reporter may not want to cause trouble for their friend. Unfortunately, an abuser may threaten the mandated reporter, or the reporter may be concerned that a report may cause the abuser to harm the child.
Protecting the child's safety and concern for a child's emotional or mental health are primary reasons for filing a report of child abuse. Legal obligation is another reason to report suspected child abuse.
In 2022, the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) reported that more than 3 million children in the United States received either an investigation response or alternative response. An estimated 560,000 were determined to be victims of child abuse and neglect (DHHS, 2024).
The ACF report indicated that three-quarters of child victims experienced neglect, 17% were physically abused, more than 10% were sexually abused, nearly 7% were psychologically maltreated, and 0.2% were sex trafficked. American Indian/Alaska Native children have the highest rate of child victimization while Black children have the second highest rate (DHHS, 2024).
Nationally in 2022, 1,990 children died from abuse and neglect. Child fatality rates are highest among Black/African American populations, followed by American Indian/Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders (DHHS, 2024).
That said, any amount of child abuse and neglect is too much. It is believed that the numbers likely underestimate how many children are affected by maltreatment because many cases go unreported or undetected. Physical and emotional scars can last a lifetime and are linked to higher rates of alcoholism, drug abuse, depression, smoking, multiple sexual partners, suicide, and chronic disease.