Ramirez1

Blanca Ramirez

English 1302-228

Professor Briones

1 February 2024

Child Protective Services

Bae, Hwa-ok, et al. "Effect of Child Protective Services System Factors on Child Maltreatment

Rereporting." Child welfare 89.3 (2010): 33-55. ProQuest. Web. 30 Jan. 2024.

CPS receives numerous reports of child maltreatment cases every year which they conduct

reports on. Additionally, CPS does not investigate all the cases they receive which results in

rereporting of neglect cases. This study shows to what extent CPS system factors are associated

with rereporting of child maltreatment. The system has five factors: reporting source, contact by

CPS workers, investigative level at intake, post-investigation services, and duration of CPS

involvement. This system is designed to identify victims of abuse to prevent the reoccurrence of

maltreatment, but the study shows that one-third of 1.4 million children in 9 states were

rereported and 17% of the victims were revictimized. CPS is failing many children who must

experience reoccurring abuse in homes that have already been reported previously. The system is

failing so many innocent lives.

Fong, Kelley. “Getting Eyes in the Home: Child Protective Services Investigations and State

Surveillance of Family Life.” American Sociological Review, vol. 85, no. 4, 2020, pp.

610–38. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/48595835. Accessed 31 Jan. 2024.

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CPS investigates millions of families a year, disproportionately poor families, and people

of color. Multiple visits to the home are useful in cases to help gather as much information and

evidence as needed to make sure the children are in a safe household. The data is collected upon

CPS visits, conversations, interviews with reporters, and interviews with investigated mothers.

The data is set from 37 cases investigated by CPS in Connecticut. It showed that parents who

have instability and people of color are often watched by CPS not from a distance but personally

with frequent home visits. Responses to child maltreatment fall back on the parents' behavior

rather than systematic injustices.

Font, Sarah A., Kierra M. P. Sattler, and Elizabeth Gershoff. "When Home is Still Unsafe: From

Family Reunification to Foster Care Reentry." Journal of Marriage and Family 80.5 (2018):

1333-43. ProQuest. Web. 30 Jan. 2024.

Foster care is a temporary home for children taken away from their families for various

reasons. The states focus their efforts on reuniting children in foster care with their birth family;

however, once returned home 1 in 5 children are put back in foster care within 5 years. One of

the main reasons for the removal of children is parental substance abuse and mental health

concerns. In 2016 more than a third of child removal from homes was influenced by parental

substance abuse. The study focused on children between the ages of 16 years and older who

exited foster care to reunite with their families within 3 years of entry. The study showed that

more than 16% of children reentered foster care and were more likely to have behavioral

problems. Children who were originally removed from home due to SAMH reentered foster care

totaling the number to 68% of the cases.

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Hirsch, Bomi Kim, et al. "Physically Hazardous Housing and Risk for Child Protective Services

Involvement." Child welfare 94.1 (2015): 87-104. ProQuest. Web. 30 Jan. 2024.

Child protective services investigate the quality and safety of homes to determine whether

the homes have hazardous conditions that may result in child neglect. For most of the

investigations, CPS targets families with low income which is important to determine hazardous

conditions which may result in child neglect but not physical abuse. Housing problems include

insect or rodent infestations, structural deficiencies, lack of utilities, etc. may be a threat to

children within the home. Moreover, parents who may have housing problems often accumulate

stress which may put a child in danger of physical abuse. For CPS to become involved in a case

they must have concerns about housing measures followed by an interview with the family. The

study showed that 7% of the sample families had been investigated by CPS more than one time.

Neglect-related investigations were 5%, physical abuse-related investigations were 4%, and 3%

already had an allegation against them after the interview.

Cummings, Caroline et al. “Coping and Work-Related Stress Reactions in Protective Services

Workers.” The British journal of social work 50.1 (2020): 62–80. Web.

The state relies on social workers to succeed in making sure children are safe in their homes

and are not at risk of any sort of abuse; however, has the state ever thought of how these cases

may mentally affect social workers? Most social workers experience secondary traumatic stress

(STS) and trauma from work-related stress in the many cases they have had to work on. 228

social workers completed a form on how they individually cope with the stress and strategies

they use. The study examined coping mechanisms that social workers use and their experience

and found it useful for workers to be able to sustain the cases they see every day which may
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result in heartbreak. It also showed that empathy reduced the likelihood of experiencing burnout

and STS. People forget that social workers are human, and nobody wants to see a child

experience abuse.

