RE: Re[2]: Decline in Quebec incidence rate of CSA - Search for

["sbeeman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" <sbeeman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Andrea Sedlak mentioned the "burying" of sex abuse cases 
in the neglect category.  I suspect that there are 
also other types of maltreatment buried in the neglect 
category.  In a study that Jeff Edleson and I are 
conducting on the overlap of child maltreatment and 
violence against women,  we've found that workers sometimes 
"register" cases in the neglect category when a "non-legal" 
parent or adult caretaker is a perpetrator of physical 
abuse.  For example, if a mother's boyfriend physically 
abuses her child, the CP system will open the case as 
neglect--the mother's failure to protect.  This is another 
case where reliance on administrative data bases distorts 
the true nature of maltreatment.  In this case, I believe 
that in addition to legal constraints, the practice is 
based on the tradition of opening cases in the mother's 
name, no matter the perpetrator.  I'm wondering whether 
these types of cases are changed to physical child abuse 
in the NIS--as are the sex abuse cases that are filed as 
neglect?

Sandy Beeman
University of Minnesota School of Social Work

On Tue, 08 Jul 97 16:22:14 EDT,
CHILD-MALTREATMENT-RESEARCH-L@cornell.edu wrote...
>     There is one other issue that might be germane to 
this 
>discussion.  We 
>     have found that relying on electronic administrative 
>data systems to 
>     characterize maltreatment types is unreliable in 
>connection with 
>     sexual abuse when non-adult caretakers (nonparents) 
>are the involved 
>     perpetrators.  In those jurisdictions that do not 
>authorize CPS 
>     involvement for juvenile perpetrators, the case comes 
>into CPS under 
>     the "neglect" classification with the child's 
>parent/guardian as the 
>     'named' perpetrator (in order to permit the agency to 
>intervene).  
>     When we go into the case files on these cases, we see 
>they are sexual 
>     abuse and classify them as such in the NIS.  However, 
>the 
>     administrative data systems classify them only as 
>neglect cases.  If 
>     there have been any policy shifts about this 
>jurisdictional issue in 
>     recent years, official statistics may be "burying" 
>more (or less) sex 
>     abuse in the neglect category than they had 
>previously.
>     
>     Andrea Sedlak
>     Westat, Inc.
>     sedlaka1@westat.com
>     
>     


====================================================

Sandra Beeman, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
University of Minnesota School of Social Work
400 Ford Hall
224 Church St. SE
Minneapolis, MN  55455
voicemail: (612) 624-1080
e-mail: sbeeman@che2.che.umn.edu