NCJ Number
245300
Journal
Child Abuse & Neglect Volume: 38 Issue: 1 Dated: January 2014 Pages: 42-51
Date Published
January 2014
Length
10 pages
Annotation
Using the U.S. National Child Abuse and Neglect Data Set, this study compared the characteristics of children who were fatally and nonfatally maltreated.
Abstract
The study found that boys were more likely to be victims of fatalities, as were younger children and children identified as being Black/African-American. In fatalities, the perpetrator was younger than perpetrators of nonfatal maltreatment. The study also found that families in which child maltreatment fatalities occurred were less likely to use a multitude of family supportive services. A new finding of this study is that children with a learning disability and parent physical disability were less likely to be involved in a child maltreatment fatality. A number of the study findings were inconsistent with previous studies. This study found that children with emotional and behavioral problems were less likely to be victims of maltreatment fatality. It was also inconsistent with previous studies in finding that domestic violence within a family decreased the risk for a child maltreatment fatality. In addition, the current study contradicted previous studies in finding that living with both birth parents slightly increased the risk for a child maltreatment fatality. The dataset is composed of nearly 3.5 million children who had any contact with their State's/county's child protective system. The study selected a subsample of the data file that included all cases that were substantiated for maltreatment and/or had victims of fatal maltreatment. The final sample consisted of 682,694 cases, with 0.2 percent (n=1,262) of the sample involving a child maltreatment fatality. 2 tables and 62 references