REPORTING OF CHILD MALTREATMENT - A SECONDARY ANALYSIS OF THE NATIONAL INCIDENCE SURVEYS

Reports to CPS agencies of child maltreatment cases come from a variet y of community sources. Which kinds of cases are underreported, overre ported, or not reported at all, and why? We address these questions by examining the discrepancies between cases known to CPS agencies and t hose known to professionals who regularly come into contact with child ren: teachers, hospital personnel, law enforcement officers, court per sonnel, and social service workers. The analysis is based on the 1980 and 1986 National Study of the Incidence and Prevalence of Child Abuse and Neglect. Our research yielded three major findings. First, older victims were less likely than younger victims to be known to CPS agenc ies. Second, there is a hierarchy of type of abuse reported to CPS age ncies, with sexual abuse being at the top of the list and educational neglect at the bottom of the list. Third, the victims' race, sex, and income did not play a role in whether or not a case was reported to CP S agencies.