IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/cysrev/v31y2009i3p422-427.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Is the overrepresentation of the poor in child welfare caseloads due to bias or need?

Author

Listed:
  • Jonson-Reid, Melissa
  • Drake, Brett
  • Kohl, Patricia L.

Abstract

One hanging question in child welfare policy and research is whether there is an artificial overrepresentation of the poor in child welfare caseloads or whether this reflects the co-occurrence of poverty and need. In order to address this question, this study uses data from child welfare (report, assessment, service and re-report), income maintenance, special education, hospitals, juvenile court, public mental health treatment, and census data. Poor children reported to child welfare are compared to non-poor children reported to child welfare and also to poor children not reported to child welfare. Poor children reported for maltreatment had greater risk factors at the parent and neighborhood levels and higher rates of negative outcomes than children in either comparison group. Among children reported for maltreatment, poor children have worse outcomes, both within child welfare (e.g., recurrence) and outside of child welfare (e.g. juvenile court, hospitalization for violence) than non-poor children. These data suggest that the overrepresentation of poor children is driven largely by the presence of increased risk among the poor children that come to the attention of child welfare rather than high levels of systemic class bias.

Suggested Citation

  • Jonson-Reid, Melissa & Drake, Brett & Kohl, Patricia L., 2009. "Is the overrepresentation of the poor in child welfare caseloads due to bias or need?," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 422-427, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:31:y:2009:i:3:p:422-427
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190-7409(08)00235-1
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Freisthler, Bridget, 2004. "A spatial analysis of social disorganization, alcohol access, and rates of child maltreatment in neighborhoods," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 26(9), pages 803-819, September.
    2. Fluke, John D. & Yuan, Ying-Ying T. & Hedderson, John & Curtis, Patrick A., 2003. "Disproportionate representation of race and ethnicity in child maltreatment: investigation and victimization," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 25(5-6), pages 359-373.
    3. English, Diana J. & Marshall, David B. & Coghlan, Laura & Brummel, Sherry & Orme, Matthew, 2002. "Causes and Consequences of the Substantiation Decision in Washington State Child Protective Services," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 24(11), pages 817-851, November.
    4. Bright, Charlotte Lyn & Jonson-Reid, Melissa, 2008. "Onset of juvenile court involvement: Exploring gender-specific associations with maltreatment and poverty," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(8), pages 914-927, August.
    5. Freisthler, Bridget, 2004. "Corrigendum to "A spatial analysis of social disorganization, alcohol access, and rates of child maltreatment in neighborhoods" [Chilren and Youth Services Review 26 (2004) 803-819]," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 26(12), pages 1193-1192, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rolock, Nancy & Jantz, Ian & Abner, Kristin, 2015. "Community perceptions and foster care placement: A multi-level analysis," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 186-191.
    2. Morton, Cory M., 2013. "The moderating effect of substance abuse service accessibility on the relationship between child maltreatment and neighborhood alcohol availability," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 35(12), pages 1933-1940.
    3. Klein, Sacha & Merritt, Darcey H., 2014. "Neighborhood racial & ethnic diversity as a predictor of child welfare system involvement," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 95-105.
    4. Fix, Rebecca L. & Nair, Reshmi, 2020. "Racial/ethnic and gender disparities in substantiation of child physical and sexual abuse: Influences of caregiver and child characteristics," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    5. Maguire-Jack, Kathryn & Font, Sarah A., 2017. "Intersections of individual and neighborhood disadvantage: Implications for child maltreatment," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 44-51.
    6. Millett, Lina & Lanier, Paul & Drake, Brett, 2011. "Are economic trends associated with child maltreatment? Preliminary results from the recent recession using state level data," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(7), pages 1280-1287, July.
    7. Ben-Arieh, Asher, 2010. "Localities, social services and child abuse: The role of community characteristics in social services allocation and child abuse reporting," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 536-543, April.
    8. Katz, C. & McLeigh, Jill D. & El szwec, Bat, 2017. "Preschoolers' perceptions of neighborhood environment, safety, and help-seeking," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 197-204.
    9. Iovu Mihai-Bogdan & Roth Maria, 2010. "Urban Communities as a Social Space for Child Abuse," Social Change Review, Sciendo, vol. 8(1), pages 5-31, July.
    10. Lery, Bridgette, 2009. "Neighborhood structure and foster care entry risk: The role of spatial scale in defining neighborhoods," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 331-337, March.
    11. Ha, Yoonsook & Collins, Mary Elizabeth & Martino, David, 2015. "Child care burden and the risk of child maltreatment among low-income working families," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 19-27.
    12. Sarah W. Craun & Bridget Freisthler, 2008. "Using Tax Parcels to Select a Location-Based Sample," Evaluation Review, , vol. 32(4), pages 315-334, August.
    13. Ben-Arieh, Asher, 2010. "Public expenditure, locality characteristics and child outcomes," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(12), pages 1778-1786, December.
    14. Sara Markowitz & Alison Cuellar & Ryan Conrad & Michael Grossman, 2014. "Alcohol control and foster care," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 12(4), pages 589-612, December.
    15. van Dijken, M.W. & Stams, G.J.J.M. & de Winter, M., 2016. "Can community-based interventions prevent child maltreatment?," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 149-158.
    16. Janczewski, Colleen E. & Mersky, Joshua P., 2016. "What's so different about differential response? A multilevel and longitudinal analysis of child neglect investigations," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 123-132.
    17. Bunger, Alicia C. & Chuang, Emmeline & McBeath, Bowen, 2012. "Facilitating mental health service use for caregivers: Referral strategies among child welfare caseworkers," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 696-703.
    18. Dettlaff, Alan J. & Rivaux, Stephanie L. & Baumann, Donald J. & Fluke, John D. & Rycraft, Joan R. & James, Joyce, 2011. "Disentangling substantiation: The influence of race, income, and risk on the substantiation decision in child welfare," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(9), pages 1630-1637, September.
    19. Edwards, Benjamin & Bromfield, Leah M., 2009. "Neighborhood influences on young children's conduct problems and pro-social behavior: Evidence from an Australian national sample," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 317-324, March.
    20. Johnson-Motoyama, Michelle & Dettlaff, Alan J. & Finno, Megan, 2012. "Parental nativity and the decision to substantiate: Findings from a study of Latino children in the second National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-being (NSCAW II)," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(11), pages 2229-2239.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:31:y:2009:i:3:p:422-427. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/childyouth .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.