Chapter 2
Reports
Child Maltreatment 2002
Each week, child protective services (CPS) agencies in the United States receive more than 50,000 referrals alleging that children have been abused or neglected. Some of these referrals lie outside the responsibility of the CPS agency and may be referred to other agencies. Other referrals do not have sufficient information to enable followup. For these and other reasons, including the workload of the agency, approximately one-third of referrals are screened out and do not receive further attention from CPS. The remaining two-thirds of referrals are screened in as reports to CPS agencies because they meet the States' policies for conducting an investigation or assessment.
Once a report is accepted, the agency determines whether or not the child was maltreated or is at risk of maltreatment. The agency may initiate an investigation of the alleged incident, or it may pursue an alternative response, which has the goal of determining which services are the most appropriate.1 Regardless of whether an agency uses an investigation or an alternative response approach for a specific report, it must decide if further action is necessary to protect the child.
This chapter presents statistics on the screening of referrals and the investigation or assessment of reports. Of the referrals that were screened in, data are provided on the sources of reports, the CPS response time, and the dispositions or findings of these investigations.
Screening of Referrals
During 2002, an estimated total of 2.6 million referrals, including 4.5 million children, were made to CPS agencies. The national rate was 35.9 referrals per 1,000 children for 2002 compared to 36.6 referrals per 1,000 children for 2001.2
CPS agencies screened in 67.1 percent of referrals and screened out 32.9 percent.3 These results were almost identical to last year's report, which indicated 67.3 percent were screened in and 32.7 percent were screened out.
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Report Sources
Professionals submitted more than one-half (56.5%) of the reports (figure 2-1). "Professional" indicates that the report source came into contact with the alleged victim as part of the reporter's occupation. State laws require most professionals to notify CPS agencies of suspected maltreatment. The categories of professionals include educators, legal and law enforcement personnel, social services personnel, medical personnel, mental health personnel, child daycare providers, and foster care providers. The three most common sources of reports in 2002 were from professionals educational personnel (16.1%), legal or law enforcement personnel (15.7%), and social services personnel (12.6%).4
Nonprofessional report sources submitted the remaining 43.6 percent of reports. These included parents, other relatives, friends and neighbors, alleged victims, alleged perpetrators, anonymous callers, and "other" sources. Anonymous (9.6%), "other" sources (9.0%) and other relatives (8.0%) accounted for the largest groups of nonprofessional reporters.
Based on data from 38 States for a 5-year timeframe, the percentage of reports made by nonprofessionals decreased from 47.4 percent in 1998 to 43.4 percent in 2002, with an accompanying increase in professional reporters from 52.6 percent to 56.6 percent.5
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Response Time from Report to Investigation or Assessment
Most States have time standards for initiating the investigation or assessment of reports and monitor whether these commence within the required time standards. While some States have one timeframe for responding to all screened-in referrals, many States establish priorities. Of the States that establish priorities, many specify a high-priority response as within 1 hour or within 24 hours. Lower-priority responses range from 24 hours to 14 days.6
Because the CPS agencies receive reports of varying degrees of urgency, average response times reflect the types of reports that are received, as well as the ability of workers to meet the time standards. Based on data from 23 States, the average response time from report to investigation was 52 hours.7 A comparison of data from the 17 States that reported average response times for 2001 and 2002 showed an average response time of 55 hours for 2001 and 52 hours for 2002.
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Investigated Reports
CPS agencies assign a findingalso called a dispositionto a report after the circumstances are investigated or assessed and a determination is made as to the likelihood that maltreatment occurred or that the child is at risk of maltreatment. Each State establishes specific dispositions and terminology. States crosswalk or "map" State-specific terms to standard terminology used by the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS). The major NCANDS disposition categories are described below.
- Alternative Response Victim: A conclusion that the child was identified as a victim when a response other than investigation was provided.
- Alternative Response Nonvictim: A conclusion that the child was not a victim of maltreatment when a response other than investigation was provided.
- Indicated: An investigation disposition that concludes that maltreatment cannot be substantiated under State law or policy, but there was reason to suspect that the child may have been maltreated or was at risk of maltreatment. This is applicable only to States that distinguish between substantiated and indicated dispositions.
