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

maltreated but who are not investigated by CPS. These agencies may have overlappingor even conflicting responsibilities concerning certain situations, such as feloniousassault, homicide, delinquency, dependency, domestic violence, those formerly called“children in need of control,” or nutrition and hygiene problems. Children may remain atthis second level because of questions of definition or disputes concerning the appropriateresponsibilities of these different agencies in relation to CPS. Although children in thissecond level are in some sense “officially known,” the community does not necessarilyregard them as abused or neglected in the same sense as children in the first level, andthey do not necessarily receive assistance that specifically targets their abuse or neglectproblems.The third level includes abused and neglected children who are notinvestigated by CPS and who are not recognized as maltreated at any agency in thesecond level but who are known to professionals in other major community institutions,such as schools, hospitals, mental health agencies, day care centers, shelters, publichousing agencies, and other social services agencies. Children may remain at this levelbecause the professional who recognized their maltreatment did not report it for anynumber of reasons. One reason may be definitional ambiguities as to what types of casesthey should report to CPS or to other investigatory agencies. Other reasons relate to theattitudes and assumptions of the professionals who are aware of these situations. Forexample, they may feel that they are in the best position to help, may not trust CPS tohandle the problem appropriately, may fear the loss of trust from their client, or may haveapprehensions about becoming involved in an official investigation. Children can alsoremain at this level (or other levels “below the waterline”) when the professional whorecognized their maltreatment did report them, but CPS declined to accept their cases forinvestigation. As with nonreporting, there are multiple possible reasons for screen-outs.A child’s case may not meet the agency’s criteria for investigating (e.g., the maltreatmentmay not be in the CPS agency’s jurisdiction or sufficiently serious to warrant aninvestigation). Another possibility is that the professional did not provide sufficientinformation to CPS to enable an investigation or to meet the threshold for investigation.At the fourth level, someone outside of the purview of the first three levelsrecognizes the abused and neglected children as maltreated, such as a neighbor, anothermember of the family, or one or both of the involved parties—the perpetrator and thechild victim. However, no one at this level has disclosed the maltreatment to anyone inthe first three levels. Here again, it is possible that individuals in this fourth level did2–3