NCJ Number
120295
Date Published
1988
Length
158 pages
Annotation
This 1986 study explains that an increase in child abuse and neglect reporting between 1980 and 1986 is probably due not to an increase in child abuse and neglect per se but to increased recognition of the problem by community professionals.
Abstract
The U.S. Congress mandated the 1986 study in order to determine how the character, frequency, and severity of child abuse and neglect had changed since an initial report was compiled in 1980. The 1986 study followed the same design as the 1980 study and reported incidents of child maltreatment as identified by community professionals in a national probability sample of 29 counties throughout the United States. Reported cases were assessed for their conformity to two sets of standardized definitional criteria, one from the 1980 study and another, created for the 1986 study, identifying children endangered but not necessarily harmed by maltreatment. Even though problems arose from conflicting definitions of child abuse and neglect, the findings of the 1986 and 1980 reports are comparable. The study found that in 1986 an estimated one million American children experienced abuse and neglect.