Peter Lyons

Child Maltreatment and the Justice System: Predictors of Court Involvement

Objectives: Characteristics of the child victim, perpetrator, and maltreatment incident were used to examine predictors of court involvement in cases of serious child maltreatment. Method: Cases were drawn from those reported to: child protective services (n = 225), sheriffs office ( n = 225), prosecutors office ( n = 60), and dependency court ( n = 65). Logistic regression was used to calculate predicted probabilities of criminal court involvement and dependency court involvement Results: Cases involving female victims were more likely to be filed in criminal court, and sexual abuse had the highest likelihood of prosecution. Cases involving male perpetrators, older perpetrators, and multiple victims were more likely to be filed for prosecution. Physical neglect was the most common type of maltreatment to result in dependency court filings. Perpetrator gender had opposite effects in the two systems. Conclusion: Tracking cases even in the same jurisdiction is confounded by the lack of common identifiers across the agencies involved.

Social Work Education and Public Child Welfare: A Review of the Peer-Reviewed Literature on Title IV-E Funded Programs

Collaboration between public child welfare agencies and social work education is not a new strategy. The relationship was kindled in the 1909 White House Conference and enshrined in Title IV-E support for social work education for public child welfare workers (Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980). Federal support for the preparation of social workers in the field of child welfare can be traced as far back as 1935 with the inception of the Child Welfare Provisions of the Social Security Act (Zlotnik, 2002). Although IV-E program evaluation research remains small, the contributions of existing studies have added to the field. This review highlights those contributions and accentuates the need to improve research efforts in terms of designs rigor, including sample size, power, effect size, instrumentation, analyses, and outcomes. In addition, it underscores the need to move forward in connecting outcomes to families and children by focusing on safety, permanence, and well-being.

Data Management System Selection in a Family Service Agency

This case study examines how a medium-sized, nonprofit family service agency in Atlanta, Ga., used social work knowledge and skills in the selection of a data management system. The problem-solving model was used as a practical and conceptual framework. Using a social work approach to system selection helped harness agency strengths and involved representatives from all levels of the system. Determining available vendor resources and relationships with other system purchasers, and defining the contract very clearly were all keys to success. In addition, the recognition that selection of a new data management system is an organizational change, a technical upheaval, and a major purchase that requires active senior management support were all important lessons.

Child Well-Being Scales as a Predictor of Casework Activity and Services in Child Protection

This study examined the use of the Child Well-Being Scales (CWBS) as an aid to structured decision making in a child protection agency in Ontario, Canada. A total of 337 closed case records from a large multi-service agency in Ontario, Canada, were reviewed and abstracted by trained coders in order to determine whether or not the scales, completed by intake workers, were predictive of the subsequent decisions and activities of family service workers. Using regression models to control for demographic, case, family, community, and organizational variables results indicated that lower CWBS scores, implying increased threats to well being, were associated with greater activity and more services.

Capitalizing Capitol Capital: Child Welfare Policy Advocacy:

This article presents an example of collaborative policy advocacy intended to overcome obstacles to effective policy development. A multidisciplinary coalition, focusing on a state child protective services agency, aimed to improve caseworker pay and conditions, improve education and training, gain financial compensation and status recognition for degrees in social work, and reduce caseload sizes to recommended standards. The means to achieve these goals were (a) harnessing the energy generated by a crisis (the death of a child); (b) maximizing social and symbolic capital; (c) coalescing around a set of specific proposals; (d) shaping the story “frame” in the media by countering bad publicity with consistent, targeted communication; (e) capitalizing on bad press for politicians; and (f) strategic use of ridicule. Following the advocacy effort, increased funding to support recommended changes was attained.