Maine and N.H. abuse figures not easily compared

Maine and N.H. abuse figures not easily compared (how could they even be considered accurate when children are stolen from their families due to false allegations?)
June 24, 2007 — Lisa
Article

By VICTORIA GUAY
Staff Writer
vguay@citizen.com

There were an estimated 899,000 victims of abuse and neglect in 2005, according to the 16th annual Child Maltreatment Report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, published in April.

More than half of the victims (54.5 percent) were 7 years old or younger.

In New Hampshire, there were 941 victims of abuse and neglect in fiscal year 2005. This compares to 2001, when there were 1,102 victims.

Approximately 192 of New Hampshire’s 941 victims in 2005 (or 20.4 percent) were victims of physical abuse, and 185 (or 19.7 percent) were victims of sexual abuse.

In Maine, the federal report indicated there were 3,349 victims of abuse and neglect in fiscal year 2005. Of those children, 751 (or 22.4 percent) were victims of physical abuse and 426 (or 12.7 percent) were victims of sexual abuse.

Maine’s number of child victims was more than three times New Hampshire’s, despite both states having similar populations, New Hampshire at 1.31 million and Maine at 1.32 million.

Maggie Bishop, director of the New Hampshire Division of Children Youth and Families, said the disparity may be due to several possibilities.

First, each state has a different definition of what constitutes child abuse and neglect, usually set forth in a state statute. Second, many states have different data collection systems, Bishop said.

For example, one state may assign each child who may have been abused or neglected a separate case number while another state may assign one case number to a whole family. So an allegation of abuse by a mother of her four children may count as one case in one state and four cases in another.

Also, some states may count an allegation of both abuse and neglect against one child to be two cases, while another state would count it as one case.

“It’s like comparing apples to oranges,” Bishop said.

Dan Despard, director of Child Welfare Services in Maine, said that in addition to each state having different definitions of abuse, they also have different standards for how a finding should be made and the appeal process.

Despard said that Maine is a state that would consider an allegation of abuse and neglect against one child as one abuse victim and one neglect victim, which could account in part for why Maine’s number is so much higher in the federal report.

Despard said during fiscal year 2005, Maine had 17,681 reports made to the department.

Of those reports, 9,731 did not contain specific allegations of abuse or neglect, and were not investigated.

There were approximately 7,950 cases that were investigated and of those, 2,052 were confirmed cases. Of the 2,052 confirmed cases, Despard said there were 380 child victims of sexual abuse and 648 victims of physical abuse.

Despard said that Maine’s substantiation rate is 36.6 percent compared to New Hampshire’s 12 percent, which also helps account for the disparity in the number of victims listed in the federal report.

Bishop said in 2005 in New Hampshire, more than 16,000 alleged abuse and neglect incidents were reported. Of those, approximately 6,000 cases were investigated. There were 182 complete and substantiated investigations of physical child abuse, and 184 cases of sexual assault. (Ms. Bishop fails to report how many children were stolen and kept from their families due to allegations of "Anticipated Neglect in the Future.")(She also failed to report how many children were stolen in NH due to false allegations.)

Comparatively, there were 608 completed investigations of neglect allegations conducted by the division.

The states with the highest percentages of reported physical abuse victims include Alabama, Pennsylvania and Vermont. Vermont had 48.4 percent of its 1,080 confirmed victims suffering from physical abuse, Alabama’s percentage was 40.5 percent of 9,028 victims, and Pennsylvania’s rate was 32.4 percent out of 4,353 victims.

The states with the highest percent of sexual abuse victims during fiscal year 2005 include Pennsylvania, Vermont and Wisconsin. Pennsylvania reported that 62.5 percent of their total 4,353 confirmed child victims suffered sexual abuse. In Vermont, 46.5 percent of 1,080 confirmed child victims suffered sexual abuse, and in Wisconsin it was 37.8 percent of 9,686 total victims.

Nationally, of all the reported child victims during fiscal year 2005, 16.6 percent were physically abused and 9.3 percent were sexually abused. Neglect is by far the most reported crime, having affected 62.8 percent of child victims.

During fiscal year 2005, an estimated 1,460 children died due to abuse or neglect, at a rate of nearly two (1.96) children per every 100,000. In 2004, 1,490 children lost their lives, or slightly over two (2.3) children per 100,000.

More than three-quarters (76.6 percent) of children who died were younger than 4 years of age, 13.4 percent were 4 to 7 years of age, 4 percent were 8 to 11 years of age, and 6.1 percent were 12 to 17 years of age.

Infant boys (younger than 1 year old) had the highest fatality rate in 2005.

Below half (44.3 percent) of all fatalities were white children, 26 percent were African-American and 19.3 percent were Hispanic. American Indian, other minority groups and multiple race categories accounted for 4.5 percent of the fatalities.

Three-quarters (76.6 percent) of deaths due to abuse and neglect in 2005 were caused by a parent. Nonparental perpetrators accounted for 13 percent of the deaths.

In New Hampshire, out of a total child population of 303,151, there were 2 deaths attributed to abuse or neglect, for a rate of .66 per 100,000 children. In Maine, out of the total child population of 277,336, there was one fatality, resulting in a rate of .36 per 100,000.

The states that had the highest child death rates due to abuse and neglect were Oklahoma, with nearly 5 (4.8) deaths per 100,000 children; West Virginia, with 4.2 deaths per 100,000 children; Georgia at 3.2 deaths per 100,000 children; Texas with 3.1 deaths per 100,000 children; and Missouri, with 3.05 deaths per 100,000 children.

Several states reported no child deaths due to abuse or neglect in 2005, including Delaware, Idaho, North Carolina and Vermont.

In fiscal year 2005, an estimated 3.3 million referrals, involving the alleged maltreatment of approximately 6 million children, were made to child protection agencies in the United States. This is an increase of approximately 73,000 children from 2004.

According to the U.S. DHHS maltreatment report, in fiscal year 2005 more than three-quarters (79.4 percent) of perpetrators of abuse and neglect were parents of their victim (s) and another 6.8 percent were other relatives. Unrelated caregivers — including foster parents, residential facility staff, child care providers and legal guardians — made up less than 10 percent of perpetrators.

Women comprised a larger percentage of all perpetrators than men — 57.8 percent compared to 42.2 percent. This includes all maltreatment crimes, including neglect.

Also according to the U.S. DHHS report, 7.7 percent of all perpetrators committed sexual abuse while 61 percent committed neglect.

Posted in Maine, New Hampshire, Studies, US NEWS.

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