Reviewing the Evidence on Assessing Risk for Child Abuse and Neglect

Risk assessment is a central component of crisis intervention in all aspects of practice. Nowhere is this more pronounced however, than in the assessment of families in crisis and children at risk of abuse. Structured risk assessment instruments are promoted to manage increasing demands for child welfare services by providing a mechanism to guide decision making regarding the type and intensity of services required to protect children from subsequent harm. The value of the structured risk assessment instruments is hypothesized to lie in improved consistency and accuracy of workers' judgments. However, risk assessment models were frequently implemented with little empirical evaluation. Postimplementation studies indicate that many commonly used risk assessment tools fail to attain adequate levels of reliability and validity. A number of challenges to validation have been identified. A more systematic approach to the development and testing of risk assessment instruments is required to support child welfare practice.

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