The Wiley Handbook of What Works in Child Maltreatment

An Evidence-Based Approach to Assessment and Intervention in Child Protection

Louise Dixon, Daniel F. Perkins, Catherine Hamilton-Giachritsis, Leam A. Craig

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781118976104
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychologie
• Subtopic: Psychologie légale

A comprehensive guide to empirically supported approaches for child protection cases

The Wiley Handbook of What Works in Child Maltreatment offers clinicians, psychologists, psychiatrists and other professionals an evidence-based approach to best professional practice when working in the area of child protection proceedings and the provision of assessment and intervention services in order to maximize the well-being of young people. It brings together a wealth of knowledge from expert researchers and practitioners, who provide a comprehensive overview of contemporary work informing theory, assessment, service provision, rehabilitation and therapeutic interventions for children and families undergoing care proceedings. Coverage includes theoretical perspectives, insights on the prevalence and effects of child neglect and abuse, assessment, children's services, and interventions with children, victims and families.

1
Overview and Structure of the Book

Louise Dixon¹, Daniel F. Perkins², Catherine Hamilton‐Giachritsis³ and Leam A. Craig⁴

¹ Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand

² The Pennsylvania State University, USA

³ University of Bath, UK

⁴ Forensic Psychology Practice Ltd, UK

⁴ University of Birmingham, UK

⁴ Birmingham City University, UK

Introduction

The idea that ‘something’ works in offender rehabilitation suffered a devastating blow in the 1970s following reviews that ‘nothing worked’ (Martinson, 1974). This conclusion was later attributed to the poor methodology and research designs of studies investigating this issue (Lipton, Martinson & Wilks, 1975), rather than an inability to rehabilitate behaviour. However, the concept of ‘nothing works’ led to a body of research that investigated which practices are effective in the rehabilitation of people who offend, often referred to as the What Works literature (Craig, Dixon & Gannon, 2013). The What Works literature is based on an overarching principle that highlights the need for empirically rigorous evidence‐based practice. Several systems have been developed to aid the evaluation of the quality of evidence on the efficacy of particular therapeutic techniques and their use with particular groups of people. The work has been subsumed under the category ‘What Works in the treatment and management of offenders to reduce crime’.

The three main systems of empirical evaluation used to examine the quality of outcome studies that are most often referred to in the literature are: (i) the American Psychological Association (APA) Chambless and colleagues’ system (Chambless & Hollon, 1998; Chambless, Baker, Baucom et al., 1998; Chambless & Ollendick, 2001); (ii) Sherman, Gottfredson, MacKenzie et al.’s (1997) ‘levels’ system for reviewing the quality of evidence and intervention; and (iii) the Cochrane System (Higgins & Green, 2006/2008/2011). In brief, the APA system examines the quality of evidence from outcome studies on the effectiveness of psychological therapy. Sherman, Gottfredson, MacKenzie et al.’s (1997) report to the US Congress described a ‘levels’ system for reviewing the quality of evidence supporting any given intervention in the field of criminal behaviour. They developed and employed the Maryland Scale of Scientific Methods, ranking each study from Level I (weakest) to Level V (strongest) on overall internal validity. The Cochrane System has been influential in categorising evidence on the effectiveness of psychological and pharmaceutical interventions from different studies and remains the most exacting of review systems for clinical evidence.

Although such methods of empirical evaluation exist to inform crime reduction, some domains of practice remain better informed by the evidence than others. Family violence and child maltreatment are two areas that can arguably benefit from further understanding. This is a crucial area of investigation considering that family violence and child maltreatment is a serious and international public health concern (Pinheiro, 2006; Krug, Dahlberg, Mercy et al., 2002). For example, in England, recent statistics show that there were 635,600 referrals of children made to children’s social care in 2015. On 31 March 2015, 391,000 children were assessed as being in need of some family support and 49,700 children were the subject of a child protection plan, providing population rates of 337.1 and 42.9 per 10,000 children aged under 18 respectively (Department for Education [DfE], 2015). In England and Wales, 12,781 families were referred to the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (CAFCASS) between April 2015 and March 2016 for care applications (CAFCASS, 2016).

Furthermore, despite official statistics notoriously underestimating child maltreatment deaths (e.g., Frederick, Goddard & Oxley, 2013), reported rates remain high. The 2002 World report on violence and health estimated that of children aged 0–14, 31,000 males and 26,000 females were victims of homicide, perpetrated both by family and non‐family members (Krug, Dahlberg, Mercy et al., 2002). More recently, in 2012, an estimated 95,000 children and young people died as the result of homicide across the world, most of whom (85,000 or 90%) lived in low‐ and middle‐income countries (UNICEF, 2014). There are also some indicators that rates may have fallen over the last few decades, particularly for younger children; for example, in England there has been a decline in infant mortality due to assault falling from 5.6 per 100,000 in 1974 to 0.7 in 2008 (Sidebotham, Atkins & Hutton, 2012). However, despite apparent improvements in mortality rates, they remain unacceptably high, emphasising the need for the use of evidence‐based interventions with families.

