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Little is known about the similarities and differences between civilian and military child maltreatment cases and no recent study has compared them directly. Understanding the nature of the problems in each could lead to identifying strengths and weaknesses for the development of more helpful prevention and treatment programs. The overall rates of child maltreatment in the U.S. civilian population (14.7 to 11.8 per 1,000) were about double the Army rates (7.6 to 6.0 per 1,000) from 1995 to 1999. These differences were largely because of the higher rate of neglect in the U.S. data—about three times that of the Army—and may be because of factors that are largely controlled in the Army such as poverty, severe substance abuse, homelessness, and other social variables. For 1999 only, we examined the type of maltreatment by age and sex, the victim rates by race/ethnicity, and the relationship of perpetrator to victim.

Debate continues about the accuracy of military suicide reporting due to concerns that some suicides may be classified as accidents to minimize stigma and ensure survivor benefits. We systematically reviewed records for 998 active duty Army deaths (510 suicides; 488 accident, homicide and undetermined deaths; 2005-2009) and, using research criteria, reclassified 8.2% of the non-suicide cases to definite suicide (1), suicide probable (4), or suicide possible (35). The reclassification rate to definite suicide was only 0.2% (1/488). This low rate suggests that flagrant misclassification of Army deaths is uncommon and surveillance reports likely reflect the "true" population of Army suicides.