Montgomery County Has State’s Second-Lowest Child Abuse Rate

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There’s only one Pennsylvania county where child abuse is prevented more than Montgomery County, but the its toll nevertheless claimed the life of a local kid last year.

Only one other county in Pennsylvania had a lower rate of child abuse last year than Montgomery County, but one of its 94 cases claimed the life of a local kid.

While child abuse reports grew from 1,240 to 1,420, substantiated cases actually dropped by one child, and Montgomery County’s rate of child abuse remains less than a third of the statewide average.

Source: 2016 Pennsylvania Child Protective Services Report. Click on the image to view the full report.

The latest numbers come from the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services2016 Annual Child Protective Services Report.

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Montgomery County’s child abuse rate of 0.5 children per 1,000 pales in comparison to the state average of 1.7 abused children per 1,000 and 16.3 reports per thousand.

Only Bucks County had a lower substantiated child abuse rate.

In addition to the lone fatality, three others nearly died from child abuse in 2016.

Last year, Montgomery County spent $2.8 million investigating those child abuse reports. The state as a whole spent $233 million.

Just shy of half of all perpetrators of child abuse in the state are parents, with a parent’s lover or relative causing another quarter of all cases. Nearly half of all cases are also sexual abuse, followed by physical abuse at 30 percent.

Read more about the reality of child abuse in Montgomery County and statewide in the full report here.

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