Abstract
The primary goal of child welfare is “to protect children from harm.” In order to fulfill this goal the child protective services use assessments of risk as an essential part of service. Historically, assessment of risk and investigation are what workers use to determine the likelihood of maltreatment. Therefore, the assessment of risk is a key aspect of child protective agencies. In this chapter, the history, goal, issues, and implementation of formal risk assessments in child protective services will be discussed.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Broadhurst, K., Hall, C., Wastell, D., White, S., & Pithouse, A. (2010). Risk, instrumentalism and the humane project in social work: Identifying the informal logics of risk management in children’s statutory services. British Journal of Social Work, 40(4), 1046–1064. doi:10.1093/bjsw/bcq011.
Camasso, M. J., & Jagannathan, R. (2012). Decision making in child protective services: A risky business? Risk Analysis, 33(9), 1636–1649.
Children’s Bureau, Office of Child Abuse and Neglect, & DePanfilis, D. (2006). Child neglect: A guide for prevention, assessment and intervention. http://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/usermanuals/neglect/index.cfm. Accessed June 22, 2013.
Coohey, C., Johnson, K., Renner, L. M., & Easton, S. D. (2013). Actuarial risk assessment in child protective services: Construction methodology and performance criteria. Children and Youth Services Review, 35(1), 151–161. doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2012.09.020.
D’andrade, A., Austin, M. J., & Benton, A. (2008). Risk and safety assessment in child welfare. Journal of Evidence-Based Social Work, 5(1–2), 31–56. doi:10.1300/J394v05n01_03.
Darlington, Y., Healy, K., & Feeney, J. A. (2010). Approaches to assessment and intervention across four types of child and family welfare services. Children and Youth Services Review, 32(3), 356–364. doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2009.10.005.
Dorsey, S., Mustillo, S. A., Farmer, E. M. Z., & Elbogen, E. (2008). Caseworker assessments of risk for recurrent maltreatment: Association with case-specific risk factors and re-reports. Child Abuse & Neglect, 32, 377–391.
Gambrill, E., & Shlonsky, A. (2000). Risk assessment in context. Children and Youth Services Review, 22(11/12), 813–837.
Hughes, R. C., & Rycusa, J. S. (2006). Issues in risk assessment in child protective services. Journal of Public Child Welfare, 1(1), 85–116.
Jones, B., & Beecroft, E. (2008). The impacts of actuarial risk assessment on child protective services in Virginia. Office of Research: Virginia Department of Social Services.
Kirk, R. S. (2008). Development and field-testing of a family assessment scale for use in child welfare practice settings utilizing Differential Response. Protecting Children, 23(1–2), 71–88.
Lee, S. J., Sobeck, J. L., Djelaj, V., & Agius, E. (2013). When practice and policy collide: Child welfare workers’ perceptions of investigation processes. Children and Youth Services Review, 35(4), 634–641. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2013.01.004.
Littlechild, B., & Hawley, C. (2009). Risk assessments for mental health users: Ethical, valid, and reliable? Journal of Social Work, 10(2), 211–229. doi:10.1177/1468017309342191.
Mennen, F. E., Kim, K., Sang, J., & Trickett, P. K. (2010). Child neglect: Definition and identification of youth’s experiences in official reports of maltreatment. Child Abuse & Neglect, 34(9), 647–658. doi:10.1016/j.chiabu.2010.02.007.
Morgan, J. (2007). “Giving up the culture of blame”: Risk assessment and risk management in psychiatric practice’, briefing document to Royal College of Psychiatrists. London: Royal College of Psychiatrists.
Munro, E. (2008). Assessing risks throughout the life of a child welfare case. In D. Lindsey & A. Shlonsky (Eds.), Child welfare research: Advances for practice & policy (pp. ADD). New York: Oxford.
Neglect. (n. d.) West's Encyclopedia of American Law, edition 2. (2008). http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/neglect. Accessed June 18, 2013.
Pecora, P. J., Whittaker, J. K., Maluccio, A. N., Barth, R. P., DePanfilis, D., & Plotnick, R. D. (2010). The child welfare challenge: Policy, practice and research (3rd ed.). New Brunswick: Transaction.
Risk. (n. d.). In Merriam-Webster Dictionary online. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/risk. Accessed June 18, 2013.
Safety. (n. d.). In Merriam-Webster Dictionary online. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/safety. Accessed June 18, 2013.
Schwalbe, C. S. (2008). Strengthening the integration of actuarial risk assessment judgment in an evidence based practice framework. Children and Youth Services Review, 30, 1458–1464. doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2007.11.021.
Shlonsky, A., & Wagner, D. (2005). The next step: Integrating actuarial risk assessment and clinical judgment into an evidence-based practice framework in CPS case management. Children and Youth Services Review, 27(4), 409–427. doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2004.11.007.
Sledjeski, E. M., Dierker, L. C., Brigham, R., & Breslin, E. (2008). The use of risk assessment to predict recurrent maltreatment: A classification and regression tree analysis (CART). Society for Prevention Research, 9, 28–37. doi:10.1007/s11121-007-0079-0.
US Department of Health and Human Services. (2003). The child abuse and prevention treatment including adoption opportunities and the abandoned infants assistance act as amended by the keeping children and families safe act of 2003. Administration for Children and Families, Administration of Children Youth and Families. Children’s Bureau, Office of Child Abuse and Neglect.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Additional Resources
Additional Resources
Evaluation Methodology: Child Protection
http://www.aifs.gov.au/cfca/bibliographies/evaluationchildprotect.php
Consensus Based Model
http://seedsforchange.org.uk/consensus
Hartnett’s Consensus Oriented Decision making Model
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Holosko, M., Ojo, J. (2015). Risk Assessment: Issues and Implementation in Child Protective Services. In: Wodarski, J., Holosko, M., Feit, M. (eds) Evidence-Informed Assessment and Practice in Child Welfare. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12045-4_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12045-4_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-12044-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-12045-4
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawSocial Sciences (R0)