Child Abuse 

Reported to the 

Police

David Finkelhor and Richard Ormrod

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) is committed to

improving the justice system’s response to crimes against children. OJJDP recognizes

that children are at increased risk for crime victimization. Not only are children the victims of many of the same crimes that victimize adults, they are subject to other crimes,

like child abuse and neglect, that are specific to childhood. The impact of these crimes

on young victims can be devastating, and the violent or sexual victimization of children

can often lead to an intergenerational cycle of violence and abuse. The purpose of

OJJDP’s Crimes Against Children Series is to improve and expand the Nation’s efforts

to better serve child victims by presenting the latest information about child victimization,

including analyses of crime victimization statistics, studies of child victims and their special needs, and descriptions of programs and approaches that address these needs. 

When parents assault or molest their children, it is conventionally thought of as

child abuse and, therefore, a child welfare

problem. However, these acts are also

crimes, and a substantial portion of child

abuse cases are investigated and adjudicated by the criminal justice system.

Some cases are referred to law enforcement agencies by child welfare investigators, while others are reported directly to

law enforcement by victims, families, and

other concerned individuals.

Unfortunately, the law enforcement perspective on child abuse is greatly neglected. Most publicly available statistics on

the problem come from child welfare

agencies and describe child welfare system activities alone. Even such a basic

fact as the percentage of cases that are

reported to law enforcement agencies is

not tallied by the National Child Abuse

and Neglect Data System (NCANDS), the

main national system that measures and

tracks child maltreatment.

Until recently, no law enforcement data

were available to provide researchers

with a criminal justice system perspective on child abuse equivalent to the

child welfare system perspective provided by NCANDS. However, the National

Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS)

for law enforcement agencies is being

implemented to capture much more

detailed information about crime and its

victims. NIBRS will allow researchers to

analyze incidents coming to the attention

of police that involve child victims and

parent or other caretaker perpetrators—

incidents that are generally thought of as

child abuse.

A Message From OJJDP

Child abuse is commonly regarded

as a child welfare problem, and a

considerable amount of information

has been amassed from this perspective. When a child is assaulted,

however, it is not only a child welfare

problem, it is a crime, and yet there

is a lack of law enforcement data

available for researchers to analyze.

Use of the National Incident-Based

Reporting System (NIBRS), which

collects detailed data about crime

and its victims, should help fill this

gap.

This Bulletin describes NIBRS and its

role in depicting police experience

with child abuse and reports key findings derived from NIBRS data. Analysis of these data indicates that parents and other caretakers commit 49

percent of the kidnapings and 27 percent of the sexual assaults of juveniles. These and other caretaker

offenses are reviewed in these pages.

The Bulletin also offers an informative comparison of NIBRS and child

welfare system data and discusses

the policy implications arising from

NIBRS data.

To fully comprehend the harm that

child abuse inflicts on children, policymakers need a clearer understanding

of the role law enforcement plays—

and could play—in addressing the

problem of child maltreatment.

The NIBRS data described in this

Bulletin contribute to increasing that

understanding and clarify law enforcement’s critical role.

U.S. Department of Justice

Office of Justice Programs

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention 

May 2001
2

babysitters—a group identified separately

in NIBRS records—are included in this 6

percent.

Several crimes coded by NIBRS clearly fall

within the child maltreatment domain

when committed by caretakers: simple

assault, aggravated assault, and sex offenses. In NIBRS, sex offenses include both

forcible sexual assaults, which are considered violent crimes and make up the great

majority of sex crimes, and nonforcible sex

offenses such as statutory rape and nonforcible incest. These acts clearly correspond to child physical and sexual abuse.

Unfortunately, no NIBRS code designates

acts of neglect. NIBRS collects information only on a standardized set of offenses that fall specifically within the domain

of law enforcement. Neglect accounts for

a large proportion of child maltreatment

cases, but it is not often considered criminal in nature and frequently may not be

reported to law enforcement. The same

is true for psychological abuse.

Another offense reported in NIBRS and

categorized as a violent crime is kidnaping, which, when committed by a caretaker, is clearly a child welfare offense.

