2017-2020 Substantiated child abuse and/or neglect victims by County in Maine
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Why This Indicator Matters
What the data shows
Overall, the number of children with substantiated child maltreatment increased increased from 3,292 children to 4,388 children between 2017 and 2020, or an increase of 33% over three years. 2019 was the highest year, however, with 4,547 children who experienced substantiated abuse.. The state rate for 2020 is 17.6 per 1,000 children, or 1.8%. Between 2019 and 2020, seven counties saw increasing rates and nine counties saw decreasing rates of child abuse. Waldo County had the biggest increases of children who had experienced substantiated child maltreatment.
At the county level, in 2020, the rural counties of Aroostook, Waldo and Somerset Counties had the highest rates of substantiated child abuse at 32.3 and 30.5 and 28.4 per 1,000 children respectively. In 2020, Cumberland County had the lowest rate of child abuse 6.5 per 1,000 children while Sagadahoc County had the second lowest rate at, at 9.9 per 1,000 children.
Definitions: The number and rate of individual victims of child abuse and neglect ages 0-17 for whom assessment led to a finding of a threat to a child’s health or welfare by physical, mental or emotional injury or impairment, sexual abuse or exploitation, deprivation of essential needs or lack of protection from these by a person responsible for the child (22 MRSA §4002). The numerator is the unique number of children in a calendar year who are victims of child maltreatment as defined above and the denominator is the number of children in the state ages 0 -17. The rate is per 1,000 children ages 0-17.
Data Source: Maine DHHS, Office of Child & Family Services, Division of Child Welfare
Footnotes:
County refers to where the child abuse occurred, not to the county where the child abuse victim may have been subsequently placed.
Update August 2021