Children's Protective Services and Law Enforcement: Fostering Partnerships in Investigations of Child Abuse

Abstract

Although collaboration in child abuse investigations has been emphasized since 1974, barriers, including role conflicts and organizational differences, have often been reported. This study describes the process of collaboration based on the perceptions of investigators working with a Child Advocacy Center. Telephone interviews were conducted with 290 child protective service workers and law enforcement officers from 28 child advocacy centers in 20 different states. Respondents identified barriers to the process of collaboration such as conflicts over case control and facilitators including co-housing and cross-training. Conditions that should contribute to successful collaboration are discussed.

Working Together to Understand Why Infants Die: A Qualitative Study of Professionals' Experiences of Joint Agency Investigation of Sudden Unexpected Death in Infancy

“…Similar to our findings, research concerning multiagency working in child protection has highlighted the importance of information sharing and coordination between services, particularly across boundaries (Newman and Dannenfelser, ; Sidebotham et al ., ). Glennie () identified that effective multiagency working requires professionals to understand each other's roles and have skills enabling collaboration and respectful attitudes towards each other.…”

Criminal Investigations in Child Protective Services Cases

“…Some communities conduct cross-training in which police and CPS professional learn about each others' jobs, and some colocate police and CPS in the same office to promote coordination. In Newman and Dannenfelser's (2005) survey, law enforcement and CPS respondents reported that CACs, cross-training, and colocation promoted collaboration.…”

Case Study of a Child and Youth Advocacy Centre (CYAC) in a Canadian City

“…Newman and Dannenfelser 2005 (Newman & Dannenfelser, 2005). The overwhelming majority of studies which discuss tensions in collaboration also reported that respondents had positive attitudes towards their collaborative relationships and a willingness to suggest and work towards addressing the barriers (Cross et al, 2005;Horwath & Morrison, 2007;Newman & Dannenfelser, 2005), a finding which was also found in this study.…”

“…Differing Mandates, Agendas & Goals Differing mandates, agendas and goals have been identified as one of the most critical barriers that collaborative teams face (Newman & Dannenfelser, 2005). Newman and Dannenfelser (2005) found that the participants of their study held very different perspectives on this. For example, child protection services (CPS) were focused on the safety and well-being of the child, and often needed to respond to cases more quickly.…”

“…Law enforcement and CPS investigations were not often conducted in synchrony which sometimes led to a lack of communication between the two agencies (Garret, 2004;Newman & Dannenfelser, 2005;Stanley, Miller, Foster & Thomson, 2011). The lack of communication between law enforcement and CPS sometimes meant that families were not referred to additional services in a timely manner, or at all (see Beatrice, 1990;Cross, Finkelhor & Ormrod, 2005;Garret, 2004;Horwath & Morrison, 2007;Newman & Dannenfelser, 2005;Stanley et al, 2011). Today, law enforcement and CPS are still both mandated to protect children from harm (Tonmyr & Gonzalez, 2015).…”