The rate of duplicated children reported as alleged victims of maltreatment was calculated using the State child population. The rate is somewhat higher than a rate of unduplicated children per 1,000 children. Most States collect data on only the primary source of the report, but some States record multiple sources of the same report. The same categories of report sources are not used by all States. For example, many States do not classify substitute care providers and perpetrators as report sources.
Some States classify parents with other relatives.
Item 5 provides an indication of the ratio of children to families in the States that are able to provide both children subject of an investigation and families subject of an investigation in item 5. The percentages are not significantly different from data submitted for 1994 if this subset of States is used. The rates of victimization discussed in the report are based upon the 1,000,502 substantiated or indicated child victims in 49 States. The rate for the two-tier States is based upon 688,752 substantiated children among a child population of 53,235,427 children in these 38 States. The three-tier rate is based on 311,750 substantiated and indicated children among the 13,810,691 children in these 11 States.