The Child protection Australia 201314 report released by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare on 8 May 2015 shows an increase in substantiated cases of child abuse and neglect across Australia.
In the 12 months of 2013-14, 40,844 Australian children were the subject of substantiated abuse and neglect, a slight increase from 40,571 in 2012-13. In Queensland, the number of children confirmed as abused or neglected decreased from 7,149 to 6,685 in the same period.
The report shows the rates of child abuse and neglect have remained stable since 2012-13 at 7.8 per 1,000 children. This is despite an increase in the number of children who were the subject of substantiations, rising by 31% from 31,295 in 2009-10 to 40,844 in 2013-14.
The report also shows that emotional abuse and neglect have remained the most common types of substantiated abuse nationally, and the most likely types of co-occurring abuse or neglect. In 2013-14, there were 18,012 substantiated cases of emotional abuse, 40% off all cases. Neglect still remains high, with 12,941 substantiated cases, 28% of all cases.
In 2013-14, 143,023 children (1 in 37 children) received child protection services (investigation; care and protection order; and/or were placed in out-of-home care). Almost 3 in 5 (59%) of these children were the subject of an investigation only (that is, they were not subsequently placed on an order or in out-of-care), while 8% were involved in all three components of the system.
A report commissioned by Adults Surviving Child Abuse (ASCA) released in February 2015, showed that as a nation, Australia could save $6.8 billion annually by addressing the impacts of child sexual, emotional and physical abuse and $9.1 billion annually by addressing the impact of childhood trauma more broadly.