"I've been doing this work for 20 years, and Whanganui has one of the strongest networks around family violence that I've been involved in," Ms Logan said.
She said said family violence and child abuse was often a learned behaviour.
"The main [driver of abuse] we see... is having grown up in families where they've witnessed violence or been abused as children themselves."
Ms Logan said interlinked factors - drug and alcohol abuse, poverty and unemployment - were often interlinked but not causes of abuse, and were more likely to also be symptoms of trauma.
Justice Minister Amy Adams and Social Development Minister Anne Tolley recently announced "sweeping reforms" to combat the "horrific" rates of family violence and abuse in New Zealand.
"Young people exposed to family violence... are four times more likely to commit sexual violence against a partner... three times more likely to attempt suicide, and 57 per cent leave school without a qualification," Minister Adams said.
The Government said family violence figures were likely five times higher than reported.
Child, Youth and Family's chief social worker Paul Nixon said it was difficult to definitively say abuse had fallen, despite falling numbers of substantiated abuse recorded by the agency.
"I don't think we know yet... We have to watch the trends over time.
"Child, Youth and Family's focus is not on whether particular numbers go up or down; it is on whether we are making the right decisions when we get notifications."
Mr Nixon said the 17,000 fewer cases nationwide requiring CYFs action over the last four years - a 28 per cent decrease - were picked up by other agencies.
"That's exactly what's happening, and that was the strategy, to get more [external] agencies involved earlier in the lives of these children."
Nationally, CYFs found 16,394 cases of substantiated child abuse or neglect in the June 2016 year - 45 each day. Around 8500 cases were emotional abuse, 3600 cases of neglect, 3100 cases of physical abuse and 1200 cases of sexual abuse.
The total figure dropped each year since the 22,984 cases in 2013.
Amanda Meynell, national manager of a child abuse prevention charity Child Matters, said while there were many dedicated efforts to reduce abuse, it's difficult to draw strong conclusions from the data due to the unknown extent of unreported cases.
"While we're talking about the tip of the iceberg, actually that's 16,000 children who have suffered at the hands of people who are supposed to love and care for them," Ms Meynell said.
