Child sexual abuse cases down in U.S.: study

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - Cases of child sexual abuse in the United States have dropped five percent from 2005-2006 and more than 50 percent over the past 14 years, researchers said on Wednesday.

And physical abuse cases have been almost halved since 1992, according to new report based on data collected by the federal government from state child protection agencies.

"When they released the data in early April, federal authorities highlighted only a one percent decline in overall child maltreatment, and did not draw attention to the strong declines in sexual and physical abuse," said David Finkelhor of the University of New Hampshire.

"Because the majority of maltreatment cases involve neglect, which actually rose two percent from 2005, the trends for sexual and physical abuse were obscured," he added in a statement.

Finkelhor and Lisa Jones from the university's Crimes Against Children Research Center analyzed the data in their report titled "Updated Trends in Child Maltreatment, 2006".

They said sexual abuse cases dropped in 34 states from 2005 to 2006 with Hawaii seeing the biggest decline of 40 percent. Cases in North Dakota fell 39 percent and 36 percent in Idaho.

But Rhode Island had a 53 percent increase and Alaska had a 36 percent rise in sexual abuse cases during that time.

"It is unfortunate that more attention has not been paid to both the short- and long-term declines in sexual and physical abuse because they represent evidence of an important potential public-policy success," Jones said.

The report showed that sexual abuse cases have declined overall in most states since 1992. Idaho and Arizona paved the way with a 94 percent decline, followed by an 88 percent drop in Alaska, an 87 percent dip in South Dakota.

Two states and the District of Columbia experienced increases during the same period.

"The period when sexual and physical abuse started the dramatic downward trend was marked by sustained economic improvement, increases in the numbers of law enforcement and child protection personnel, more aggressive prosecution and incarceration policies, growing public awareness about the problems, and the dissemination of new treatment options for family and mental health problems, including new psychiatric medication," Finkelhor explained.

Researchers found that incidents of neglect increased two percent from 2005 to 2006.

They said neglect cases may not have declined nationally because neglect has not had the same level of policy attention and public awareness as sexual and physical abuse.

(Reporting by Julie Mollins; editing by Patricia Reaney)