Reports and number of children
In 2007 between 76,104 (according to the NYS Central Register) and 83,502 (according to Child Maltreatment 2007) New York State children were abused or neglected, between 17.2 and 18.9* of every 1,000 children in the state. According to the NYS Central Register of Child Abuse and Maltreatment (the Child Abuse Reporting Hotline), 154,837 reports of suspected child abuse or neglect, involving 206,194 children were received. Upon investigation, 50,093 (32 percent) reports were substantiated as situations of child abuse and/or neglect. There are more victims than reports because more than one child is involved in some cases. Compared to the prior year, the number of reports decreased 2.5, from 158,855; the number of substantiated reports decreased 2.8 percent, from 51,552; and the number of victims decreased 1 percent from 76,797.

*The NYS Central Register and 2007 Child Maltreatment report have different approaches to counting the number of victims.

• 2007 New York State Child Protective Services Data

Nationwide, an estimated 794,000 children were victims of abuse and neglect in 2007, a victimization rate of 10.6 for every 1,000 children in the country (a child was counted each time he or she was found to be a victim; the adjusted estimate is 753,357 unique child victims). States investigated or assessed 3,500,000 children because of suspected abuse or neglect, a decrease of 2.8 percent from 2006. Compared to 2006, the number of substantiated victims in 2007 decreased by 14.9 percent.

Types of maltreatment
Child neglect continues to comprise the largest portion of cases of child maltreatment. According to the federal report Child Maltreatment 2007, figures for the country and for New York state are as follows:

"Other types of maltreatment" include, for example, adandonment, threats of harm, or congenital drug addiction.

Fatalities
In New York State in 2007, 73 children died as a result of abuse or neglect, a fatality rate of 2.18 per 100,000 children. This is a 2.6 percent decrease from 75 fatalities that occured in 2006.

Nationwide in 2007, an estimated 1,760 children died as a result of abuse or neglect, 2.35 of every 100,000 children in the population. This is a 15 percent increase from the 1,530 fatalities that occurred the previous year. Children younger than 1 year old accounted for 44.2 percent of fatalities, and 75.7 percent of fatalities were children younger than 4 years old.

• 2007 Child Abuse & Neglect Fact Sheet (PDF)

Sources of data: Child Maltreatment 2007, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children, Youth and Families. U.S. Government Printing Office, 2008. Posted on www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb. New York State 2007 MAPS and OCFS Connections Data.

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