PRESS RELEASE

Updated data on child abuse in Puerto Rico

The Puerto Rico Child Abuse Profile: Interactive Report 2018-2022, shows, among others, the number of abused minors per year and the magnitude of the types of abuse

The executive director of the Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics, Dr. Orville M. Disdier, presented the “Puerto Rico Child Abuse Profile: Interactive Report 2018-2022”, which consists of a new digital platform through which statistics related to child abuse are organized and summarized, based on secondary data provided by various local agencies and the federal government. Available statistics include the number of abused minors per year, the rates of abuse, the geographical distribution of abuse, the distribution and magnitude of the types of abuse, the ratio of the perpetrator, and the contrast between Puerto Rico and other jurisdictions in the United States.

“Child abuse is a serious social problem that negatively affects the physical, mental and emotional health and integrity of children and young people under 18 years of age. To eradicate this problem, it is essential to have complete and accessible statistics that serve as a guide for evidence-based prevention and promotion programs. Precisely, this new profile provides the necessary information and statistics to start implementing solutions,” said Dr. Disdier.

Disdier explained that this profile not only fills an information gap that existed since the previous publication, which dates back to 2015, but now the report is a digital and interactive one, in which the user can select between several years, categories and variables, and can even download the data for subsequent analysis. “These new data suggest that, in general terms, more than 5,000 children are abused annually and that currently the rate of abuse can be estimated at 10 abused minors for every 1,000 children under 18 living in Puerto Rico,” said Disdier.

Among other more relevant data presented by this new profile, for the year 2021, are:

• The municipalities with the highest rates (x 1,000 minors) of child abuse in Puerto Rico in 2021 were: Ceiba (31.8), Humacao (23.3), Jayuya (21.7), Lajas (21.7) and Guayama (20.6).
• The municipalities with the lowest rates (x 1,000 minors) of child abuse in Puerto Rico in 2021 were: Loíza (2.3), Florida (2.3), Lares (2.9), Naranjito (3.7), Morovis (3.7) and Culebra (3.7).
• The three most prevalent types of abuse are: neglect (32.5%), emotional neglect (32.3%) and educational neglect (14.8%).
• In general terms, both boys and girls are abused in equal proportions, although in terms of sexual abuse, girls are abused in a greater proportion (male, 18.4% and female, 81.6%).
• Regarding the relationship between the child and the perpetrators, in most cases the biological mother and/or the biological father are the ones who commit the abuse.

The profile is nourished by secondary data based on data from the Department of the Family, the Puerto Rico Police, the Department of Justice, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Disdier mentioned that the collaboration of the Department of the Family has been, and continues to be, key to developing this new tool.

In this regard, the Secretary of the Department of the Family, Dr. Carmen Ana González, explained that “The Department of the Family team has worked to reinforce and create new strategies that focus on preventing and educating the population so that together they can combat violence in all its forms. This new platform will present a broader picture of the situation of abuse suffered by minors on the island. The fight against abuse is a matter of co-responsibility; it is a joint fight where all sectors come together, thus creating a front that ensures the well-being of populations that are in situations of vulnerability. In this way, we develop prevention tools focused on geographical areas and typology. This is a shared task that requires coordination between all components to be effective and we, in Familia, are embedded in it.”

The Institute's statistical project manager, Dr. Francisco Pesante, together with his team, was in charge of the technical development of this interactive profile. “The data presented reflect the complexity of interagency efforts to address child abuse as a social problem. We hope that the continuity in the publication and analysis of these data will contribute to the best government service in administrative and judicial instances to protect the physical and mental health of children and young people in Puerto Rico,” Pesante argued.

The Puerto Rico Child Abuse Profile resides on the website of the Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics and interested parties can access it at any time through the following e-mail address: Child Abuse Profile.

For technical questions about this tool, you can send an email to: preguntas@estadisticas.pr.

About the Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics

To learn more about the Institute of Statistics, you can access the website: www.estadisticas.pr.gov. On social media through Facebook accounts (@statistics.pr), Twitter (@EstadisticasPR), Instagram (@institutodeestadisticas) and LinkedIn (Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics).

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