National

Child welfare services fall under the mandate of provincial and territorial governments, including a rapidly expanding system of Aboriginal child welfare authorities. This section contains material related to federal initiatives concerned with child welfare services as well as statistics compiled at the national level.

All Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect reports can be found here.

Statistics

Child Maltreatment Investigations in Canada, 1998 and 2008*

  1998 2008
Child population 6,301,295 6,022,005
Number of child maltreatment investigations 134,566 235,842
Incidence of child maltreatment investigations per 1,000 children 21.36 39.16


Type of Child Maltreatment Investigation in Canada, 2008*

  Number Rate per 1,000 children Percent
Maltreatment Investigation 174,411 28.97 74%
Risk Investigation 61,431 10.19 26%


Primary Categories of Substantiated Child Maltreatment Investigations in Canada, 2008*

Category of Maltreatment Number Rate per 1,000 children Percent
Physical Abuse 17,212 2.86 20%
Sexual Abuse 2,607 0.43 3%
Neglect 28,939 4.81 34%
Emotional Maltreatment 7,423 1.23 9%
Exposure to Intimate Partner Violence 29,259 4.86 34%


Placement in Child Maltreatment Investigations in 1998 and in Child Maltrement and Risk Investigations in Canada in 2008*

  1998 Number 1998 Rate 2008 Number 2008 Rate
Informal Kinship Care 5,851 0.93 8,713 1.45
Formal Placement 11,003 1.74 10,886 1.81


Public Health Agency of Canada. (2010). Canadian incidence study of reported child abuse and neglect 2008: Major findings (p. 122). Public Health Agency of Canada. Retrieved from http://cwrp.ca/publications/2117

Publications
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Title Authors Year Sort ascending
Childhood maltreatment as a risk factor for COPD: Findings from a population-based survey of Canadian adults
Shields, Margot E
Hovdestad, Wendy E
Gilbert, Charles P
Tonmyr, Lil E
2016
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder casts a long shadow: Findings from a population-based study of adult women with self-reported ADHD
Fuller-Thomson, Esme
Lewis, D. A.
Agbeyaka, Senyo K. 
2016
Building research capacity in child welfare in Canada

Trocmé, Nico
Roy, Catherine
Esposito, Tonino

2016
Three types of adverse childhood experiences, and alcohol and drug dependence among adults: An investigation using population-based data
Fuller-Thomson, Esme
Roane, Jessica L. 
Brennenstuhl, Sarah
2016
Better understand to better serve: A province-wide knowledge mobilization initiative in child protection

Esposito, Tonino
Trocmé, Nico
Chabot, Martin
Coughlin, Lorry
Gaumont, Chloé
Delaye, Ashleigh

2016
The disclosure experiences of male child sexual abuse survivors
Gagnier, Charlotte
Collin-Vézina, Delphine
2016
Child protection services and parents with intellectual and developmental disabilities
LaLiberte, Traci
Piescher, Kristine
Mickelson, Nicole
Lee, Mi Hwa
2016
Research Brief: Identifying and Responding to Intimate Partner Violence Against Women

Wathen, C. Nadine
MacMillan, Harriet L.
MacGregor, Jennifer

2016
The intersection of child custody disputes and child protection investigtions: secondary data analysis of the Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect (CIS-2008)

Black, Tara

Saini, Michael

Fallon, Barbara

Deljavan, Sevil

Theoduloz, Ricardo

Wall, Michael

2016
Delineating disproportionality and disparity of Asian-Canadian versus White-Canadian households in the child welfare system

Lee, Barbara
Fuller-Thomson, Esme
Trocmé, Nico
Fallon, Barbara
Black, Tara

2016
Legislation

Child welfare services fall under the jurisdiction of provincial and territorial authorities as a result each province and territory has different legislation pertaining to child protection interventions. For more information click here.

The only child welfare regulations and legislation that apply to all provinces and territories are the Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development First Nations Child and Family Services National Program Manual and the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of the Child: