The Youngest Children Face the Highest Risk — And Many Deaths Aren’t Counted

Across all 52 reporting states and territories, the highest rate of child abuse is in children under age one, and more than a quarter of confirmed victims are under age three. Babies and toddlers, who cannot speak for themselves, are the ones most likely to be hurt, neglected, or killed behind closed doors.

Official reports already show that neglect and physical abuse by parents account for most child abuse fatalities, but even those grim numbers are undercounts: researchers estimate that 50–60% of maltreatment deaths never appear on death certificates as child abuse. When we don’t name what happened, those children vanish from the data, and the systems that failed them escape scrutiny.

We owe these children the truth. That starts with accurate, transparent reporting of every abuse-related death, and with policies that recognize just how vulnerable our youngest kids really are.

If this exploration of the transparent reporting of child protection

in America resonates with you,

don’t stop at awareness.

Share this article with your networks and

talk about it in your schools, faith communities, and civic groups.

Contact your local and state representatives to support the resources that will make CPS more effective and demand the policies that strengthen families, income supports, housing, childcare, mental health care. Volunteer and or donate to community-based, BIPOC-led organizations that are already doing the work of healing, advocacy, and prevention, and use whatever platform you have to insist that U.S. children deserve strong rights, strong families, and a system engineered for safety instead of harm.

For a Deeper Dive:

After a decade shaping children’s policy in Europe, KARA cofounder David Strand came home to a hard question: why is the United States so far behind in protecting its most vulnerable citizens? At Hamline University he turned that question into his 1996 PhD thesis, Nation Out of Step, a rigorous statistical study of how other advanced nations treat at-risk children and families, and how their processes and outcomes differ from America’s.

If you’d like to read it, email info@invisiblechildren.org with “Nation Out of Step” in the subject line to request a copy.