Fourth National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and Neglect (NIS–4)

As Chapter 7 described (§7.1.1), the strategy for assigning recognitionsources uses a hierarchy (shown by their ordering in the figure) and defines mutuallyexclusive categories, allocating each child to the first applicable source in the listing.Similar to the approach in Figure 8–2, the absolute size of a bar in this figure reflects thetotal number of children per 1,000 who experienced Harm Standard maltreatment andwere recognized by the source in question. The percentage displayed next to the label foreach recognition source indicates the portion of the bar that is on the left side of thegraph, reflecting the percentage of children from that recognition source whom CPSinvestigated.The first three recognition sources in this figure (juvenile probation,police/sheriff, and public health) are investigatory agencies. Taken together, CPSinvestigated 48% of the children recognized as maltreated by staff in these investigatoryagencies. Within this group, CPS investigated more than one-half (53%) of the childrenrecognized by law enforcement, whereas investigation rates were lower for childrenrecognized by staff in juvenile probation and public health departments (42% and 26%respectively).CPS investigated only 21% of the children identified by sentinels in noninvestigatoryagencies (hospitals, schools, day care centers, mental health agencies,voluntary social service agencies, shelters, and public housing). In general, the agenciesin this group recognized the greatest proportion of Harm Standard maltreated children,and this group also had the vast majority of those who did not receive a CPSinvestigation. Social service agencies had the highest rate of CPS investigation (91%).Public housing, a new category in the NIS–4, ranked second with CPSinvestigating 68% of the Harm Standard countable children they recognized. However,this source recognized a considerably smaller number of countable children compared toother agencies, as evidenced by the almost indiscernible size of its bar in the figure.Among the children recognized by mental health agencies, 43% received officialattention from CPS for their maltreatment. Hospitals ranked fourth in this category withCPS investigating slightly more than one-fourth of the maltreated children theyrecognized (27%). Children recognized by school personnel were comparatively unlikelyto receive CPS attention for their Harm Standard maltreatment. Although schools rankedas the predominant contributor to the recognition of children whose maltreatment fit theHarm Standard, CPS investigated only a small minority of these children (16%). Finally,8–11