On the nature and scope of reported child maltreatment in high-income countries: opportunities for improving the evidence base

Abstract

Although high-income countries share and value the goal of protecting children from harm, national data on child maltreatment and the involvement of social services, the judiciary and health services remain relatively scarce. To explore potential reasons for this, a number of high-income countries across the world (Belgium, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, South Korea, Switzerland and the United States) were compared. Amongst other aspects, the impact of service orientation (child protection-vs-family-services-orientated), the complexity of systems, and the role of social work as a lead profession in child welfare are discussed. Special consideration is given to indigenous and minority populations. The call for high-income countries to collect national data on child maltreatment is to promote research to better understand the risks to children. Its remit ranges well beyond these issues and reflects a major gap in a critical resource to increase prevention and intervention in these complex social situations. Fortunately, initiatives to close this gap are increasing.

On the incidence and prevalence of child maltreatment: a research agenda

“…While there is a solid body of research on measuring child maltreatment prevalence through self-report surveys, far less attention has been paid to studying incidents of child maltreatment known to agencies (cf. [ 24 ]). However, a few countries, such as the United States, New Zealand, and the Netherlands, have collected data on how their service agencies are responding to child maltreatment, mainly using two distinct data collection strategies: professional surveys and/or administrative data extraction (cf.…”

“…Only more professional surveys will increase the relevant knowledge to identify gaps in service provision, to improve preventive efforts and increase opportunities for early intervention ([ 3 ], p. 3). If an evidence-base is lacking, initiatives to improve services for maltreated children are likely to not correspond with needs and rely on distorting factors such as media coverage or political sensibilities (e.g., [ 24 ]). These circumstances might be ones that have contributed to the ‘neglect of neglect’.…”

Mobilizing agencies for incidence surveys on child maltreatment: successful participation in Switzerland and lessons learned

“…There is widespread agreement that in order to make progress in the prevention and reduction of child maltreatment it is important for policy-makers and administrators to have information on its scope and characteristics [ 1 ]. The worldwide number of efforts to nationally collect administrative data on agencies’ knowledge of child maltreatment is, however, rare [ 1 – 3 ]. Countries’ instable financial situations are not the only contributor to blame as also many high-income countries lack a system of child maltreatment surveillance [ 3 ].…”

“…The worldwide number of efforts to nationally collect administrative data on agencies’ knowledge of child maltreatment is, however, rare [ 1 – 3 ]. Countries’ instable financial situations are not the only contributor to blame as also many high-income countries lack a system of child maltreatment surveillance [ 3 ]. In many continental European countries, for example, there is no mandate for organizations in the child protection system to investigate and substantiate allegations of child maltreatment.…”

“…Another reason for lacking data are complex, federally organized child protection systems. Jud et al [ 3 ] discuss reasons for lacking child maltreatment surveillance in high-income countries in detail. Anyhow, with lacking information on who enters the child protection systems, policy-makers and administrators do lack information about how to best allocate scarce resources to the ones most in need, change practices in assessment and intervention, train professionals, and reorganize systems for better responses [ 1 ].…”