Increasing Awareness of Child Neglect from a Social Work Perspective

Child neglect is the most common and arguably the most detrimental form of child maltreatment, yet public awareness of neglect lags far behind child abuse (Dubowitz, 2007). In 2009, an estimated 763,000 children in the United States were abused or neglected, 78% of whom experienced neglect, either alone or in combination with other forms of maltreatment. Approximately one-third (35.8%) of child maltreatment fatali ties were attributed exclusively to neglect; an additional one-third (36.7%) of fatalities were caused by multiple type maltreatment, which often includes negligence by a caretaker. Most often, the perpetrators of neglect are the child’s parents (80%): two-fifths of child victims were maltreated by their mothers acting alone, one-fifth by their fathers acting alone, and just under one-fifth were maltreated by both parents (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [USDHHS], 2010).