Trends in Child Abuse Reporting

Abstract

The United States relies on the Child Protective Service (CPS) system to protect children from abuse and neglect. Local CPS agencies, typically divisions or units within county child welfare departments, receive reports about children who may have been maltreated or may be in danger of abuse or neglect, decide whether the situation requires a response and, if so, provide the type of response that is required. The foundation of this system is reporting—reporting is supposed to bring maltreated children to the attention of CPS, and CPS is supposed to issue an appropriate response to the report. This chapter examines trends in CPS reporting, considering the existing evidence that maltreated children are reported and receive CPS attention. It begins with a brief overview of the history and current status of mandatory reporting laws and of the types of CPS responses to reports. The discussion then turns to the challenges involved in studying mandatory reporting and the limitations of the existing evidence. The three sections that follow summarize the relevant research findings: one on reports CPS receives and how CPS deals with these reports; another on the maltreated children mandated reporters encounter, whether these children receive CPS investigation, and why they may not; and the third section on the mandated reporters—who doesn’t report and why not. The chapter ends with conclusions and implications for future research.