The Decision to Substantiate Allegations of Child Maltreatment

2020 ◽  
pp. 173-193
Author(s):  
Sarah A. Font ◽  
Kathryn Maguire-Jack ◽  
Rebecca Dillard
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Child Maltreatment ◽  
Child Protective Services ◽  
Objective Assessment ◽  
The United States ◽  
Family Characteristics ◽  
Protective Services ◽  
Vulnerable Children ◽  
Representative Study ◽  
Nationally Representative

In the United States, the Child Protective Services system is responsible for investigating and responding to allegations of child abuse and neglect. At the conclusion of an investigation, caseworkers are expected to decide whether allegations are “substantiated” (demonstrated to be true) or not. How that decision is made—and whether it reflects an objective assessment of the evidence available—is widely debated. This chapter first presents an overview of the decision-making process and the implications of decision-making for vulnerable children and families. Next, it describes how rates of substantiation vary across and within states. The authors then present data from a nationally representative study of child protective services investigations on the factors associated with the decision to substantiate child maltreatment. They find that agency characteristics are predictive of substantiation, net of child and family characteristics. Overall, the authors conclude that substantiation is unlikely to be a valid indicator of the incidence of child maltreatment, and they discuss possible strategies for improving the consistency and utility of the substantiation decision.

scholarly journals What Happened Next

2016 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-169 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristine A. Campbell ◽  
Lenora M. Olson ◽  
Heather T. Keenan ◽  
Susan L. Morrow
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factors ◽  
Child Maltreatment ◽  
Child Protective Services ◽  
The United States ◽  
Policy Changes ◽  
Protective Services ◽  
Vulnerable Children ◽  
Home Placement ◽  
First Time ◽  
Future Practice

Child Protective Services (CPS) identifies over 700,000 victims of child maltreatment in the United States annually. Research shows that risk factors for these children may persist despite CPS intervention. Mothers have unique and often untapped perspectives on the experiences and consequences of CPS intervention that may inform future practice. We explored these perspectives through interviews with 24 mothers after a first-time CPS finding of maltreatment not resulting in out-of-home placement. Male partners were primary perpetrators in 21 cases, with mothers or sitters identified as perpetrators in remaining cases. Data were analyzed using grounded theory. Mothers described risk factors or Roots of maltreatment prior to CPS involvement and reported variable experiences with Recognition of and Response to maltreatment. Divergent Outcomes emerged: I Feel Stronger and We’re No Better. These findings provide an understanding of household experiences around child maltreatment that may support practice and policy changes to improve outcomes for vulnerable children.

scholarly journals Association of Housing Stress With Child Maltreatment: A Systematic Review

2020 ◽  
pp. 152483802093913
Author(s):  
Caroline E. Chandler ◽  
Anna E. Austin ◽  
Meghan E. Shanahan
Keyword(s):  
Child Maltreatment ◽  
Child Protective Services ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public Health Issue ◽  
Material Hardship ◽  
Protective Services ◽  
Stress Indicators ◽  
Effective Prevention ◽  
Established Risk Factor ◽  
Significant Public Health

Child maltreatment is a significant public health issue in the United States. Understanding key risk factors for child maltreatment is critical to informing effective prevention. Poverty is an established risk factor for child maltreatment. However, recent research indicates that material hardship (i.e., difficulties meeting basic needs) may serve as a more direct measure of the way in which poverty affects daily life. One form of material hardship that is common among families is housing stress. Previous reviews have summarized the existing literature regarding the association of economic insecurity with child maltreatment, but no reviews have synthesized and critically evaluated the literature specific to the association of various types of housing stress with child maltreatment. We conducted a systematic search of multiple electronic databases to identify peer-reviewed studies conducted in the U.S. regarding the association of housing stress with child maltreatment. We identified 21 articles that used nine distinct measures of housing stress including homelessness or eviction, homeless or emergency shelter stays, foreclosure filing, housing instability, inadequate housing, physical housing risk, living doubled-up, housing unaffordability, and composite housing stress indicators. Overall, results from this body of literature indicate that housing stress is associated with an increased likelihood of caregiver or child self-reported maltreatment, child protective services (CPS) reports, investigated and substantiated CPS reports, out-of-home placements, and maltreatment death. Additional theory-driven research is needed to further our understanding of the contribution of specific types of housing stress to risk for specific types of maltreatment.