However, little is known about how kidnaping is reported or classified in the

child welfare system’s child maltreatment

data. The authors have opted to include it

in this Bulletin.

Therefore, NIBRS data used in this analysis

concern the violent crimes of assault, sexual assault, and kidnaping, plus nonforcible

sex offenses, committed against juveniles

under age 18 by parents, stepparents,

grandparents, babysitters, other adult family members, and parents’ boyfriends or

girlfriends. Together, these crimes are categorized as “offenses by parents and other

caretakers.” With the possible exception of

family kidnaping—an offense that has an

unclear child welfare system status and

that accounts for only 4 percent of the

total reports in the data analyzed in this

Bulletin—this category corresponds fairly

well to the child welfare system’s concept

of child abuse (but not neglect).

Characteristics of

Child Abuse Reported

by NIBRS

Caretaker Offenses

Analysis of NIBRS data on incidents known

to police reveals that parents and other

caretakers are responsible for nearly one in

This Bulletin shows how NIBRS data can

be used to describe police experience

with child abuse. Analysis of aggregate

NIBRS data from 12 States for 1997 and

comparison with child welfare data reveal

the following key findings:

◆ Incidents of child abuse committed by

parents and other caretakers make up

about one-fifth (19 percent) of violent

crimes against juveniles (ages 0–17) reported to the police and 4 percent of

violent crimes against persons of any

age.

◆ The majority (73 percent) of these parent and other caretaker crimes are

physical assaults, and 23 percent are

cases of sexual abuse.

◆ Child abuse constitutes more than onehalf of the crimes against children age

2 or younger reported to the police.

◆ Male offenders are responsible for

three-quarters of the child abuse incidents reported to the police, including

92 percent of sexual assaults and 68

percent of physical assaults.

◆ Thirteen percent of the episodes of

parental assault against a child reported to the police are associated with an

assault against a spouse or former

spouse.

◆ In spite of protocols in some States

that require police notification about

child maltreatment, there is evidence

that police data tally only a fraction of

physical and sexual abuse investigated

and substantiated by child welfare

authorities.

The large number of child abuse cases

reported to law enforcement agencies

suggests that more attention should be

paid to how law enforcement agencies

investigate these crimes and arrest

and prosecute the offenders. How law

enforcement handles cases of parental

physical assault against children needs

to be examined, particularly in light of

recent policy debates over the arrest and

prosecution of offenders who have committed other forms of domestic violence.

Identifying Child Abuse

in NIBRS Data

As noted on page 3, NIBRS collects a wide

range of information on victims, offenders,

and circumstances for a variety of offenses.

Generally, the term “child maltreatment” is

thought of as referring to offenses and

threats to a child’s well-being that are committed or caused by parents and other

caretakers. Although for child welfare purposes the definition of caretakers can vary

somewhat from State to State, the term

typically includes parents, other responsible adult family members, and, in some

cases but not always, professional caretakers such as teachers, recreation leaders,

and babysitters. Unfortunately, NIBRS does

not have a specific caretaker category, but

it does specify parent and stepparent perpetrators, who constitute the vast majority

of child maltreatment offenders (Sedlak

and Broadhurst, 1996). To these two

groups, the authors added grandparents,

other adult family members (but not inlaws), babysitters, and parents’ boyfriends

or girlfriends. There is no NIBRS category

that allows the separation of professional

caretakers, such as teachers or recreation

workers, from the larger category of acquaintances. However, in State child maltreatment reports, the categories that include nonfamily caretakers such as

teachers and other school staff account for

only 6 percent of perpetrators identified

(U.S. Department of Health and Human

Services, Administration on Children,

Youth and Families, 1999). Furthermore,

The Role of Law Enforcement in Child Abuse Cases

Child abuse can come to the attention of police in a variety of ways: from victims

and their families, from concerned community members, from professionals such

as teachers and doctors, and from other authorities such as child welfare agencies.

Professionals in all States, and even ordinary citizens in some States, are mandated to report child abuse to responsible authorities. In some States, police are considered to be the responsible authority for reporting purposes, and in many States,

statutes now require child welfare authorities to share all child maltreatment

reports with law enforcement. Child welfare investigations substantiate or confirm

about one-third of all child maltreatment reports. In some States, these investigations are conducted jointly by child welfare and police; in a few jurisdictions,

responsibility for investigation lies with law enforcement only. Thus the police have

become increasingly involved in child abuse cases, but their role in the reporting

and investigation of child abuse can vary quite a bit from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.
3

five (19 percent) of all violent crimes (plus

nonforcible sex offenses) committed

against juveniles (figure 1). Strangers are

responsible for only half as many (10 percent) of these police-known crimes. The

largest category of those known to police

who commit offenses against juveniles

comprises noncaretaker acquaintances

(63 percent), both juveniles and adults,

and the smallest category (8 percent)

consists of noncaretaker family members,

mostly juveniles.

The parent and other caretaker proportion

for some offenses is quite a bit higher

than for others. Parents and other caretakers commit 26 percent of sexual

assaults of juveniles and 49 percent of kidnapings of juveniles, compared with 16

percent and 18 percent for aggravated and

simple assaults, respectively (figure 2).

Also, as might be expected, offenses by

parents and other caretakers play a particularly large role in the victimization of

younger children, who do not have many

persons other than caretakers in their

lives (figure 3). Data on incidents known

to police show that more than half of

the crimes against children age 2 and

younger are committed by parents and

other caretakers; for juveniles age 12

and older, the role of parent and other

caretaker offenders dwindles to less than

20 percent of all offenders.1

The high percentage of young children

victimized by caretakers should not be

misinterpreted. The majority of caretaker

offenses in NIBRS are not actually committed against younger children (figure

3). Juveniles age 12 and older are victims

in 53 percent of all NIBRS caretaker offenses, whereas children age 5 and younger

are victims in only 21 percent. This is

because the overall rate of victimization

reported to NIBRS is lower for younger

children. Of the relatively smaller number

of crimes against younger children, however, a very large percentage are committed by parents and other caretakers.

Types of Caretaker

Offenders

Within the parent and other caretaker

offender category defined in this Bulletin,

The U.S. Department of Justice is replacing its longestablished Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) system with the

more comprehensive National Incident-Based Reporting

System (NIBRS). While the UCR monitors only a limited

number of index crimes and, with the exception of homicides, gathers few details on each crime event, NIBRS collects a wide range of information on victims, offenders, and

circumstances for a greatly increased variety of offenses.

Offenses tracked in NIBRS include violent crimes (e.g.,

homicide, assault, rape, robbery), property crimes (e.g.,

theft, arson, vandalism, fraud, embezzlement), and crimes

against society (e.g., drug offenses, gambling, prostitution).

Moreover, NIBRS collects information on multiple victims,

multiple offenders, and multiple crimes that may be part of

the same episode.

Under the new system, as with the old, local law enforcement personnel compile information on crimes coming to

their attention, and this information is aggregated in turn at

the State and national levels. For a crime to be counted in

the system, it simply needs to be reported and investigated.

It is not necessary that an incident be cleared or an arrest

made, although unfounded reports are deleted from the

record.

NIBRS holds great promise, but it is still far from a national

system. Its implementation by the FBI began in 1988, and

participation by States and local agencies is voluntary and

incremental. By 1995, jurisdictions in 9 States had agencies

contributing data; by 1997, the number was 12; and by the

end of 1999, jurisdictions in 17 States submitted reports,

providing coverage for 11 percent of the Nation’s population

and 9 percent of its crime. Only three States (Idaho, Iowa,

and South Carolina) have participation from all local jurisdictions, and only one city with a population greater than

500,000 (Austin, TX) is reporting. The crime experiences of

large urban areas are particularly underrepresented. The

system, therefore, is not yet nationally representative nor do

findings represent national trends or national statistics.

