Trends in child maltreatment in the US Army, 1975-1997.

OBJECTIVE

To examine trends by year in reports of victims of child maltreatment in the US Army Central Registry (ACR) during the period 1975-97. We report the rates/1,000 children of Army families of initial substantiated cases from 1988-97 and the number of cases of maltreatment as a percentage of total victims for each year from 1975-97. Army data are compared to published reports from military service child abuse registries.

METHODS

Numbers of cases of child maltreatment for each year were obtained from the ACR for major, minor, and total physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, and neglect. Population figures for numbers of children were obtained from the Defense Manpower Data Center.

RESULTS

The rates/1,000 for neglect have decreased by 24% from 1991-97, although the decrease has not been steady. The rates/1,000 of minor physical abuse declined 28% from 1993-97. The rates/1,000 of major physical abuse were basically unchanged from 1988-96, although the highest rate was recorded in 1997. The rates/1,000 of sexual abuse were also basically unchanged with the exception of increases in 1992-94 after which time the rates/1,000 returned to the pre-1992 levels. The rates/1,000 of emotional abuse cases more than doubled from 1988-97.

CONCLUSIONS

While minor physical abuse and neglect have shown decreases over the past decade, major physical abuse has remained virtually unchanged and sexual and emotional abuse have shown fluctuations. All these forms of maltreatment are challenges to the Army Family Advocacy Program.