According to the disquieting findings of a study published online in the journal Pediatrics on October 1, the last ten years or so have witnessed a countrywide increase in the rates of crime against children, with serious injuries from child abuse on the rise.

With increasing incidents of child abuse, the findings of the study revealed that abuse-related serious injuries - like burn injuries and head traumas - are being reported for over 6 out of every 100,000 US kids below 18 years of age. The figures underscore that the rate of these grave child abuse-related injuries has undergone a 4.9 percent increase during the period from between 1997 and 2009.

However, since the findings of the study are an alarming contradiction of earlier reports about a 55 percent plunge in the reports of serious child abuse during 1997-2009, researchers are of the opinion that child-abuse figures are often a result of flawed collection mechanism from child welfare agencies instead of an actual fall in the frequency of crimes against children.

Moreover, studies carried out by child protective service agencies generally include all cases of physical abuse, irrespective of age or severity.

Commenting on the findings pertaining to rise in serious injuries from child abuse, Prof. John Leventhal - director of the Child Abuse Programs at Yale-New Haven Children's Hospital - said in a press release: "These results highlight the challenges of helping parents do better by their children and the importance of effective prevention programs to reduce serious abusive injuries in young children."