Child placement and criminal prosecution: A study of the relationship between criminal justice and protective service interventions in cases of child abuse

Child abuse is one of the most complex problems facing our society today. In 1998, nearly 3 million reports of child abuse and neglect were received by child protection agencies in the United States. During that same year, 144,000 maltreated children were removed from their homes.; Research on systemic interventions in child abuse cases has focused primarily on the behavior of only one agency. Little research has been conducted on the simultaneous responses of more than one system to the same reports of abuse.; When an incident of intrafamilial or caretaker child abuse is reported, both the criminal justice and child protection systems respond. Although removal of the child from the home is based on the findings of the protective service investigation, the actions of the criminal justice system may influence the perceived need for placement. Alternatively, child placement may impact the potential for successful case prosecution.; The purpose of this study was to determine if a relationship exists between the protective services placement decision and the criminal justice prosecution decision in cases of child abuse. Systems theory and complexity theory provided the conceptual framework for the study. The Suffolk County District Attorney's Office and Massachusetts Department of Social Service were the data sources for the study. Multivariate analyses (two logistic regressions) were employed to test for an association between child placement and case prosecution.; The study did not find a direct relationship between the child removal and cases prosecution decisions. However, the study did reveal evidence that, for a subset of cases, the interventions of the criminal justice system can help to keep abused children in their home. In addition, an intervening variable, neglect, was found to be an important link between the child placement and case prosecution decisions.; This study provides information that can assist criminal justice and protective service professionals in their assessment of agency policies and practices. The findings help to identify limitations in policy that are influencing the ability of the criminal justice and child protection systems to collaborate in cases of child abuse.