Welcome to part 3 of our 9 part series on child abuse and
neglect. Today, we will be introducing the national survey that
served as the basis for the statistics included in this article.
We will be looking at the statistics from this report on
Wednesday. Please see the end of today’s article for a complete
listing of articles included in this series. Before we jump
right in to the alarming statistics regarding child
maltreatment, some background on the source of the information
used for this article and a definition of terms would be
helpful. For purposes of the statistics cited in this report, we
have utilized the Fourth National Incidence Study of Child Abuse
and Neglect (NIS-4). What is the National Incidence Study of
Child Abuse? In January 2010, a report entitled “Fourth National
Incidence Study of Child Abuse and Neglect (NIS-4) was released
by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. That report
is referred to herein as NIS-4. The National Incidence Study is
a periodically mandated effort of t