ABOUT CHILD ABUSE
National Statistics on Child Abuse
Child abuse is a horrific experience with potentially lasting effects.
It’s also, unfortunately, a common experience in America and around the world.
How big is the problem of child abuse?
1 in 4 girls and
1 in 13 boys in the U.S.
are estimated to experience child abuse
Source: CDC
1 billion
children globally
are estimated to experience sexual violence
Source: World Health Organization 2022
1 in 5
children in Europe
are estimated to experiece
sexual violence
Source: Council of Europe 2022
More than 550,000 children are known to U.S. authorities to be abused.
An estimated 558,899 children (unique incidents) were victims of abuse and neglect in the U.S. in 2022, the most recent year for which there is national data. That’s 8 children out of every thousand.
CACs serve more than 380,000 kids each year, helping them to recover.
In 2023, Children’s Advocacy Centers around the country served some 381,364ii child victims of abuse, providing victim advocacy and support to these children and their families.
U.S. Child welfare authorities look into the safety of more than 7.5 million kids annually
Of those, around 3 million children received an investigation or alternative response from child protective services agencies.
How does child abuse affect kids?
Child abuse hurts minds, bodies, and futures.
The trauma of child abuse causes children to lose their sense of safety and trust in the world, and harms their relationships. Left untreated, the trauma of child abuse can lead to:
- Mental health problems like depression, anxiety and PTSD symptoms;
- Behavioral changes like substance use disorders, risky sexual behaviors, or increased risk for violence against oneself and others; and/or
- Physical health problems like infections, injuries, or even heart disease or diabetes later in life.
Possible Risk Outcomes
Child abuse is deadly.
In 2022, an estimated 1,990 children died from abuse and neglect in the United States, a number consistently on the rise over the previous five years.i Boys have a higher child fatality rate at 3.26 per 100,000 compared to girls at 2.25. African-American child fatalities (6.37 per 100,000) is over three times greater than that of white children (1.99), and nearly four times greater than Hispanic children (1.68).
Child abuse is costly to society.
Nearly half of all U.S. children experience at least one type of childhood trauma.iv That exacts a toll on children, their caregivers, and their community, and our country as a whole also pays a price. Quite literally: In addition to the physical, emotional, and social costs of child abuse, it also carries economic costs.v
Which kids are most vulnerable?
Child abuse affects children from every background.
Every socioeconomic group—rich, poor and middle income—experience child abuse. It also affects children of every gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, religion, and in every community.
The youngest children were most vulnerable.
Children in the first year of their life are 15% of all victims, and more than a quarter (27%) of child maltreatment victims are no more than 2 years old.i
Girls tend to be more vulnerable than boys, but not by much
Girls had a victimization rate of 8.2 per 1,000 girls in the population, higher than boys at 7.1 per 1,000 boys.
BIPOC children are among the most vulnerable.
American Indian or Alaska Native children have the highest rate of victimization at 14.3 per 1,000 children in the population of the same race or ethnicity, while African American children have the second-highest rate at 12.1 per 1,000 children of the same race or ethnicity.
Socially and medically marginalized children are especially vulnerable.
Developmentally and intellectually disabled children are particularly vulnerable to abuse of all kinds, experiencing abuse at a rate almost three-and-a-half times higher than the average child. LGBTQ youth are also at particular risk for sex trafficking, suicidality, and other abuse-related problems.
Where and how does child abuse happen?
Most child victims are abused by a parent.
In 2022, a reported 434,000 perpetrators abused or neglected a child. In substantiated child abuse cases, 76% of children were victimized by a parent or legal guardian.
Child-on-child abuse is common. At CACs in 2022, 16% of people alleged to have abused a child were themselves children (in cases where we knew the age of the alleged abuser).ii
Nationally, neglect is the most common form of abuse. Three-fourths (74%) of victims are neglected, 17% are physically abused, 11% are sexually abused, and 0.2% are sex trafficked.
Yet CACs serve far more sexual abuse cases, indicating a deeper problem. CACs investigated 236,601 cases involving sexual abuse allegations in 2023, around 55% of all cases our members carried through.ii While not all these cases resulted in a disclosure, charges, or a conviction, it’s an indication that the problem of sexual abuse may be much larger than federal statistics show. In the graph below, the data includes children who’ve reported multiple types of abuse.
Kids in care require extra attention from institutions and community members. Kids at camps, in youth sports, in religious settings, and other places away from home and school require parents to be vigilant. Perpetrators seek roles where they will have access to kids, and CACs help these institutions create policies to protect kids and root out those seeking to harm them.
What do I need to know about grooming?
These behaviors are always concerning and should prompt a discussion with the child’s parents and institutional leaders, and most often a report of possible child abuse to authorities. These factors appear almost always in child sexual abuse cases.
