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It is a myth that strangers most often abuse
children. By far the vast majority of maltreated children
are victimized by those who are familiar to the child and
who have ready access to the child. Relatives of the child
are most often the perpetrators of child abuse. In particular,
parents make up the majority of child abuse perpetrators.
In 2008, more than 80% (81.1%) of perpetrators
were parents of the victim. Of those victims maltreated by
a parent, nearly 40 percent (38.8%) were maltreated by their
mother acting on her own; 18.1% were maltreated by fathers;
17.9% were maltreated by both parents; 6.0% of victims were
maltreated by the mother and another person; 0.9% of maltreated
children were victimized by the father and another person;
other relatives accounted for an additional 4.7%; unmarried
partners of parents accounted for 2.5% (USDHHS-ACF, 2010).
Courtesy of the Children's Bureau, Administration
for Children and Families, US Department of Health and Human
Services (2010)
In 2008, 56.2 percent of the perpetrators
were women, 42.6 percent were men and 1.1 percent were of
unknown sex. Of the women who were perpetrators, more than
40 percent (45.3%) were younger than 30 years of age, compared
with one-third of the men (35.2%). These proportions have
remained consistent for the past few years (USDHHS-ACF, 2010).
The racial distribution of perpetrators was similar to the
race of their victims. During 2008, nearly one-half (47.8%)
of perpetrators were White and one-fifth (19.6%) were African-American.
Approximately 20 percent (19.5%) of perpetrators were Hispanic.
These proportions also have remained consistent for the past
few years (USDHHS-ACF, 2010).
More than one-half (61.1%) of all perpetrators were found
to have neglected children. Approximately 10 percent (10.0%)
of perpetrators physically abused children and 6.8 percent
sexually abused children. More than 13 percent (13.4%) of
all perpetrators were associated with more than one type of
maltreatment (USDHHS-ACF, 2010).
Perpetrators were analyzed by relationship to their victims
and type of maltreatment. For this analysis, a perpetrator
is counted once for each child for each report. Therefore,
the pattern of perpetrators closely mirrors the pattern of
maltreatment types. In other words, neglect represented both
the most frequent form of maltreatment and the greatest number
of perpetrators. Physical abuse ranked second, and so on.
Overall, 6.8 percent of all perpetrators were associated
with sexually abusing a child. However, analyzing the data
by perpetrator category shows that of the perpetrators who
were categorized as friends and neighbors, 2,335 of 4,007
(58.3%) committed sexual abuse. Of the perpetrators who were
categorized as "other," 13,056 of 31,858 (41.0%) committed
sexual abuse, and of the perpetrators who were categorized
as other professionals, 349 of 967 (36.1%) committed sexual
abuse (USDHHS-ACF, 2010).
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