Providing an estimate of the recurrence of child maltreatment poses numerous conceptual, methodological and technical challenges. What constitutes child maltreatment and how to measure frequency will affect estimates, which will ultimately influence what preventive services are offered, notably in youth protection. In turn, the services must be documented and their effectiveness assessed, which presents more challenges. For example, let us consider the "performance" indicators, the rate of recurrence, the average length of time devoted to intervention and the rate of discontinued services. The aim of this article is to pause and reflect on how to interpret numbers in youth protection, which will reveal the urgency to establish reliable indicators in addressing the phenomenon of child maltreatment and practices. Suggestions include courses of action to adopt in order to improve our understanding, knowledge and monitoring of child maltreatment.