Nevertheless, the system is assembling large amounts of

crime information and providing a richness of detail about

juvenile victimizations previously unavailable. The patterns

and associations these data reveal are real and represent

the experiences of a large number of youth. For 1997, the

12 participating States (Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, North Dakota, South Carolina, Tennessee,

Texas, Utah, Vermont, and Virginia) reported a total of

1,043,719 crimes against individuals, with 119,852 occurring

against juveniles (including more than 15,000 perpetrated by

caretakers). Nevertheless, patterns may change as more

jurisdictions join the system.

More information about NIBRS data collection can be found

at these Web sites: (1) www.jrsa.org/ibrrc/,

(2) www.fbi.gov/ucr/nibrs/manuals/v1all.pdf,

(3) www.fbi.gov/ucr/nibrs.htm, (4) www.search.org/.

The National Incident-Based Reporting System

Noncaretaker acquaintances

Caretaker offenses

Noncaretaker family

Strangers

63%

8%

19%

 10%

Figure 1: Offenses Against

Juveniles, by Type

of Offender

1 In figures 3 through 7, “age” refers to age at the time

the offense was reported, not necessarily age at first

occurrence.

Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation,

1997.

Note: Includes all violent crimes and 

nonforcible sex offenses.
4

parents are responsible for 60 percent of

all crimes. Stepparents and parents’ boyfriends and girlfriends account for another

19 percent. Males are considerably more

likely than females (73 percent versus 27

percent) to be perpetrators. This gender

difference holds true even among babysitter offenders, although males are much

less likely than females to be babysitters.

Biological fathers account for two-fifths

(41 percent) of all offenders, and stepfathers and parents’ boyfriends account

0 20 40 60 80 100

All Violent Crime

Kidnaping

Sexual Assault

Simple Assault

Aggravated Assault

Percentage of Juvenile Violent Victimizations

Parents and other caretakers Noncaretakers

Figure 2: Offenses Against Juveniles, by Type of Offender and

Type of Crime

Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1997.

Note: Includes nonforcible sex offenses.

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Percentage of Violent Crimes

Victim Age

Caretakers’ percentage of all violent crimes 

against victims at each age

Caretakers’ crimes 

against victims at each age as

percentage of all caretaker offenses

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

Figure 3: Offenses Against Juveniles by Parents and Other

Caretakers, by Victim Age

Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1997.

Note: Includes nonforcible sex offenses.

the disproportionate number of female

sexual assault victims (80 percent girls

versus 20 percent boys) (figure 5). Victim

gender is fairly evenly distributed for simple assaults, aggravated assaults, and

kidnapings.

In the category of sex offenses by parents

and other caretakers, the percentage of

victims who are female rises with age

across the span of childhood (figure 6).

In the category of nonsexual caretaker

offenses (physical assaults and kidnapings), the percentage of victims who are

female also rises at adolescence, perhaps

because boys grow big and strong enough

to deter parental assaults or because parental conflicts with girls (particularly concerning sexual behavior) are intensified

during adolescence.

Connection Between Child

Abuse and Other Domestic

Violence

Spouse abuse is one factor that may bring

parent and other caretaker offenses against

children directly to the attention of police.

Officers responding to a home where domestic violence is occurring may discover an

assault against a child as well. Multiple victims are coded by NIBRS, which means

that incident data can include both spousal

and child victims. For incidents known to

police, 3 percent of spouse and other intimate partner assaults also include a child

abuse victim, while 13 percent of child

abuse victimizations include a spouse or

other intimate partner assault. Thus,

response to spousal violence may be one

way in which child abuse by a parent is

discovered by the police.

In some cases, more than one child is

victimized by the same parent or caretaker. NIBRS data on parent and other

caretaker assaults show that 7 percent of

physical assaults and 10 percent of sexual

assaults involved more than one child.

Multiple-victim assaults were more likely

to involve younger than older children.

Seventy percent of juvenile victims in

multiple-victim assaults were under 12

years of age, compared with 42 percent

in single-victim assaults.

Weapons and Injury in Child

Abuse Cases

Most offenses by parents and other caretakers do not involve weapons. Only 1 percent of episodes involved a firearm and

only 2 percent involved a knife—rates of

weapon use that are less than half those

for other perpetrators against children.

for nearly one-fifth (18 percent) (figure 4).

Men account for 92 percent of caretaker

sex assault, 67 percent of aggravated

assault, 68 percent of simple assault, and

58 percent of kidnaping offenders.

Gender of Victims

A somewhat larger number of girls than

boys are victims of parent and other

caretaker offenses (58 percent versus 42

percent). This is largely accounted for by
5

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45

Percentage of All Caretaker Offenders

Father

Mother

Stepfather/Mother’s Boyfriend

Stepmother/Father’s Girlfriend

Other Family—Adult Male

Other Family—Adult Female

Male Babysitter

Female Babysitter

Figure 5: Offenses Against Juveniles by Parents and Other Caretakers,

by Victim Gender and Type of Crime

Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1997.

Percentage of All Caretaker Offenses

Sexual

Assault

Simple

Assault

Aggravated

Assault

Kidnaping

Male victims Female victims

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

Figure 4: Offenses Against Juveniles by Parents and Other

Caretakers, by Perpetrator Identity

Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1997.

Severe injury is also relatively infrequent

in offenses by parents and other caretakers reported to police. NIBRS data indicate major physical injury (such as severe

lacerations, broken bones, and unconsciousness) to only 3 percent of the juvenile victims and minor physical injury

(such as bruises or scratches) to another

42 percent. The impression has been that,

compared with other types of juvenile victimization, offenses by parents and other

caretakers require a higher threshold of

injury to bring them to the attention of

police. In fact, however, NIBRS data show

that the level of injury in offenses by parents and other caretakers reported to

police is about the same as that in offenses committed against juveniles by other

perpetrators. Major injuries are more

common for younger children (6 percent

for victims age 5 and younger versus 3

percent for children age 6 and older),

which may reflect the greater physical

vulnerability of younger children.

Comparing NIBRS

and Child Welfare

System Data

Similarities and Discrepancies

Law enforcement data confirm certain features of the child abuse problem that are

known from child welfare sources. However, they also reveal some discrepancies.

Law enforcement data validate child welfare data showing that parents are the

most common caretaker abusers, that

male caretakers are responsible for most

sexual abuse, and that although girls are

disproportionately victims of sexual

abuse, the proportions of boys and girls

who suffer physical abuse are about equal. 

NIBRS data also confirm that there is substantially more physical abuse than sexual abuse of juveniles. Despite what might

be inferred from the predominance of

sexual abuse reports in the news, the

majority of the parent and other caretaker offenses reported to police involve

physical assaults, not sexual offenses, at

a ratio of 2.9 to 1. The comparable ratio

in the child welfare system national child

maltreatment data for 1997 is 2.2 to 1

(U.S. Department of Health and Human

Services, Administration on Children,

Youth and Families, 1999). Some earlier

research had suggested that physical

abuse was less likely than sexual abuse

to be regarded as criminal and that child

welfare sources infrequently passed on

incidents of physical abuse to police

(Finkelhor, 1983). The more recent NIBRS

data documenting more physical than

sexual abuse suggest that this was not

true or is no longer true and that physical

abuse by parents and other caretakers is

being regarded as sufficiently criminal to

be referred to police. Whether physical

abuse is prosecuted as aggressively as

sexual abuse is another matter.

Despite some similarities, other comparisons of NIBRS and child welfare system

data suggest that the two systems may

not be dealing with identical populations

(table 1).2 For example, although the age

distribution of sexual abuse victims looks

quite similar in the two systems, the

distribution for physical abuse victims is

different—the child welfare system has

many more younger children than NIBRS.

2 The comparative data for the child welfare system

are taken from child abuse data provided by 16 States,

as part of the Detailed Case Data Component of

NCANDS. These are not the same States that provide

NIBRS data, so discrepancies between law enforcement and child welfare data could simply be due to

State variation.
6

Forty-two percent of the physical abuse

cases in the child welfare system data involved victims who were age 7 and younger, compared with only 24 percent in

NIBRS. This difference in the two systems

regarding the distribution of victim ages is

consistent with a difference in data regarding perpetrator gender: females constitute

51 percent of the physical abusers in child

welfare data, but only 32 percent in NIBRS

data. Together, these discrepancies suggest that caretaker assaults against younger children and by females may be

viewed by potential reporters as less criminal or as matters in which police have

less expertise. Thus, these assaults may be

less likely to be referred to police even by

child welfare agencies.

