Quality of Life

Child Abuse/Neglect

Key Takeaways

The rate of substantiated cases of abuse/neglect has increased in Dodge County. In Dodge County, the number of calls increased from 72.1 per 1,000 in 2017 to 95.1 in 2021. In Dodge County, the rate of substantiated cases of abuse/neglect also increased, from 5.5 substantiated cases per 1,000 in 2017 to 9.6 cases per 1,000 in 2021. Over the same time period, at the state level, the rate of substantiated cases remained fairly constant.

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A Look Into Child Abuse/Neglect

Meet Judge Thomas Klein

In 2022, Judge Thomas Klein was appointed to the County Court for Nebraska’s Sixth Judicial District, which includes Dodge, Burt, Cedar, Dakota, Dixon, Thurston, and Washington counties. A Creighton University Law School graduate, Judge Klein has over three decades of legal experience spanning criminal, juvenile, family, probate, and civil law. He serves as Lead Judge of the Through the Eyes of the Child initiative, a multidisciplinary network of local teams that work to improve systems processes. It creates a forum for local child welfare and juvenile justice stakeholders to collaborate with each other in their efforts to improve issues in their communities' juvenile court systems as well as communicate with other teams and stakeholders across the state to identify systemic barriers and work on solutions.

What's included in this data?

This figure provides information about the number of calls to the Nebraska child abuse/neglect hotline-- made when there is a concern about possible abuse/neglect-- and the number and rate of substantiated cases of child abuse and neglect for Dodge County. The figure also shows change over time, and provides a comparison to the state as a whole. Counts of hotline calls and counts of substantiated cases of child abuse and neglect are from the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services Division of Children and Families’ annual Child Abuse and Neglect Reports. County-level data is not published in these reports past 2021. In other words, 2021 is the most recent year for which Dodge County data is available. Rates of substantiated abuse/neglect are calculated by dividing the number of substantiated cases each year by the population under 18 years old, and multiplying by 1,000. Data on the population is from the US Census’ 2021 American Community Survey 5-year estimates.

The population data for this figure is systematically gathered from a sample of people to provide estimates for the entire community. 5-year estimates are used rather than 1-year estimates because they provide more reliable estimates. Although 5‑year estimates from the American Community Survey are more dependable than 1‑year estimates, they are still estimates — not exact counts. Every estimate comes with a margin of error, and that margin gets bigger when looking at smaller places. For example, the data for Fremont has a larger margin of error than the data for Dodge County or for the state of Nebraska. You can check the original American Community Survey table for details on the margin of error. In Focus on Fremont, where American Community Survey 5-year estimates are the primary data source, we only point out changes that are statistically significant (based on whether the differences are greater than the margins of error). Any other increases or decreases shown in the figures should be viewed with caution, since they may not represent real change.