NCJ Number
184357
Journal
Social Service Review Volume: 73 Issue: 2 Dated: June 1999 Pages: 218-239
Editor(s)
Michael R. Sosin
Date Published
June 1999
Length
22 pages
Annotation
This article reports on the analysis of the patterns and the frequency of recurrences of substantiated instances of maltreatment in an urban child welfare system.
Abstract
To obtain a complete picture of recurrence patterns, families identified in an earlier research project funded by the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect were followed for 5 years from their first 1988 report confirmed by a public child protective service (CPS) agency. Recurrence was defined as any confirmed report of physical abuse, sexual abuse, or neglect of any child in the family that occurred at least 1 day following the index incident report date. Sampling involved two phases: (1) sampling from the population of substantiated CPS reports in 1988 following a set of inclusion and exclusion criteria; and (2) applying a second set of exclusionary criteria to a select group of CPS families to follow with respect to recurrences. Results of survival analysis indicated that risk of recurrence was greatest during the 30 days following a report, that risk declined with time and remained relatively low for 2 years following the termination of services, and that recurrence depended on the type of maltreatment. Most recurrence families experienced only one recurrence, but a clustering effect was apparent for families that experienced multiple recurrences. 55 notes, 6 tables, and 5 figures