These Child Maltreatment 1997 highlights are based on States' responses to the 1997 Summary Data Component Survey. This year, many new data items were requested and not all States were able to provide complete statistics for every item.

REPORTS: In 1997, child protective services agencies investigated 2 million reports alleging the maltreatment of almost 3 million children.

The national rate of children who were reported was 39.1 per 1,000 children in the population.

Reports were received from professionals (54%); parents, other relatives, and alleged victims (18%); and friends and neighbors  (8.5%). Twenty percent of reports were from unknown or anonymous sources, other sources, and alleged perpetrators.

It is estimated that three-fifths of substantiated or indicated reports were from professional sources-legal, medical, social service, or education.

VICTIMS: Child protective services agencies determined that just under 1 million children were victims of substantiated or indicated abuse and neglect in 1997, a decrease from the 1996 statistics.

The national rate of victimization was 13.9 per 1,000 children in the population.

More than half (54%) of all victims suffered neglect, while almost a quarter (24%) suffered physical abuse. Children suffering   psychological abuse and medical neglect accounted for about 6 percent and 2 percent, respectively. A greater proportion of neglect  victims were children younger than 8 years old, while a greater proportion of physical and sexual abuse victims were children age  8 or older.

Two-thirds (67%) of all victims were white. African American children represented the second largest group of victims (29.5%).  Hispanic children represented about 13 percent of victims, American Indian/Alaska Native children about 2.5 percent of victims  and Asian/Pacific Islander children about 1 percent of victims. The proportions of victims who were African American or American  Indian/Alaska native were two times greater than the proportions of these children in the general population.

An estimated 1,196 child fatalities attributed to maltreatment occurred during 1997. Data indicate that children 3 and younger  accounted for 77 percent of the fatalities.

PERPETRATORS: Over 75 percent of perpetrators of child maltreatment were parents, and an additional 10 percent were other relatives of the victim

It is estimated that over 80 percent of all perpetrators were under age 40 and that almost two-thirds (62%) were females.

An estimated three-quarters of sexual abuse cases were associated with male perpetrators, while over 70 percent of neglect and   over 80 percent of medical neglect were associated with female perpetrators.

--Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Child Maltreatment 1997: Reports from the States to the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System. (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1999).--