THE STRUCTURE AND PERFORMANCE OF CHILD-ABUSE REPORTING SYSTEMS

In recent years, serious questions have been raised about the performa nce of state child abuse reporting systems. These systems have come un der increasing criticism as some say that too many unnecessary reports and investigations are being made, while others charge that many seri ous cases of abuse are never reported. This study provides a descripti on of the different approaches to the design and operation of reportin g systems throughout the country, examines the relation between variat ions in system design and performance measures, and analyzes the assoc iation among performance variables. The major findings indicate system design characteristics do not account for variance in reporting and s ubstantiation rates; there is an inverse relationship between investig ation and substantiation rates, and state poverty rates are a stronger predictor of child fatality rates than reporting system performance m easures. The implications of these findings are discussed.