- Substantiated: A type of investigation disposition that concludes that the allegation of maltreatment or risk of maltreatment was supported or founded by State law or State policy. This is the highest level of finding by a State agency.
- Unsubstantiated: A type of investigation disposition that determines that there is not sufficient evidence under State law to conclude or suspect that the child has been maltreated or is at risk of being maltreated.
More than one-quarter of investigations or assessments resulted in a disposition of substantiated (26.8%), indicated (3.5%), or alternative response victim (0.1%), meaning that at least one child involved in each of these investigations or assessments was found to be a victim. More than one-half (60.4%) of investigations or assessments led to a finding that the alleged child maltreatment was unsubstantiated.8
An analysis of the data from 45 States indicates that for the past 5 years, the number and percentage of reports with substantiated dispositions have remained relatively constant.9 However, the number and percentage of reports with unsubstantiated dispositions have been increasing slightly since 2000. In 2000, 56.7 percent of reports were unsubstantiated (932,080 reports in 45 States) and in 2002, 60.5 percent (1,024,588 reports in 45 States). The apparent increase in reporting alternative response nonvictims since 1998 is related to the number of States that submitted data. For 1998 and 1999, only two States submitted alternative response data. In 2000, nine States submitted data for alternative response nonvictim.
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Disposition by Report Source
Case-level data enable the variation in dispositions by report source to be examined.10 Based on nearly 2 million reports, key findings include the following.
- Nearly one-quarter (24.6%) of substantiated reports were referred by legal, law enforcement or justice personnel.
- Four groups of reporters accounted for more than one-half of all unsubstantiated reportseducational personnel (17.1%); social services personnel (12.4%); anonymous reporters (11.9%); and legal, law enforcement, or justice personnel (11.0%).
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CPS Workforce and Workload
In most large jurisdictions and among many local agencies the functions of screening and investigation are conducted by different workers. In rural and smaller agencies, one worker may perform both functions. Using data from both types of agenciesthose that differentiate and those that do notan average workload was computed.
Data from those States that reported significant numbers of specialized workers for intake, screening, investigation, and assessment were used to estimate the number of cases that were handled by CPS workers.11 The number of screening and intake workers (1,888 or 12.8%) compared to the number of investigation and assessment workers (12,837 or 87.2%) were reported by 27 States. Based on these 27 States, the average number of investigations or assessments per investigation or assessment worker was 76 per year. It is important to note that these calculations did not consider other activities of these workers and that some workers conducted more than one function.
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Supplementary Tables
The following pages contain the tables referenced in Chapter 2. Unless otherwise explained, a blank indicates that the State did not submit usable data. Specific information about State submissions can be found in Appendix D.
Chapter Two: Figures and Tables
Notes
1 The term
assessment also is used. Throughout this report, the term
investigation or assessment is used to include investigations,
assessments, or alternative responses, unless a specific approach
is being discussed. back
2 Unless otherwise
specified, all rates refer to children younger than 18 years old in
the national population. back
3 See
supplementary table 2-1, which is located at the end of this chapter.
Based on data from 39 States, the national rate of referrals is
35.9 referrals per 1,000 children. A referral can include more than
one child. Multiplying this rate by the national population of
72,894,483, results in an estimated 2,617,000 referrals in 2002.
The estimate was then rounded to 2,600,000. Of these, approximately
861,000 were screened out and 1,800,000 were screened in. back
4 See table 2-2. back
5 While the
percentage of reports by nonprofessionals has continued to decrease
over the last 5 years, in 2001 and 2002, nonprofessionals made more
reports than they did in 2000. See table
2-3. back
6 U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services. Administration for Children and
Families/Children's Bureau and Office of the Assistant Secretary
for Planning and Evaluation. National Study of Child Protective
Services Systems and Reform Efforts: Review of State CPS
Policy. (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing office,
2003). This document is also available at http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/cps-status03/state-policy03/index.htm.
back
7 See table 2-4. back
8 See table 2-5. back
9 See table 2-6. back
10 See table 2-7. back
11 See table 2-8. back
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