NCJ Number
214363
Date Published
2001
Length
52 pages
Annotation
This report presents selected findings from the Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect (CIS) on the nature and extent of child abuse and neglect across Canada.
Abstract
In Canada, an estimated 135,573 child maltreatment investigations were conducted in 1998 with an estimated incidence rate of 21.52 investigations per 1,000 children. The most common reason for child maltreatment investigation in Canada was child neglect, accounting for about two out of every five investigations of child maltreatment. Fifty-one percent of substantiated cases of maltreatment involved boys, and 49 percent involved girls. In cases of physical abuse, a greater proportion of victims were boys (60 percent). The families of maltreated children were about 1.5 times as likely to be headed by a single parent as by two parents. Maltreated children in Canada were referred to child welfare services from a wide variety of professional and nonprofessional sources. School personnel and the police made many of the referrals to child welfare services. In about one in five substantiated cased of child maltreatment, an application to court was considered or made. This report contains a descriptive analysis of select findings of the Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect (CIS) with a focus on the CIS dataset regarding those investigations in which the child maltreatment was substantiated. This study is the first national study of the incidence of child abuse and neglect reported to, and investigated by, child welfare services in Canada. Figures and appendixes A-B