NCJ Number
145115
Journal
Child Welfare Volume: 72 Issue: 5 Dated: (September-October 1993) Pages: 441-452
Date Published
1993
Length
12 pages
Annotation
During the past 10 years, the use of risk-assessment models by child protective services for the purpose of assessing the potential for mistreatment of children has risen dramatically--but not without problems.
Abstract
Research indicates that workload pressures, uncertainty of reliability and validity, and lack of adequately trained staff have limited the models' usefulness. Implementation of such models usually calls for structural change which basically has not happened--that is, protective services units in most states have remained incident-focused, but in order to maximize the use of risk-assessment models, they need to incorporate the theory and philosophy of the models into relevant state laws and administrative policies and procedures. Otherwise, they become an additional burden to staff. All three models reviewed in this article--Illinois CANTS 17B, Washington Assessment of Risk Matrix (WARM), and Child at Risk Field System (CARFS)--require a staff knowledgeable in human growth and development, parenting practices, the causes and effects of mistreatment, and family dynamics. Each is found to have particular usefulnesses: CANTS 17B for providing systematic guidelines for decisionmaking; WARM for planning services, especially in lower-risk cases; and CARFS for drawing connections between final risk ratings and certain caseworker activities. However, the full realization of these potential benefits has yet to happen. 42 references