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
Why Addressing the Over-Representation of First Nations Children in Care Requires New Theoretical Approaches Based on First Nations Ontology

Blackstock, Cindy

2009
Geographic location and short-term service dispositions in Canadian child maltreatment investigations: CIS-2003

Budau, Krista
Barniuk, Jim
Fallon, Barbara
Black, Tara

2009
National Child Welfare Outcomes Indicator Matrix (NOM)

Trocmé, N., MacLaurin, B., Fallon, B., Shlonsky, A., Mulcahy, M., Esposito, T.

2009
Every Image, Every Child: Internet-facilitated child sexual abuse

Bureau de l’ombudsman fédéral des victimes d’actes criminels

2009
Matrice d’indicateurs de protection de la jeunesse (MIP)

Trocmé, N., Hélie, S., MacLaurin, B., Fallon, B., Shlonsky,A.,Mulcahy,M., & Esposito,T.

2009
Men's and women's childhood sexual abuse and victimization in adult partner relationships: A study of risk factors

Daigneault, Isabelle
Hébert, Martine
McDuff, Pierre

2009
Are we doing enough? A status report on Canadian public policy and child and youth health, 2009 edition

Canadian Paediatric Society

2009
Protection of Children from Physical Maltreatment in Canada: Evaluation of the Supreme Court’s Definition of Reasonable Force

Durrant, Joan E.
Trocmé, Nico
Fallon, Barbara
Milne, Cheryl
Black, Tara

2009
Physical punishment of children: Assessing the validity of the legal definition of “reasonable force”

Durrant, Joan
Trocmé, Nico
Fallon, Barbara
Milne, Cheryl
Black, Tara
Petrowski, Nicole

2009
Differentiating between substantiated, suspected, and unsubstantiated maltreatment in Canada

Trocmé, Nico
Knoke, Della
Fallon, Barbara
MacLaurin, Bruce

2009
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: