Fathers and father figures are responsible for most child fatalities from physical abuse; mothers are held responsible in more cases of neglect abuse, including "failure to protect" from father abuse
"Fatality" statistics do not include the higher numbers of children subject to serious, sometimes permanent injuries from physical and sexual abuse. Fathers and father figures overwhelmingly are the perpetrators of sexual abuse. Statistics and discussion can be found at http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/05/child-maltreat/report.pdf and http://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/factsheets/fatality.pdf and http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/pubs/cm07/cm07.pdf and http://www.thelizlibrary.org/liz/statistics.html
In 2007, nearly 80 percent of perpetrators of child maltreatment (79.9%) were parents. Of the perpetrators who were parents, nearly 90 percent (87.7%) were the biological parent of the victim. 61.3% of those cases CPS investigated resulted in a finding of "unsubstantiated". This does not mean "false". It means "we just didn't have enough evidence". Some states have a third category of "indicated" which means "we think there was abuse but we don't have the evidence". In states that do not have this category, many cases of actual abuse end up falling into the "unsubstantiated" or "invalid" category. In some states, CPS investigators are actively discouraged from using the category (if it's available) of "inconclusive" and encouraged instead to close these investigations with findings of "unsubstantiated" or "invalid", both of which are words that connote something more definitive than "can't say for sure; not enough evidence either way".
31.9% of all victims of maltreatment were younger than 4 years old. 48.2 percent of all victims were boys and 51.5 percent were girls.
Neglect was 59% of all types of abuse. It includes (some variations by state) such things as educational neglect and truancy, failure to protect the child from harm by others, medical and dental neglect.
56.5 percent of the perpetrators of all types of abuse were women, and 42.4 percent were men. Disproportionalities in demographic statistics (among other things) hints about how this overweights abuse by mothers, especially poor mothers (as does including "neglect" -- failure to act, failure to protect -- in with physical abuse). For example, 45.4 percent of all victims were "white", but only 36.4 percent of medical neglect victims were "white". 21.4 percent of all victims were African American, but 35.3 percent of medical neglect victims were African American. By contrast, 51.5% of sexual abuse victims were "white", while 45.4 percent of all victims (of all types of neglect and abuse) were "white". Similarly, the statistics do not differentiate out how many instances of perpetrator abuse were affirmative physical abuse by fathers and other men, coupled with a simultaneous charge of neglect laid against the victim's mother.
25.5% of victims were living with uncoupled single mothers, while 40% were living with both parents. 34.5% of victims were living with uncoupled single fathers, and/or a "parent and other adult" and/or third parties.
CPS substantiations of sexual abuse declined 53 percent and of physical abuse 48 percent from 1992 through 2006. Researchers are purportedly perplexed as to why. Their hypotheses are illogical and ignore that many states do not provide perpetrator data where they do not "substantiate" reports. They also ignore the fatherhood exaltation propaganda over these years inasmuch as numbers of actual victims have increased. That is because the same federal agency responsible for putting out child maltreatment reports also has had marching orders since 1994-5 to increase nonresident father involvement.
