…continued

An additional 8% of investigations – an additional 17,918 investigations or 2.98 investigations per 1,000 children – found that there was insufficient evidence to substantiate maltreatment; however, maltreatment remained suspected by the worker at the completion of the intake investigation. Thirty percent of investigations were unfounded (i.e. the child had not been maltreated) and 26% were due to concerns about the risk of future maltreatment rather than actual cases of maltreatment.

Of the 85,440 total cases of maltreatment among children that were substantiated, 34% involved neglect, 20% involved physical abuse, 34% involved exposure to intimate partner violence, 3% involved sexual abuse and 9% involved emotional maltreatment.¹

¹Public Health Agency of Canada. Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect – 2008: Major Findings. Ottawa, 2010