The information contained in this year's report indicates that SCF has focused more of its resources on protecting those children at the highest risk of abuse and neglect and those families with the most severe problems. The number of recorded sex abuse victims dropped 11 per cent in 1995. Reports of child abuse and neglect received by SCF increased by 1.2 percent. The total number of confirmed incidents of child abuse and neglect increased by 2.9 percent. The confirmed number of children who were abused and neglected increased by 0.9 percent.
Infants still make up the largest single age group of victims.
During this same time period, Oregon's population of children aged 0-17 increased by 1.5 percent. The stresses on families of abused and neglected children increased in all categories. There were 36 fatalities resulting from child abuse and neglect in 1995, up from 33 in 1994. Seventy-two percent of those deaths were children less than 5 years of age. The Child Abuse Reporting Law, ORS 419B.005 to 419B.045, was enacted in 1971 and has been updated several times.