Maltreatment Rate

The Maltreatment Rate report provides the rate per 1,000 of children who were victims of child abuse/neglect during each calendar year. Rates for years 2016-2023 are calculated using population data from the US Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) Easy Access to Juvenile Populations tool. For more information about this data source, please visit OJP's website at: https://www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/ezapop/.  OJJDP stopped publishing population data after 2020, therefore, rates for year 2024 are calculated using population data from the National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute, Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program (SEER).  For more information about this data, please visit SEER's website at: https://seer.cancer.gov/popdata/singleages.html 

Child victims are only counted once for the calendar year. If a child is a victim of abuse/neglect in subsequent reports in the same calendar year, they are not counted again to calculate maltreatment rates.

Data Portal Functionality:

The Data Portal allows users to select additional variables to gain further insight into the selected report. In addition, each variable can be further filtered to provide a subset of data within the variable. Data is provided as a table or, when available, as a graph.

Variable Definitions:

1. Age: Age is calculated based on the child's age at the time of the report. The age categories for this report are:
   • Under 1
   • 1 to 5
   • 6 to 12
   • 13 to 17
2. Race/Ethnicity: The race categories are analyzed in combination with ethnicity. If a person's ethnicity is Hispanic, they fall under the category of "Hispanic" regardless of their race. If their ethnicity is "Non- Hispanic", they fall under their corresponding race. The category of "Another Race" includes American Indian or Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, Asian, and Two or More Races. The race/ethnicity categories are:
   • Black or African American
   • Hispanic
   • White
   • Missing or Undetermined
   • Another Race
3. Gender: The identified gender of a person. Gender categories are:
   • Male
   • Female
   • Missing or Undetermined
4. Year: Year represents data for the calendar year.
5. County: The State of New Jersey is administratively divided into twenty-one counties. The county for this report is based on the county of the local field office responsible for the case. The twenty-one (21) counties in New Jersey are: Atlantic, Bergen, Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Essex, Gloucester, Hudson, Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean, Passaic, Salem, Somerset, Sussex, Union and Warren counties.

Related Reports:

The followings reports are related to Maltreatment Rate, which may be of additional interest to our users:

Abuse and Neglect in Foster Care
Maltreatment Post Reunification
Children in Placement - Point in Time
Children Entering Out of Home Placement
Children Exiting Out of Home Placement
Placement Rates
Length of Stay for Children in OOH Placement (Quartiles)
Placement Stability
Siblings Placed Together
Permanency Outcomes - Entry Cohorts
Re-entry

Citations:

Users may publish data obtained from this site, but we request an appropriate citation for use of this work. Below, please find an appropriate citation template, according to the American Psychological Association's (APA) guidelines.

New Jersey Child Welfare Data Hub. ([Date of Publication]). Maltreatment Rate. Retrieved on [date] from [URL].

Abbreviation Definitions:

APA: American Psychological Association
CP&P: Child Protection and Permanency, a division within the New Jersey Department of Children and Families (DCF)
CPS: Child Protective Services reports
CWS: Child Welfare Services referrals
DCF: New Jersey Department of Children and Families
IAIU: Institutional Abuse Investigation Unit