Child Protection in the United States: An Examination of Mandated Reporting of Child Maltreatment

Abstract

Child protection is one of the key indicators of a society’s health. In the U.S. all states have enacted laws which require certain professionals who regularly come into contact with children to report suspected maltreatment. Passage of these laws has resulted in an unprecedented increase in the number of reports of child maltreatment made to U.S. child protective services (CPS), yet this increase has not been systematically studied to determine whether this increase in reports is actually reducing the incidence of child maltreatment. This paper describes and compares the reporting practices of four mandated reporting groups in the U.S. over a 3-year period. Data from the National Child Abuse and Neglect Dataset (NCANDS) were analyzed. NCANDS is a national database created by the US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) of reports of maltreatment made to child protective services agencies (CPS) in the US. Results indicate that each reporter group has a somewhat unique profile of reports and responses from the child protection agencies to which they report. Significant differences were found related to the type of maltreatment reported and the rate of report substantiation by CPS. While some differences can be easily explained, others require more research and have broad implications for the professional education and training of mandated reporters.