It will be easier to know how NIBRS and

child welfare system data correspond

when complete data are available for

entire States. Currently, only three States—

Idaho, Iowa, and South Carolina—have

both statewide child abuse data and close

to 100 percent law enforcement agency

participation in NIBRS (table 2). In both

Idaho and Iowa, child welfare agency protocols dictate that law enforcement agencies must be notified of all maltreatment

known to child welfare; nevertheless,

police reports of caretaker assaults are

only a fraction of the substantiated abuse

recorded by child welfare authorities. In

Idaho, the NIBRS tally of physical assaults

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Percentage Who Are Female Victims 

at Each Age

Sexual offenses

Nonsexual offenses

Victim Age

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

Figure 6: Offenses Against Female Juveniles by Parents and

Other Caretakers, by Type of Crime and Victim Age

Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1997.

is only one-third as large as the number of

physical assaults substantiated by child

welfare; in Iowa, NIBRS records only onefifth the number of substantiated cases.

Possible factors that may explain this

discrepancy include incomplete NIBRS

data collection or broad child welfare

definitions of child abuse that include

noncriminal acts. However, the data are

consistent with the possibility that a great

deal of criminal child abuse is not reported to or recorded by law enforcement in

some States. The situation in South Carolina suggests a different story. In that State,

sexual assault cases in NIBRS data are

equal in number to sexual abuse cases in

child welfare data, but physical assault

cases in NIBRS data actually exceed the

number reported in child welfare data. In

South Carolina, it is possible that child

abuse reports are readily passed on to law

enforcement but that the threshold for

substantiating physical abuse in the child

welfare system may be higher than the

threshold for recording a crime in NIBRS.

A Contrasting National

Perspective on Child Abuse

Up until now, in the absence of national

law enforcement data, the only national

statistics on violence specifically against

children have been abuse data collected by

child welfare agencies. An expanding NIBRS

will eventually supply national data representing a law enforcement point of view on

crimes committed against all juveniles and

will provide a new and potentially contrasting perspective on the problem of violence

against children. For example, based on

information from 43 States, child welfare

data for 1997 documented nearly 300,000

substantiated cases of child physical and

sexual abuse, yielding an estimate of 350,000

cases nationwide (U.S. Department of Health

and Human Services, Administration on

Children, Youth and Families, 1999). These

numbers, however, primarily capture incidents of violence committed against juveniles by parents and other caretakers and

exclude assaults by noncaretaker perpetrators, which are outside the domain of the

child welfare system. Presently available

NIBRS data reveal that noncaretaker perpetrators are responsible for four-fifths of all

the crimes against juveniles that are reported to the police.3 A crude extrapolation from

the current NIBRS States would yield a

national estimate of close to 900,000 violent

crimes against juveniles that are reported to

the police. Therefore, data from the child

welfare system almost certainly cannot be

considered a good representation of the

magnitude of violent crimes perpetrated

against juveniles and reported to authorities.

Policy Implications

NIBRS data confirm that large numbers of

offenses against juveniles by caretakers

(commonly thought of as child abuse)

are, in fact, reported to the police. These

incidents are predominantly physical

assaults, involve more older than younger

children, and involve more male than

female caretakers. Only about one-half of

these cases are associated with any

recorded injury to the victim. 

The fact that a large number of physical

assaults by parents and other caretakers

are referred to police every year is an

important, if generally unrecognized, reality for the justice system that also raises

questions about how these cases are being

handled. Most of the research on how the

justice system manages juvenile victims of

caretaker offenses focuses on sex crimes

(Cross, Whitcomb, and De Vos, 1995;

Runyan et al., 1988). Many justice system

reforms and innovations have been developed to deal with these sexual abuse

cases, including the establishment of

multidisciplinary teams and children’s advocacy centers (Kolbo and Strong, 1997).

3 For more information on noncaretaker crimes, see

Finkelhor and Ormrod, 2000.
Table 2: Comparison of Child Welfare Data and NIBRS Data on Number of 

Juvenile Victims of Physical and Sexual Abuse/Assault for Three

States

Number of Victims

Physical Abuse/Assault Sexual Abuse/Assault

State Child Welfare NIBRS Child Welfare NIBRS

Idaho* 2,743 911 1,607 351

Iowa† 3,525 663 1,382 341

South Carolina* 1,278 2,923 728 732

*1997 figures. Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration on Children,

Youth and Families (1999), State Data Tables, Section 4.1, p. D–13; 1997 NIBRS selected victimlevel data (caretaker offenders).

† 1995 figures. Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration on Children,

Youth and Families (1998), State Data Tables, Section 4, pp. 3–7; 1995 NIBRS selected victim-level

data (caretaker offenders).

7

Table 1: Comparison of Child Welfare Data and NIBRS Data for Physical 

and Sexual Abuse/Assault, by Victim Age

Percentage of Victims in Age Group

Physical Abuse/Assault Sexual Abuse/Assault

Victim Age Child Welfare* NIBRS† Child Welfare* NIBRS†

Group (n=48,265) (n=9,166) (n=22,193) (n=3,120)

0–3 16% 11% 9% 13%

4–7 26 13 27 27

8–11 23 15 25 22

12–15 27 37 29 29

16–17‡ 8 24 10 9

Totals 100% 100% 100% 100%

*1997 Detailed Case Data Component selected case-level data from 16 States: Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania,

Rhode Island, South Carolina, Utah, Vermont, Washington, and Wyoming, as reported in U.S.

Department of Health and Human Services, Administration on Children, Youth and Families (1999),

Table 4–1, p. 4–4.

†1997 National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) selected victim-level data (caretaker

offenders) from 12 States: Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, North Dakota, South

Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, and Virginia, as reported by the Federal Bureau of

Investigation (1997).

‡ Age grouping for child welfare data is “16+.”

There is little indication in this literature

that the majority of parent and other

caretaker assaults that enter the justice

system involve physical rather than sexual assault. If physical assaults are the predominant reported crime committed by

parents and other caretakers against children, the handling of these offenses by

the justice system merits more research

and policy debate (Smith, 1995).

An active policy debate has occurred

regarding the justice system’s handling of

physical assaults between adult domestic

partners. This debate involves questions

of how aggressively the justice system

should pursue these offenses and seek to

arrest and prosecute offenders (Chalk and

King, 1998; Ford and Regoli, 1993; Schmidt

and Steury, 1989; Sherman, 1992). Policymakers in this domain have had to balance competing needs: to reinforce clear

norms against domestic violence, to sanction offenders, to protect victims who

have ongoing relationships with perpetrators, to empower and respect victims

whose interests differ from those of the

justice system, and to use limited justice

resources efficiently. These needs all have

parallels in dealing with physical assaults

against children. Could more aggressive

arrest and prosecution of caretakers who

physically assault their children raise

awareness about the problem, reinforce

norms of conduct, reduce recidivism, and

empower victims? Or would more aggressive action inhibit victim reporting,

increase retaliation or anxiety about retaliation, and further damage the caretakerchild relationship? These issues need to

be brought out, discussed, and researched

as extensively as they have been in the

area of spousal assault. 

Reforms are currently under way that will

also increase the salience of criminal justice issues in the child abuse domain. For

example, some States (e.g., Florida) are

expanding the role of law enforcement in

the investigation of child abuse, giving to

sheriffs and police functions that were

previously handled by child welfare

authorities (Peacock, 1999). In addition,

children’s advocacy centers and multidisciplinary response teams are being implemented across the country, further involving the criminal justice system in

child abuse investigations.

