To prevent the recurrence of child maltreatment, actuarial risk assessment can help child protective services (CPS) workers make more accurate and consistent decisions. However, there are few published articles describing construction methodologies and performance criteria to evaluate how well...

All too often, child protective workers fail to identify domestic violence, thus, endangering both child and adult family members. A potential solution is engaging men who abuse in assessing and managing their own risk to family members. This was the aim of a psycho-educational fathering program...

The concepts of risk and safety are central to social work practice with survivors of violence against women. Little is known, however, about the interaction between child protection workers and the women with whom they are working, in terms of their understanding of these concepts or how...

The extant literature suggests that youth present in both child welfare and juvenile justice systems (dual-status) represent a unique subset of young offenders. Sparse attention has been given to the predictive validity of risk assessment measures with this uniquely vulnerable subpopulation. The...

Though considerable research has examined the validity of risk assessment tools in predicting adverse outcomes in justice-involved adolescents, the extent to which risk assessments are translated into risk management strategies and, importantly, the association between this link and adverse...

This paper explores risk assessment and management in relation to children and families experiencing domestic violence; in particular, the communication and collaboration between child protection services, the police and independent domestic violence services. Four key themes structure our...

Risk assessments allow child and youth services to identify children who are at risk for maltreatment (e.g., abuse, neglect) and help determine the restrictiveness of placements or need for services among youth entering a child welfare system. Despite the use of instruments by many agencies...

ORBA is a method that aims to improve decision making about suspected child maltreatment in Advice and Reporting Centres of Child Abuse and Neglect (ARCCAN). It structures the process of judging and deciding and makes it explicit by distinguishing separate steps, and by identifying the necessary...

This study utilizes population-level birth data to describe those children who may be at greatest risk of maltreatment during the first five years of life. Based on a unique dataset constructed by linking California's administrative child welfare data to statewide vital birth records, a cohort...

This article examines how child welfare workers from three countries assess risk to a child in the context of different risk assessment tools, child welfare systems and welfare regimes. Previous research suggests that there are distinct differences between child protection-oriented child welfare...