In recent years, major progress has been made in combating child abuse. Between 1963 and 1999, the number of children reported as suspected victims of child abuse and neglect rose from about 150,000 children to more than 3 million children, a 20-fold increase. Although some of this increase reflects an increase in the amount of child maltreatment in our society, most experts believe that the vast bulk of additional reports is the result of better identification on the part of professionals and laypersons. As a result, many thousands of children have been saved from death and serious injury. The best estimate is that child abuse and neglect deaths fell from over 3,000 a year (and perhaps as many as 5,000) in the late 1960s to about 1,200 a year in the late 1990s.
Yet, many children continue to fall through the cracks. According to federal government studies, professionals such as physicians, teachers, and day care personnel still fail to report large numbers of the maltreated children they see.
Simply generating more and more reports, however, is not the answer. In recent years, the problem of nonreporting has been compounded by the problem of inappropriate reporting. In 1998, about 65 percent of all reports were labeled "unfounded" after being investigated. (This is in sharp contrast to 1975, when the comparable figure was about 35 percent.) Although rules, procedures, and even terminology vary (some states use the phrase "unfounded", others "unsubstantiated" or "not indicated"), in essence, an "unfounded" report is one that is dismissed after an investigation finds insufficient evidence upon which to proceed.
Some professionals defend the high level of unfounded reports as the necessary price for identifying endangered children. However, the determination that a report is unfounded can be made only after what is often a traumatic investigation and, inherently, a breach of parental and family privacy. Besides being unfair to the children and parents involved, inappropriate reporting places an unnecessary burden on already overwhelmed child protective agencies--and threatens to undermine public support for their efforts. For example, over 40 percent of the child abuse deaths between 1995 and 1997 involved children previously known to the authorities. Tens of thousands of other children suffer serious injuries short of death while under child protective agency supervision.
Better--and more accurate--reporting depends on continuing public and professional education efforts. Child-serving professionals--including teachers, doctors, nurses, social workers, day care workers, police, and others--need to be much better informed about what to report, and what not to report. That is why I wrote Recognizing Child Abuse: A Guide for the Concerned. In an easy-to-consult format, it was designed to help both professionals and laypersons recognize and report all forms of suspected child maltreatment.
The book has chapters on: reporting obligations, liability for failing to report, protections for those who report, sources of suspicion, physical abuse, sexual abuse, physical neglect, endangerment and abandonment, psychological maltreatment, parents with severe mental disabilities, interviewing parents, preserving evidence, emergencies, making a report, monitoring investigations, and being prepared, as well as chapters for parents who fear that their child may be abused or who have been reported.
Recognizing Child Abuse describes the most common reasons for reports and the evidence most frequently available to support them. It also shows agencies how to develop screening practices that help prevent the investigation of inappropriate reports, describes interviewing and other information-gathering techniques, and lays out the steps people should take after reporting. Finally, the book provides advice for parents, foster parents, and other child caretakers who suspect that their children may have been abused, who fear that they themselves may hurt their children, or who have been reported for suspected child maltreatment. Mark Battle, former executive director of the National Association of Social Workers, describes the book as a "nuts-and-bolts manual for the people who must make life-and-death decisions."
