Child abuse experts have feared a harsh downside of the pandemic lockdown has been an increased rate of child abuse cases in the US. Although reports have shown a drop of 40% in abuse reports during 2020, childhood experts believe this is because teachers, who make up a fifth of all reports, did not have access to these students while schools were closed. Many times, rates will increase after stressful life events and the pandemic was stressful for everyone. Because these reports do not exist there is no way to confirm if the pandemic shut down has increased child abuse rates even though some doctors and hotlines have shared worrying stories. This map shows which states in the US have had the highest rates of reported child abuse cases in 2020. The top five states and their rates are as follows:
- Maine: 1,904.4
- Alaska: 1,797.1
- West Virginia: 1,716.7
- Massachusetts: 1,680.0
- Kentucky: 1,671.6
