NCJ Number
226255
Journal
Child Maltreatment Volume: 14 Issue: 1 Dated: February 2009 Pages: 17-26
Date Published
February 2009
Length
10 pages
Annotation
Children and families investigated for child maltreatment were examined to determine rates of recidivism.
Abstract
Results demonstrated that future child risk was similar for both substantiated and unsubstantiated cases. Such results clearly call into question the utility of current substantiation classification for practice and policy needs. This suggests that it is time to leave substantiation behind; services decisions should be decoupled from the idea of substantiation. Data on all cases that are not clearly erroneous or malicious should be retained to inform future worker decisions. Decisions regarding court involvement and central registry are not well served by the current substantiation label, and could benefit from new categorizations tailored specifically for those purposes. Results from this study inform child welfare policy and practice in several important ways. Although recidivism risk classified as substantiated re-report is greater for substantiated cases in the bivariate analysis, even this risk is assuaged once the effect of other case characteristics is accounted for. Furthermore, recidivism risk does not vary by child age or by child maltreatment type; higher rates of recidivism do occur for children living in poverty and for children with developmental problems. Data were collected from National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW) a longitudinal national probability study of children and families investigated for child maltreatment between November 1999 and December 2000. Tables, figures, and references