Institute of Statistics presents updated child abuse profile

By John McPhaul

jpmcphaul@gmail.com

Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics Executive Director Orville Disdier presented on Thursday the “Puerto Rico Child Abuse Profile: Interactive Report 2018-2022,” which consists of a new digital platform through which the institute’s statistics related to child abuse are organized and summarized, based on secondary data provided by various local agencies and by the federal government.

Available statistics include the number of abused minors per year, the rates of abuse, the geographic distribution of abuse, the distribution and magnitude of the types of abuse, the relationship of the perpetrator to the abused minor, and a comparison of Puerto Rico with other U.S. jurisdictions.

“Child abuse is a serious social problem that negatively affects the health and physical, mental and emotional integrity of children and young people under 18 years of age,” Disdier said in a written statement. “To eradicate this problem, it is essential to have complete and accessible statistics that serve as a guide for evidence-based prevention and promotion programs. Specifically, this new profile provides the necessary information and statistics to start implementing solutions.”

Disdier noted that the profile not only fills an information gap that has existed since the previous publication, which dates from 2015, but now the report is a digital and interactive one, in which the user can select between various years, categories and variables, and can even download data for further analysis.

“These new data suggest that, in general terms, more than 5,000 minors are abused annually and that currently the abuse rate can be estimated at 10 abused minors for every 1,000 minors under 18 years of age residing in Puerto Rico,” Disdier said.