Conclusion

Policymakers concerned about child welfare

need to know the full extent of harm perpetrated against children. Policymakers also

need to know which categories of incidents

are handled by law enforcement, which are

handled by child welfare, and which are

handled by both systems. The large number

of child abuse incidents found in NIBRS data

and described in this Bulletin, coupled with

the trend toward greater police involvement

in child maltreatment cases noted above,

highlights the need for more understanding

of the role law enforcement currently plays

and potentially could play in responding to

the problem of child abuse.

References

Chalk, R., and King, P.A., eds. 1998. Violence in

Families: Assessing Prevention and Treatment

Programs. Washington, DC: National Academy

Press.

Cross, T.P., Whitcomb, D., and De Vos, E.D. 1995.

Criminal justice outcomes of prosecution of

child sexual abuse: A case flow analysis. Child

Abuse & Neglect 19(12):1431–1442.

Federal Bureau of Investigation. 1997. National

Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). 12

States only. Computer file. Tabulations undertaken by Crimes against Children Research
PRESORTED STANDARD

POSTAGE & FEES PAID

DOJ/OJJDP

PERMIT NO. G–91

Acknowledgments

This Bulletin was written by David Finkelhor, Ph.D., Professor of Sociology, and

Director, Crimes against Children Research Center, University of New Hampshire;

and Richard Ormrod, Ph.D., Research Professor, Crimes against Children

Research Center, University of New Hampshire.

This Bulletin was prepared under grant

number 98–JN–FX–0012 from the Office of

Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention,

U.S. Department of Justice.

Points of view or opinions expressed in this

document are those of the authors and do not

necessarily represent the official position or

policies of OJJDP or the U.S. Department of

Justice.

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention is a component of the Office of Justice Programs, which also includes

the Bureau of Justice Assistance, the Bureau

of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of

Justice, and the Office for Victims of Crime.

Center. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of

Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Finkelhor, D. 1983. Removing the child—

prosecuting the offender in cases of sexual

abuse: Evidence from the national reporting

system for child abuse and neglect. Child Abuse

& Neglect 7:195–205.

Finkelhor, D., and Ormrod, R. 2000. Characteristics of Crimes Against Juveniles. Bulletin.

Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice,

Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile

Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

Ford, D.A., and Regoli, M.J. 1993. Indianapolis

Domestic Violence Prosecution Experiment. Final

Report. Indianapolis, IN: Indiana University.

Kolbo, J.R., and Strong, E. 1997. Multidisciplinary

team approaches to the investigation and resolution of child abuse and neglect: A national survey. Child Maltreatment 2(1):61–72.

Peacock, B. 1999. Final 1998–1999 Outcome Evaluation Report on Florida’s Continuing CommunityBased Child Welfare Programs. Tallahassee, FL:

Florida Department of Children and Families,

Office of Standards and Evaluation.

Runyan, D.K., Everson, M.D., Edelsohn, G.A.,

Hunter, W.M., and Coulter, M.L. 1988. Impact of

legal intervention on sexually abused children.

Journal of Pediatrics 113:647–653.

U.S. Department of Justice

Office of Justice Programs

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention

Washington, DC 20531

Official Business

Penalty for Private Use $300

Bulletin NCJ 187238

Schmidt, J., and Steury, E.H. 1989. Prosecutorial

discretion in filing charges in domestic violence

cases. Criminology 27:487–510.

Sedlak, A.J., and Broadhurst, D.D. 1996. Third

National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and

Neglect. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of

Health and Human Services.

Sherman, L.W. 1992. Policing Domestic Violence:

Experiments and Dilemmas. New York, NY: Free

Press.

Smith, B.E. 1995. Prosecuting Child Physical Abuse

Cases: A Case Study in San Diego. Washington,

DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice

Programs, National Institute of Justice.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,

Administration on Children, Youth and Families.

1998. Child Maltreatment 1995: Reports From the

States to the National Child Abuse and Neglect

Data System. Washington, DC: U.S. Government

Printing Office.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,

Administration on Children, Youth and Families.

1999. Child Maltreatment 1997: Reports From the

States to the National Child Abuse and Neglect

Data System. Washington, DC: U.S. Government

Printing Office.