New Study Indicates Child Abuse Is On The Decline

Child abuse is on the decline according to a landmark new federal study, which shows that incidents of serious child abuse, especially sexual abuse, fell by 26 percent from 1993 to 2006.

According to MSNBC.com's February 2, 2010 article, the findings were contained in the fourth installment of the National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and Neglect, a study Congress mandates the Department of Health and Human Services to conduct periodically. The previous installment was issued in 1996 and was based on data from 1993.

The study indicates an estimated 553,000 children suffered physical, sexual, or emotional abuse in 2005-2006, down 26 percent from the estimated 743,200 abuse victims in 1993.

The study is based on information collected from more than 10,700 "sentinels," including child welfare workers, police officers, teachers, health care professionals and day care workers - in 122 counties across the country. The detailed data collected from these sources was used to make national estimates.

Specifically, the government study showed that 135,000 American children were victims of sexual abuse, down from 217,000 in 1993, a 38 percent drop. An estimated 149,000 American children suffered emotional abuse, down from 205,000 in 1993, a 27 percent drop. An estimated 323,000 Amercian children were victims of physical abuse, down from 382,000 in 1993, a 15 percent drop.

According to MSNBC.com, the 455-page study avoided explaining the trends, although other experts offered theories.

Linda Spears, vice president for public policy with the Child Welfare League of America, credited public awareness and today's public intolerance of child abuse in general society. "It was a hidden concern before - people were afraid to talk about it if it was in their family," she said.

Professor David Finkelhor of the University of New Hampshire, a respected researcher in the field of child abuse, suggests that the decline is a product of several coinciding trends, including a "troop surge" of child protection service employees in the 1990s and the intensification of the criminal justice system's anti-abuse efforts with more arrests and prison sentences.

"There's also been a general change in perceptions and norms about what one can get away with," he said.

The study found some dramatic differences in child abuse rates based on socio-economic factors. Poor children were three times more likely than other kids to experience abuse, and rates of abuse in black families were significantly higher than in white and Hispanic families.

Family structure also was a factor - for example, children whose single parent had a live-in partner faced an abuse rate 10 times that of a child living with two parents.

The study's main author, Andrea Sedlak of the research firm Westat, Inc. said she was heartened by the overall findings of declining abuse rates. However, she was troubled to find that more than half of child maltreatment incidents are not investigated by child-protection agencies.

For those of us who work with victims of child abuse, the news of a decline is proof positive that child abuse prevention programs and the work of countless court-appointed special advocate agencies across the country, including Tri-County CASA, are having a positive impact on the welfare of vulnerable children.

And yet, for the estimated 553,000 children who remain, the celebration must wait until there are absolutely none. The difficult work of helping abused children and their families continues.