NCJ Number
183756
Date Published
1997
Length
15 pages
Annotation
Lessons learned from recent child protection policy development in the United States are reviewed with respect to the incidence of child abuse and treatment and prevention programs.
Abstract
The author believes that the child protection system in the United States continues to struggle and that a more effective response to the problem of child abuse is needed. A universal and generally accepted child protection policy should be formulated for each form of child maltreatment. Several problems are inherent in the failure to adopt a coherent child protection policy: (1) individual members of multidisciplinary professional teams, community agencies, and government agencies may act differently if their aim is prosecution rather than protection; (2) without a policy, assessing the success of an intervention effort is impossible; and (3) individuals who want to "solve" the child abuse problem often respond with "knee jerk" legislation. Other lessons learned deal with the importance of leadership at the national level and the absence of an effective program of research and evaluation at the national, state, and local levels that is so necessary to promote an effective child protection system. An appendix contains a proposed national child protection policy. 9 references and 1 table