Criminal investigations in child protective services cases: an empirical analysis

Predictors of Prosecutorial Decisions in Reports of Child Sexual Abuse

A retrospective examination of 500 child sexual abuse reports to prosecutor's offices analyzed case progress and predictors of attrition, including details about alleged perpetrator(s), victim(s), their families, and other case characteristics. Less than one in five cases proceeded to prosecution. For the full sample, we describe all outcomes and differentiate prosecutors' decisions to (a) intake/close, (b) investigate/close, or (c) prosecute; these stages comprise a 3-level dependent variable. Because it is important to understand which variables are associated with progress to each stage, we examined unique predictors of the decision to "investigate," and to "prosecute." Our multivariate analyses examine 325 cases with a perpetrator aged 16 and older. Caregiver support and perpetrator age were significant predictors across all outcome variables, while other factors were barriers to the "prosecute" decision only. Results highlight the complexities of case characteristics that are important at different stages of prosecutorial decision-making and inform future interventions.

The Centrality of Child Maltreatment to Criminology

Despite sufficient evidence to conclude that maltreatment exposure affects the risk of crime and delinquency, we conclude that the unique effects of child maltreatment on crime and delinquency, and the mechanisms through which those effects operate, remain poorly identified. Key challenges include insufficient attention to the overlap of child maltreatment with various forms of family dysfunction and adversity and a lack of comprehensive measurement of the multiple, often comorbid, forms of child maltreatment. We then consider potential impacts of the child welfare system on the maltreatment-crime link. Because the child welfare system typically provides voluntary, short-term services of unknown quality, it likely neither increases nor reduces risks of delinquency and crime for most children who encounter it. For the comparatively small subset of children experiencing foster care, impacts on delinquency and crime likely vary by the quality of environments within and after their time in care - issues that, to date, have received too little attention.

Foster Care: How We Can, and Should, Do More for Maltreated Children

Foster care provides round-the-clock substitute care for nearly 700,000 U.S. children who are temporarily or permanently separated from their family of origin each year. Each state manages its own foster care system according to federal regulations. Despite numerous large-scale federal policy reforms over the past several decades, substantial concerns remain about the experiences and outcomes of children in the foster care system. The most recent effort to reform foster care, the Family First Prevention Services Act of 2018, attempts to both reduce the use of foster care and increase the quality of care. In this report, we review how policy has shaped the experiences and outcomes of children in foster care, where policy has succeeded, and where it falls short of achieving its goals. We then identify opportunities for federal and state policy to better support the safety, health, and well-being of children in foster care.