Re: Maltreatment Rate as an Outcome Indicator

["Greg Tooman" <GREG@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At the American Humane Association, we've been using administrative data to look at recurrance of maltreatment as a measure of safety and permanency outcomes.  An article worth looking at is in Child Abuse and Neglect, Vol 23, Num 7 (1999) by Fluke, Yuan & Edwards.  There is a good review of the advantages and complications of measuring recurrance in administrative data as well as an analysis of data from the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS).  

Bottom line on this and other studies (like Marshall and English, 1999, in Child Maltreatment) is that there are higher recurrence rates for children with prior preports, as well as shorter times to recurrence with each successive report.  Neglect recurrence rates are higher than abuse which are higher than sexual abuse.  Interestingly, the provision of post-investigative services increases the liklihood of recurrence, suggesting that rates are influenced by increased vigilance on the part of CWS.  Unfortunately, articles like these point out that without adequate baselines, it is difficult to understand the relationship between risk and recurrence.  The other often-pointed-to observation is that there appears to be a core group of "unservicable" families out there, who simply don't respond to treatment.  This high-risk group drives the effects mentioned above.

Gregory Tooman, M.A.
Research Analyst 
Children's Services
American Humane Association