Farmer, G. L., et al. "Prevalence of Risk and Protective Factors for Homelessness among Youth

in Foster Care." Child welfare 99.1 (2021): 1-23. ProQuest. Web. 30 Jan. 2024.

Although many children are placed into permanent homes while being in foster care, many

are not. Every year about 18,000 children age out of foster care and must become independent

which leaves the youth at risk of homelessness. The study displays data that represents the

percentages of youth aging out of foster care who end up homeless. A study conducted by

Dworsky in 2013 found that 31 to 46 percent of foster children had been homeless at least once

by the age of 26. Foster kids that displayed a higher risk of homelessness had previously run

away, juvenile delinquent history, gender, ethnicity, and termination of parental rights. The

results of the study revealed that the largest group to be at a higher risk of homelessness was the

children who had a history of running away from home. Youth who have a record in the juvenile

justice system showed a similarly high rate of becoming homeless out of foster care.

Camasso, Michael J., and Radha Jagannathan. “Decision Making in Child Protective Services: A

Risky Business?” Risk analysis 33.9 (2013): 1636–1649. Web.

Child Protective Services is an organization that the community views as a safety net for

the maltreatment of children; however, that isn’t necessarily the case with CPS. Every year CPS

receives millions of reports for alleged child maltreatment but only a portion of the reports are

taken in for investigation. The study shows that in 2010 3.3 million child maltreatment reports
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were sent to CPS, but only 1.8 million of the cases were investigated which leaves 1.5 million

cases uninvestigated. Horrific stories of child abuse have been published due to the system

failing to take action to evacuate abused children from dangerous people whom they call family.

CPS uses risk assessments to make decision making among the cases they will take in for

investigation. Social workers use professional skills, knowledge, training, and technology to

decide which child needs more saving from abuse. Many children unfortunately die at the hands

of abusers because CPS found their case not as important as the others. Every child's life is

important.

Geoffrey D. Kahn, Holly C. Wilcox & Elizabeth A. Stuart (2024) Identifying Causal Risk

Factors for Self-Harm Among Adolescents With U.S. Child Protective Services Contact,

Archives of Suicide Research, 28:1, 173-183, DOI: 10.1080/13811118.2022.2150104

Many children who feel like they have it rough at a young age often side with self-harm to

make themselves feel better or some sort of satisfaction. In 2020 suicide was the second leading

cause of death in young adults between the ages of 10-24. The article displays the common risk

factors associated with self-harm in children, feelings of worthlessness, parental psychological

aggression, and an adult who supports and believes in them. The study conducted examined 881

children between the ages of 11-17 in the system. The results showed that children who have

adult encouragement and support are 42% less likely to do self-harm than if they had less support

95%. Adolescents who reported feelings of worthlessness were 73% more likely to do self-harm

than those who did not have that feeling. Parental psychological aggression had no clear

response and the ratio was close to 1. The article discussed the approach to prevent self-harm in

adolescents in CPS-involved youth.

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Font, S. A., Kennedy, R., & Littleton, T. (2023). Child protective services involvement and

exclusionary school discipline. Child Development, 94, 1625–

1641. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13941

Children often have a hard time adjusting when they are taken by CPS. Many of them have

higher odds of suspension compared to children who have no contact with CPS. However, the

study shows that many children before CPS were already on the pathway leading to suspension

before contact with CPS. This data determines that the bad behavior is not caused by system-

induced stress. From ages 5-6 and 14-15, 74% were white, 7% were black, 11% Hispanic, 8%

other, 49% female. Once inputted into foster care the odds of suspension decreased in white

children and children with special needs. However, it is concluded that children who were

maltreated and abused are more likely associated with rule-breaking and aggressive behavior at

home, at school, and with the law.

Fong, Kelley. “Concealment and Constraint: Child Protective Services Fears and Poor Mothers’

Institutional Engagement.” Social Forces, vol. 97, no. 4, 2019, pp. 1785–810. JSTOR,

https://www.jstor.org/stable/26732919. Accessed 31 Jan. 2024.

Child protective services target families with low income which they believe may have

hazardous conditions for the children living in the home. In this study, 83 mothers who had a low

income qualified for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and spoke English

were eligible for the study. The findings were that mothers with a low income were good

mothers and were committed to their children but always had a constant fear of CPS seeing

otherwise and taking away their children due to financial circumstances. CPS examines mothers

who withdrew from education. The study discusses mothers who worry about CPS that housing
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and material hardship, other stressors and adverse experiences, and harsh discipline of children

often attract CPS reports.