Is The Number Of Abused Or Neglected Children Increasing?
Nationally, the number of victims of substantiated or indicated maltreatment decreased between 1996 and 1997, from slightly over one million (1,030,751) to just under one million (984,000). Previously, the rate of maltreatment had been on the increase between 1990 and 1996, with an overall increase for that period of 18 percent. The 1996 NIS reported a dramatic increase in maltreatment between 1986 (NIS-2) and 1993 (NIS-3). According to the NIS, the estimated number of children who experienced harm from abuse and neglect increased 67 percent between the two studies (from 931,000 children to 1,553,800). In particular, the estimated number of seriously injured children quadrupled from 141,700 in 1986 to 565,000 in 1993.
