Understanding the Neighbourhood and Community Factors Associated with Child Maltreatment

Abstract

This chapter highlights how population-based studies are essential to inform the provision of universal and secondary prevention programs to reduce maltreatment. Prevention strategies based on a public health model should integrate an inequalities perspective that identifies the complex factors which contribute to the over-representation of child abuse and neglect in particular groups. This approach is exemplified through a summary of UK-based research that used child protection data in combination with population and economic data to detail major disparities in child maltreatment reflected in high rates of substantiated maltreatment in impoverished communities. The research both underlines the potential benefits of population level study and illustrates the complexities involved. These arguments are then linked to recent work, mainly undertaken in the USA, examining patterns of neighbourhood and community factors that are associated with different types of maltreatment.