The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has released its
latest data on child abuse and neglect notifications made to State
and Territory community service departments.
Child Abuse and Neglect Australia 1995-96 presents statistics on
notifications, finalised investigations and substantiations by
State and Territory, type of abuse and neglect, Aboriginality, age
and sex of child, and type of family in which the child
resides.
Report author Anne Broadbent warned that the statistics 'only
represent the number of children who come into contact with
community service departments as being in need of care and
protection-they do not measure the actual incidence of child abuse
and neglect in the community'.
'The figures could be inflated because some jurisdictions
include general child welfare concerns other than abuse or neglect
in their statistics. On the other hand, there is an unknown level
of unreported abuse and neglect in Australia.'
'We should also be aware that individual abuse and neglect
notifications and substantiations can cover a wide range of
severity of injuries, emotional abuse and neglect, so that no one
incidence is necessarily the same as another.'
Findings of the report include:
- In 1995-96 State and Territory community service departments
recorded 91,734 notifications of child abuse and neglect, of which
61,383 resulted in a finalised investigation and 29,833 in a
substantiation. The number of substantiations is 3% below the
number in the previous year, due at least in part to changes in
legislation, policy and practices in some States and
Territories.
- Of those notifications that were substantiated 8,467 (28%) were
for physical abuse, 9,265 (31%) for emotional, 4,802 (16%) for
sexual abuse and 7,299 (25%) for neglect.
- In 1995-96, 16.3 children per 1,000 aged 0-16 years were the
subject of a child abuse and neglect notification, 11.6 per 1,000
were the subject of a finalised investigation and 5.8 per 1,000
were the subject of a substantiation.
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are
over-represented in the statistics. Cultural differences in
attitudes to child rearing, higher rates of unemployment and
poverty, higher incidences of health problems and lack of access or
inability to access parental support services all contribute to
this over-representation. Similar factors contribute to the
over-representation of children from single female parent families
in the statistics on notifications, investigations and
substantiations.
- Most notifications of abuse or neglect were from
friends/neighbours, parents/guardians, school personnel and the
police. Notifications from the police or the subject child were
most likely to be substantiated while, in particular, a low
proportion of notifications from anonymous sources were
substantiated.
16 April 1997
Further information:Anne Broadbent, ph. 02 6244
1157.
For media copies of the report (92pp):Chris
Finnegan, ph. 02 6244 1032.
Availability: Check the AIHW Publications Catalogue
for details.