Facts and Statistics

Child Maltreatment & Child Injury

  • In 2016, approximately 7.4 million children were reported as alleged victims of maltreatment to child welfare agencies across the nation (Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2018).
  • In 2012, Missouri’s rate of investigated reports into child maltreatment and neglect were 54.5 reports per 1,000 children. The national average was 46.7 per 1,000 children (US DHHS, ACF, 2016).
  • In 2016, Missouri’s rate of child mortality due to maltreatment and neglect was 2.09 per 100,000 children. The national average was 2.36 reports per 100,000 children (US DHHS, ACF, 2016).
  • The leading cause of death for people between the ages of 1-44 is unintentional injuries (CDC, 2016).

Intimate Partner Violence

  • In 2017, there were 65 instances of domestic-violence related homicides in Missouri, of which 37 cases (57%) were due to intimate partner violence (Missouri State Highway Patrol, 2017).
  • According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), dating violence includes sexual, physical, psychological and emotional abuse that includes stalking. About 10% of students nationwide report being physically hurt by a dating partner in the past 12 months (CDC, 2016).
  • In a diverse research study of 172 LGBT youth, 40% had experienced intimate partner violence in the last four years (Reuter et al., 2016)

Sexual Violence

  • More than one in three woman and nearly one in four men will have experienced sexual violence involving physical contact in their life time (CDC, 2019).
  • One in six women and one in nineteen men will have experienced stalking in their life time (CDC, 2017).
  • 41% of female rape victims reported being raped before age 18 (CDC, 2017)

Suicide

Suicide is a leading cause of death (CDC, 2019):

  • 2nd leading cause among people 10 to 34 years of age
  • 4th leading cause among people 35 to 54 years of age
  • 8th leading cause among people 55 to 64 years of age
  • The rate of suicide among adolescents and young adults aged 10 to 29 in Missouri was 16.31 per 100,000 persons in 2010. This exceeded the national average of 12.93 per 100,000 (Department of Mental Health, 2014).