NCJ Number
130041
Journal
Child Welfare Volume: 70 Issue: 3 Dated: (May-June 1991) Pages: 359-370
Date Published
1991
Length
12 pages
Annotation
Lay citizens and protective service workers were interviewed in rural and urban communities to determine how community context influences reporting and outcomes of investigations into child neglect.
Abstract
The two instruments developed for the study consisted of the same 30 case studies. The lay citizens were asked how likely they would be in each case to report the described incident as neglect, while the protective services workers were asked whether they would substantiate neglect in the cases and how they thought the cases would be disposed. The findings indicate that, while citizens of both rural and urban communities view neglect in essentially the same ways, there was more disagreement between professional service workers, indicating that local norms and mores were not reflected in decisionmaking processes. The professionals cited different norms as well as different worker characteristics and caseloads as factors influencing the discongruence. The authors recommend the development of standard criteria to determine whether child neglect exists. 1 table and 18 references (Author abstract modified)