NCJ Number
228909
Journal
Child Abuse and Neglect Volume: 33 Issue: 11 Dated: November 2009 Pages: 809-814
Date Published
November 2009
Length
6 pages
Annotation
This commentary presents examples of several countries' child maltreatment data collection system efforts.
Abstract
The 10 data system examples presented in this commentary (Australia, Belgium, Canada, England, New Zealand, the United States, Lebanon, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, and Germany) give some sense of the range of developmental stage, capacity, and comprehensiveness of coverage of the systems. The Germany example also illustrates a situation where social and political constraints may slow or prevent the development of a system, despite the recognition of child maltreatment as an important concern. Six of the 10 systems are maintained within the social service sector. It is recommended that in the future general improvements such as the implementation of standard instruments for assessment, case definition, and documentation be addressed more effectively by systems to improve the validity and usefulness of data aggregated on a national level. A national sector specific child maltreatment data collection system is defined as one that is based on information recorded as part of an intervention addressing child maltreatment. With child maltreatment responses seen as multifaceted, data can be collected in the context of any number of sectors, but most often these are social, health, and judicial services. This commentary addresses country surveillance systems drawn from the experience of professionals engaged in developing, implementing, and analyzing sector specific response data regarding child maltreatment. The examples presented are meant to be a self-selected scan, with a commitment to the improvement of the data collection picture globally and representative of the regions of the world. References