Child Abuse: Preventive and Reactive Interventions

Child Protective Services Investigate reports of child maltreatment Provide Treatment Services Coordinate services offered by other agencies Implement Preventive services

Mandated Reporters Certain Professionals must report SUSPECTED cases of child maltreatment Reports must be made immediately upon suspicion of abuse For nonprofessionals, reports can be made anonymously Created in 1975 and takes over 105,000 calls per year

Types of Child/Neglect Calls Allegation of abuse (excludes spanking in reasonable manner) or neglect to a child victim; The child victim must be under age 18 at the time of the call; The abuse/neglect must have been inflicted or caused by a person exercising care, custody, and control (parent, adult relative, teacher, day care provider, etc.) over the child; and Sufficient identifying information (names, addresses, etc.) to locate the family and to begin an investigation or assessment.

Some Previous Problems with Missouri Reporting Inconsistent/incomplete information taken by hotline staff Busy signals during peak telephone times: Previously, the hotline answered on average less than 50% of calls offered and gave several thousand busy signals each month.

Improvements In December 2003 a standardized protocol was implemented in order to make the calls more consistent and to assist with categorizing and triaging calls A call management system was added in 2004 in order to assist with busy signals. By June 2004, the hotline answered 96% of calls offered and gave only 157 busy signals

Competing issues for CPS Child Safety Family Reunification

Characteristics of Child Fatalities 25% result from physical abuse 36% result from child neglect 31% died from multiple forms of maltreatment Leading cause of death is head injury 85% are under 6 years of age with 44% under the age of 1

Out of Home Care By the early 1990s, more than 400,000 children were placed in out of home care with the majority in foster care Predictors of foster care –Prior maltreatment –Younger than 4 years of age –Forms of abuse other than child sexual abuse Research is inconclusive about whether out of home placements result in more beneficial outcomes