Hj. Doueck et al., DECISION-MAKING IN CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES - A COMPARISON OF SELECTED RISK-ASSESSMENT SYSTEMS, Child welfare, 72(5), 1993, pp. 441-452
The use of structured risk-assessment systems by child protective serv
ices has increased dramatically during the past ten years. Versions of
the Illinois CANTS 17B, the Washington Assessment of Risk Matrix, and
the Child at Risk Field System have been put into use in some form in
23 states [Berkowitz 19911. Despite this widespread acceptance, workl
oad pressures, uncertain reliability and validity of the instruments,
and the need for a knowledgeable and well-trained casework staff have
limited the models' usefulness once implemented.