- Increasingly sexualized touching of a child over time
- Seemingly innocent or non-sexual touching of a child
- Accidental touching or distraction while touching a child
- Nudity in front of a child or watching a child undressing or while naked
- Showing a child pornographic magazines, images, or videos
- Talking to a child about past sexual experiences
- Separating or isolating a child from their peers and family
These behaviors and factors present a moderate risk of sexual grooming: up to 7 times as common in cases of child sexual abuse. While these factors were found to be usually present in genuine grooming cases, and some are in themselves harmful to children, they do not always indicate abuse. Furthermore, context matters; a sex ed teacher providing a child with sexual education is normal, while another teacher or a family member unexpectedly teaching a child about sex would be cause for concern.
- Talking to a child about a child’s sexual experiences or relationships
- Using inappropriate sexual language/telling dirty jokes around a child
- Teaching a child sexual education outside a formal role to do so
- Providing a child with drugs or alcohol
- Getting close to a child’s family to gain access to the child
- Lack of adult supervision for a child
- Lack of parental closeness/parents not a resource
- Giving a child special gifts, rewards, or privileges (except family members)
These low-level factors are often present in the lives of many children at time. Some behaviors are harmless, normal, or even beneficial for children. Yet all these behaviors and risk factors, when a certain adult’s relationship with a child includes several, are an indication to take a closer look: they are up to 3.5 times more likely to be present in child sexual abuse cases.
- Activities planned alone a child, or without other adults present
- Extra attention paid to a certain child
- Spending a lot of time or communicating often with a certain child
- Showing a certain child love or affection
- Telling a child they love them or the child is special
- Showing favoritism or calling the relationship with a child “special”
- Giving a child compliments often
- Seeming charming, nice, or likeable
- Inviting a child on overnight stays or outings outside the family
- Giving a child special rewards or privileges
- Engaging in childlike activities with a child outside the family
- Low child confidence/self-esteem
- Loneliness or isolation
- Psychological or behavioral troubles
- Feeling needy
Sexual grooming is the behavior that a perpetrator engages in by selecting a vulnerable victim, gaining access and isolating that child, and then gaining trust of that child, their family, institutions, and communities. It’s not just the child victim or potential victim that’s being groomed; it’s also the adults surrounding the child. It is also described as a tactical relationship-building style, building a relationship of trust for the purpose of coercion.
Research has identified certain “red flag” child sexual grooming behaviors to help parents and community members distinguish between concerning, but potentially normal behaviors, up through moderate-risk and high-risk red flag behaviors.iii See our tool on the right to identify red flag, concerning, and potentially normal behaviors.
Children that experience high-risk behaviors are nearly 7 times more likely to be sexually abused than an average child.
If children are experiencing these behaviors from a family or community member, it doesn’t always mean they are being abused, but it definitely means adults in their lives need to start asking questions.
Download a Printable VersionCan kids get better after abuse?
Kids can and do get better after abuse.
Children thrive and are able to reduce their trauma symptoms to a healthy range through the services available at a CAC, like evidence-based therapy, plus strong parental, family, and community supports CACs help bolster.
CACs heal more than 200,000 kids each year. Our members offer 226,036 kids science-backed counseling and therapy services to help them recover from trauma and avoid the lifelong impacts of trauma.ii Plus, we offer connections to therapy for caregivers and other family members to support their child in recovery.
How many clinicians we train to cover the gap.
Evidence-based treatments (EBTs) have been designed and tested for treatment of child trauma-related symptoms. It’s through the use of those proven techniques that CAC’s are making a difference in kids’ lives—and helping their caregivers, too.
EBTs can help reduce trauma symptoms.
of children who had PTSD when they started treatment no longer had PTSD at their last follow-up
EBTs improve outcomes for children.
Below are percentages of children who stopped experiencing these major life problems after receiving EBTs.
How else can CACs help kids?
CACs educate nearly 2 million people each year, helping prevent abuse
We provided 1,985,288 people with abuse prevention education in 2023.
Kids with problematic sexual behaviors get help at CACs.
Treatments offered for children and youth with problematic sexual behaviors are successful; after treatment, 98% never go on to hurt another child.
CAC Statistics
Children’s Advocacy Centers offer high-quality care to help children heal from the trauma of abuse.
See CAC Service Statisticsi Child Maltreatment 2022,Children's Bureau, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services ii NCA 2023 CAC Service Statistics iii Winters GM, Jeglic EL, Kaylor LE. Validation of the Sexual Grooming Model of Child Sexual Abusers. J Child Sex Abus. 2020 Oct;29(7):855-875. doi: 10.1080/10538712.2020.1801935. Epub 2020 Oct 2. PMID: 33006502. iv About Adverse Childhood Experiences, Centers for Disease Control v The economic burden of child maltreatment in the United States, 2015, Child Abuse & Neglect