Many of us may look at them as only numbers. To the victims of child abuse and neglect, these numbers can be deadly. Neglect is the most common form of child abuse.
Many children suffer from more than one type of maltreatment.
Three-quarters of these fatalities were in children age three or under. If more comprehensive investigations had been conducted, these deaths might have been attributed to maltreatment. A child is a person who is under age 18, except in sexual abuse cases. In this case, the age of a child is specified by the child protection law of the state in which the child resides. Child abuse and neglect is any recent act or failure to act on the part of a parent or caretaker which results in death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse or exploitation and an act or failure to act which presents an imminent risk of serious harm.