Combating ‘disinformation’ about child abuse

Combating ‘disinformation’ about child abuse

Child abuse and neglect, also called “child maltreatment,” too often endanger the health, well-being and even lives of children. How do we solve this problem? Two professors at the Brown School offer advice in a new book titled, “After the Cradle Falls: What Child Abuse Is, How We Respond To It, And What You Can Do About it.”

1 in 3 children investigated for abuse/neglect by 18

The first academic study to estimate the cumulative lifetime risk of a child mistreatment investigation, completed by researchers at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, reveals that prior to their 18th birthday, 37 percent of U.S. children are the subject of an investigated child maltreatment report.

Reasons other than racism factor into disproportionality in child abuse reporting

Black children are involved in reported cases of child abuse at approximately twice the rate of white children. Until now, this has generally been attributed to racial bias in the child welfare system. But in a new study published in the journal Pediatrics, F. Brett Drake, PhD, professor at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, finds that much, if not most, of the overrepresentation of black children in maltreatment reporting is due to increased exposure to risk factors such as poverty.

New Injury Control Research Center at Washington University in St. Louis

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has designated the Center for Violence and Injury Prevention (CVIP) at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis as one of its newest Injury Control Research Centers (ICRC). Preventing child maltreatment, intimate partner violence, sexual violence, suicide and related injuries through community-based research and educational outreach is the goal of the Brown Center for Violence and Injury Prevention. The center is led by Melissa Jonson-Reid, Ph.D., associate professor at the Brown School. John Constantino, M.D., the Blanche F. Ittleson Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at the Washington University School of Medicine, serves as co-director.

Nov. 19th is World Child Abuse Prevention Day

“Maltreatment in childhood is a global issue,” says Melissa Jonson-Reid, Ph.D., a child welfare expert and a professor of social work at Washington University in St. Louis. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, in the U.S. there are about 3 million reports of abuse or neglect each year, and about 60 percent of such reports are deemed to meet states’ criteria for investigation or assessment. Jonson-Reid offers ways to get involved in protecting children from mistreatment.

Scathing critiques of mandated reporting laws, Child Protective Services have ‘little basis in reality,’ say child welfare services experts

Studying Child Protective Services’ effectivenessEfforts to improve Child Protective Services (CPS) would be more effective if they were based on evaluations of available data instead of assertions that are not supported by evidence, say two child welfare services experts. “While there is no doubt that the current child welfare system has flaws, we can find little empirical data supporting the scathing critiques of mandated reporting laws and CPS. We now have enough empirical evidence to scientifically evaluate many longstanding criticisms of CPS, and many of those criticisms appear to be without basis in reality,” write Brett Drake, Ph.D., and Melissa Jonson-Reid, Ph.D., in an article titled “A Response to Melton Based on the Best Available Data,” published in the current issue of the international journal Child Abuse & Neglect. More…