As a result, many thousands of children have been saved from death and serious injury. The best estimate is that child abuse and neglect deaths fell from over 3,000 a year (and perhaps as many as 5,000) in the late 1960s to about 1,200 a year in the late 1990s.
Yet, many children continue to fall through the cracks. According to federal government studies, professionals such as physicians, teachers, and day care personnel still fail to report large numbers of the maltreated children they see.
Simply generating more and more reports, however, is not the answer. In recent years, the problem of nonreporting has been compounded by the problem of inappropriate reporting. In 1998, about 65 percent of all reports were labeled "unfounded" after being investigated. (This is in sharp contrast to 1975, when the comparable figure was about 35 percent.) Although rules, procedures, and even terminology vary (some states use the phrase "unfounded", others "unsubstantiated" or "not indicated"), in essence, an "unfounded" report is one that is dismissed after an investigation finds insufficient evidence upon which to proceed.
Some professionals defend the high level of unfounded reports as the necessary price for identifying endangered children. However, the determination that a report is unfounded can be made only after what is often a traumatic investigation and, inherently, a breach of parental and family privacy.