Sibling Child Protective Services Involvement Following a Child Maltreatment Fatality

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-50
Author(s):  
McKenna Corlis ◽  
Amy Damashek ◽  
Kate Meister ◽  
Hilary Richardson ◽  
Barbara Bonner
Keyword(s):  
Child Maltreatment ◽  
Human Services ◽  
Child Death ◽  
The United States ◽  
Family Characteristics ◽  
Protective Services ◽  
Child Death Review ◽  
Number Of Children ◽  
Protective Service ◽  
Additional Support

Each year in the United States, approximately 1,720 children die from a child maltreatment fatality (CMF). Although many of these children are survived by siblings, few studies have examined the child protective service (CPS) involvement of these siblings. Objective: This study examined CPS involvement of children surviving the CMF of a sibling as well as predictors of subsequent CPS reports. Method: Department of Human Services and Child Death Review Board data about children who died from a CMF during 1993–2003 ( n = 416) and their siblings in the state of Oklahoma were used to examine CPS involvement and predictors of subsequent CPS reports for surviving siblings. Results: Surviving siblings of a victim of a CMF experienced substantial CPS involvement; 81% of the original victims had siblings who were subsequently reported to CPS ( n = 1,840). Original victim and family characteristics that predicted a greater rate of siblings’ subsequent reports to CPS included younger original victim age, greater number of children in the original victim’s home, and more previous reports of the original victim to CPS. Discussion: A large portion of families with a CMF struggle to adequately care for their surviving children. Such families may need additional support after a CMF.

The Development of Algorithmically Based Decision-Making Systems in Children’s Protective Services: Is Administrative Data Good Enough?

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 565-580 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Gillingham
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Big Data ◽  
Decision Support ◽  
Child Maltreatment ◽  
Decision Support Systems ◽  
Administrative Data ◽  
Research Data ◽  
Public Agencies ◽  
Protective Services ◽  
Vulnerable Children

Abstract Big data techniques are being used in children’s protective services to develop algorithmically based decision support systems (DSSs) to identify the most vulnerable children and introduce early and preventive services. These techniques use administrative data from multiple public agencies but are most reliant on data from children’s protective services. Using key principles from representation theory, and drawing from the author’s research, data from children’s protective services are considered in terms of the extent to which they represent and can be interpreted to provide a faithful representation of the phenomenon of child maltreatment. The aim is to address the question of whether children’s protective services data are good enough to develop accurate and practically useful DSS.

scholarly journals Child Maltreatment During COVID-19: Key Conclusions and Future Directions Based on a Systematic Literature Review

2021 ◽  
pp. 152483802110438
Author(s):  
Amitai Marmor ◽  
Noa Cohen ◽  
Carmit Katz
Keyword(s):  
Child Maltreatment ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Systematic Literature Review ◽  
Child Protective Services ◽  
The United States ◽  
International Studies ◽  
Protective Services ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
The Impact

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a far-ranging impact. As societies struggled to minimize infection, questions arose regarding the consequences for children. Initial research reported the urgent need for child protective services worldwide to adapt existing policies and practices to protect children from maltreatment during this time, which is the rationale for the current systematic literature review. This review examined studies published in peer-reviewed journals from March 2020 to October 2020 on child maltreatment (CM) in the context of COVID-19. Twenty-five manuscripts met the inclusion criteria and were predominantly from the United States, with three international studies. The majority of the studies included CM reports during COVID-19 based on official data. The results clearly demonstrated an increased risk for children alongside a worrisome international decrease in CM reports. Only two studies addressed interventions during the pandemic. The current review highlights that, along with the obligation of scholars to advance the protection of children during COVID-19, there is much that is unknown. Future studies should examine the impact of the pandemic on children and their surrounding systems as well as child protective services’ responses, which face enormous challenges during a pandemic. An additional conclusion is that, since children were not identified as a health risk group during the pandemic, their protection rights may have been jeopardized. Furthermore, the variance identified in the policies of different countries pinpoints the urgent need to establish an international protocol for protecting children from maltreatment during COVID-19, a protocol that will hopefully be a basis for policymakers worldwide.

