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Estimated fatalities due to child maltreatment may underestimate the true extent of fatal child maltreatment. Public health surveillance of child maltreatment fatalities can help identify previously undetected cases and inform research, policy, and prevention efforts. A pilot effort in three states offers potentially useful insights for state-level child welfare leaders considering a similar collaboration. Key findings include the added value of using multiple data sources to identify child maltreatment fatalities, the challenges and benefits of engaging multiple disciplines in the surveillance process, and the feasibility of incorporating a common definition of child maltreatment for surveillance purposes.

In this article we review the empirical evidence for the presumptions that children with disabilities are at increased risk for child maltreatment, and parents with disabilities are more likely to perpetrate child abuse and neglect. Challenges to the epidemiological examination of the prevalence of child maltreatment and disabilities are discussed. We conclude that the evidence for the relationship between child maltreatment victimization of children with disabilities and perpetration by caregivers with disabilities remains equivocal due to variability in research samples, key definitions, and study methodology. Future research examining the link between disability and child maltreatment would benefit from more rigorous methodology and inclusion of a theoretical framework, such as the ecological model of child maltreatment. One potential pathway from disability to child maltreatment is presented. Knowing and understanding the link between disability and child abuse and neglect is an important step toward ...

Child maltreatment (CM) and intimate partner violence (IPV) take a tremendous toll on communities around the world. Despite the impact of CM and IPV, data on their incidence are drawn from disparate sources of varying quality. To improve data resources in these areas, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Division of Violence Prevention funded state-based IPV and CM surveillance activities in nine states between 1994 and 2005. This article describes reported outcomes of these surveillance programmes; assesses factors affecting their sustainability; and provides recommendations for similar programmes through document review and interviews with state representatives. Findings indicate that states achieved outcomes with these surveillance initiatives; however, states noted concerns with sustaining systems because of a lack of resources and ineffective collaborations. Highlighted in this article are several lessons that other countries can learn from the experiences of these states in testing CM and IPV surveillance systems. Language: en