National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS)

In 1988, the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act was passed. This led to the development of the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS), which includes data from all U.S. states for all forms of child abuse and neglect.

Thus, the data are not limited to sexual-abuse victimizations. The data-collection process is based on voluntary reporting, and the data are reported annually (Administration on Children Youth and Families, 2014).

Data from NCANDS indicate that in 2013, there were 679,000 child victims of abuse or neglect in the U.S. This translates into a rate of 9.1 victims per 1,000 children. This reveals a 3.8% decrease in such victimization from 2009-2013. Nine percent of the 679,000 children were sexually abused (Administration on Children Youth and Families, 2014).

NCANDS is advantageous in that it provides information about child sexual victimizations that may not have been reported to law enforcement officials. It focuses on child victims of all types of abuse, including neglect. The data are limited in that they focus broadly on abuse and neglect and do not provide detailed information regarding victims of sex crimes.