Who Is and Is Not Served by Child Protective Services Systems? Implications for a Prevention Infrastructure to Reduce Child Maltreatment

2020 ◽  
Vol 692 (1) ◽  
pp. 182-202
Author(s):  
Kristen S. Slack ◽  
Lawrence M. Berger
Keyword(s):  
Child Welfare ◽  
Child Maltreatment ◽  
Child Protective Services ◽  
Child Welfare System ◽  
Community Response ◽  
Welfare System ◽  
Child Safety ◽  
Children And Families ◽  
Protective Services ◽  
Child Maltreatment Prevention

The majority of alleged abuse or neglect reports to the U.S. child welfare system are either screened out prior to an investigation (i.e., at the “hotline” stage) or investigated only to be closed with no finding of immediate child safety concerns. Yet while many of these children and families are at risk of subsequent incidents of child maltreatment or child welfare system involvement, they are not systematically offered services or benefits intended to reduce this risk at the point that child protective services (CPS) ends its involvement. This article provides an overview of the “front end” of the child welfare system, commonly referred to as CPS, highlighting which families are served and which are not. We then argue for a systematic and coordinated child maltreatment prevention infrastructure that incorporates elements of “community response” programs that several U.S. states have implemented in recent years. Such programs are focused on families that have been reported to, and sometimes investigated by, CPS, but no ongoing CPS case is opened. We further argue that such programs need to pay particular attention to economic issues that these families face.

Child Protective Services Guidelines for Substantiating Exposure to Domestic Violence as Maltreatment and Assigning Caregiver Responsibility: Policy Analysis and Recommendations

2021 ◽  
pp. 107755952110026
Author(s):  
Bryan G. Victor ◽  
Ashley N. Rousson ◽  
Colleen Henry ◽  
Haresh B. Dalvi ◽  
E. Susana Mariscal
Keyword(s):  
Domestic Violence ◽  
Child Welfare ◽  
Child Protective Services ◽  
Adult Survivors ◽  
The United States ◽  
Protective Services ◽  
Child Exposure ◽  
Exposure To Domestic Violence ◽  
Welfare Systems ◽  
Child Welfare Systems

The purpose of this study was to examine the range of policy approaches used by child welfare systems in the United States to guide workers in classifying and substantiating child exposure to domestic violence (CEDV) as an actionable form of maltreatment. To that end, we conducted a qualitative document analysis of child protective services (CPS) policy manuals from all state-administered child welfare systems in the U.S. ( N = 41). Our findings indicate that a majority of state-administered systems (71%) have adopted policy requiring workers to demonstrate that children have endured harm or the threat of harm before substantiating CEDV-related maltreatment. Many state systems (51%) also include policy directives that require workers to identify a primary aggressor during CPS investigations involving CEDV, while far fewer (37%) provide language that potentially exonerates survivors of domestic violence from being held accountable for failure to protect on the basis of their own victimization. Based on our findings and identification of policy exemplars, we offer a recommended set of quality policy indicators for states to consider in the formulation of their policy guidelines for substantiating children’s exposure to domestic violence that promotes the safety and wellbeing of both children and adult survivors of domestic violence.

Classroom Music Experiences of U.S. Elementary School Children

2014 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Miksza ◽  
Brent M. Gault
Keyword(s):  
Elementary School ◽  
School Children ◽  
Students Of Color ◽  
Elementary School Children ◽  
Underserved Populations ◽  
The United States ◽  
Music Instruction ◽  
School Year ◽  
Representative Study ◽  
Nationally Representative

The primary purpose of this study was to describe the music experiences elementary school children in the United States receive in the academic classroom setting. The data were drawn from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study of the Kindergarten Class of 1998–1999 (ECLS-K), a nationally representative study that followed kindergarteners through to their eighth-grade school year with the last data collection wave in 2006–2007. The variables pertaining to music experiences in the academic classroom that were available in the ECLS-K were (a) the frequency and duration with which children received music instruction, (b) the frequency that music was used to teach math, and (c) the percentage of children receiving formal music instruction outside of school. Each of these variables also was analyzed as a function of child urbanicity, socioeconomic status (SES), and race. Statistically significant ( p < .001) disparities among children based on urbanicity, SES, and race were found on each of the music experience variables. Overall, White suburban students of high levels of SES tended to receive significantly more music experiences than students of color from urban and rural settings and of low SES. The findings support the need to advocate for high-quality music programs for all students and particularly for those from traditionally underserved populations.

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