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
From the House of Commons resolution to Pictou Landing Band Council v. Canada: An update on the implementation of Jordan’s Principle

Sinha, Vandna
Blumenthal, Anne

2014
Relationships between drugs and delinquency in adolescence: Influence of gender and victimization experiences

Brunelle, Natacha
Tremblay, Joel
Blanchette-Martin, Nadine
Gendron, Annie
Tessier, Mélanie

2014
Doing the right thing? (Re) Considering risk assessment and safety planning in child protection work with domestic violence cases

Jenney, Angelique
Mishna, Faye
Alaggia, Ramona
Scott, Katreena

2014
Girls in residential care: From child maltreatment to trauma-related symptoms in emerging adulthood

van Vugt, Eveline
Lanctot, Nadine
Paquette, Genevieve
Collin-Vézina, Delphine
Lemieux, Annie

2014
Long-term depression and suicidal ideation outcomes subsequent to emancipation from foster care: Pathways to psychiatric risk in the Métis population

Kaspar, Violet

2014
Why are suspected cases of child maltreatment referred by educators so often unsubstantiated?

King, Colin B.
Scott, Katreena L.

2014
Child and family poverty in Canada: Implications for child welfare research

de Boer, Kaila
Rothwell, David W.
Lee, Christopher

2013
The structure of Aboriginal child welfare in Canada

Sinha, Vandna
Kozlowski, Anna

2013
Mothers and infants exposed to intimate partner violence compensate

Letourneau, Nicole
Young Morris, Catherine
Secco, Loretta
Stewart, Miriam
Hughes, Jean
Crichley, Kim

2013
Involvement with child protective services: Is this a useful question in population-based surveys?

Hamilton, Hayley A.
Boak, Angela
Mann, Robert E.

2013
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: