At a glance, it looks like there might be an inverse correlation between population and reported child abuse cases? Many states with tiny under-18 populations like Maine, Alaska, and Montana rank in the top 10.

There are plenty of outliers in both directions (like New York) but I wonder what might inform a trend like that.

Maine's high number is certainly a cause for concern. I think u/DifferenceMore5431's point is that there seems to be some odd geographical outliers in this data - New York and New Jersey have a massive gap in reported child abuse rates, even though those states are relatively similar in demographics. With that in mind, this might have to do with differing legal definitions of child abuse, or the relative funding and/or willingness of state governments to prosecute those cases.