The need to work with families is exemplified by the high levels of family re‐referral to children’s services (i.e., where the same family is referred again for a different child), which can be as high as 85% over a 10‐year period (DePanfilis & Zuravin, 1998; Thompson & Wiley, 2009). Also worthy of note is the high rate of co‐occurrence of child maltreatment with other forms of family violence (e.g., co‐occurrence with intimate partner violence (IPV) has been estimated to occur in between 30–60% of cases (e.g., Cox, Kotch & Everson, 2003; Sousa, Herrenkohl, Moylan et al., 2011)). Indeed, in families where IPV and child maltreatment co‐occur, there tend to be more previous referrals, more serious IPV and quicker re‐referral to child protection services (Casanueva, Martin & Runyan, 2009). This demonstrates the potential risk posed to children through wider family violence issues and the need to assess and respond to risk of harm to the child in these situations. Arguably then, in a time of austerity where community resources are stretched, the need for empirically sound and efficacious interventions to child maltreatment and family violence has never been greater.

Despite this well‐documented need, research into child protection practice has arguably been limited. Indeed, leading researchers in the field have suggested that evidence for child protection is scant. Nearly 20 years ago, Finkelhor (1999) stated:

First we need good epidemiological data to see the location and source of the child abuse problem, and also to be able to track and monitor its response to our efforts. This is something we currently do not have, at least at the level that would satisfy any even generous public health epidemiologist. Second, we need experimental studies to evaluate new and existing practices, so we can agree on what works…There is more experimental science in the toilet paper we use every day than in what we have to offer abused children or families at risk of abuse (p. 969).

Munro (2009, p. 1015) further stated that the evidence has not considerably progressed since that time, asserting that ‘There is only limited knowledge about good practice and the major need is to increase this, to find out more about what methods are effective.’

Based on knowledge of what constitutes methodologically robust research, several countries have begun to introduce structured assessment and intervention programmes in a variety of areas of intervention, which include areas of childcare and family violence. In a time where other areas of violence and abuse prevention are being evidenced (e.g., Craig, Dixon & Gannon, 2013), this book aims to put the need to evidence child protection practice at the forefront. It sets out to provide a comprehensive overview of the current evidence in child and family assessment, intervention and service provision that promotes safeguarding and child well‐being. It details the contemporary research and practice that informs theory, assessment, service provision, rehabilitation and therapeutic interventions for children and families undergoing child care proceedings. In doing so it provides an account of what we know works so far and what still needs to be accomplished. What follows is a collection of international knowledge from leading researchers and practitioners in the field who use the evidence to inform best practice. To reflect practice in this domain, the authors and their contributions are written from multidisciplinary perspectives.

Structure of the Book

The book is divided into five parts, each of which is described below.

Part I: Research and Theoretical Perspectives

This part of the book provides the reader with an overview of important theoretical and evidence‐based arguments in the field of child and family maltreatment, beginning with issues on the prevalence and aetiology of child maltreatment and its fatal forms, through to the consequences and outcomes, before considering how child maltreatment may overlap with other forms of family violence. It begins with an overview of the prevalence and incidence literature by Lorraine Radford in Chapter 2. Before considering the prevalence and incidence of child maltreatment at an international level, Radford briefly reviews the conceptual and methodological challenges researchers, practitioners and policymakers face when wanting to make robust estimates of the extent of violence within the community. The chapter moves on to consider what is known about levels of violence from officially reported incidents of child abuse and neglect, as well as from self‐report community‐based surveys. Radford highlights that surveillance data and surveys show that violence against children, including child abuse and neglect, is prevalent across the world. Data from community surveys produce estimates of lifetime and past‐year prevalence at least 4–16 times higher than estimates based upon recorded child protection cases. The chapter concludes by highlighting the implications for practice, arguing that knowledge about the extent and burden of violence against children can be used to improve prevention, identification and response as well as to inform provision, service monitoring and the measurement of outcomes for children.

Next, in Chapter 3, Catherine Hamilton‐Giachritsis and Alberto Pellai provide a summary of the historical and current theoretical perspectives that enhance our understanding of the aetiology of child maltreatment. This chapter tracks the development from single‐factor models focused on individual deficits in the perpetrator (e.g., psychopathology) or social factors (e.g., poverty) through to multi‐factor models that acknowledge the complexity of the causes of child abuse and neglect. Such models, most notably the ecological model and its derivatives, attempt to encompass elements at individual, family, peer, social, community and cultural levels. Within the chapter, prior research identifying risk and protective factors at each level of the ecological model are explored. However, in order to demonstrate that each level is also interlinked, the authors use a case example throughout based on the added dimension arising from new technologies (a social‐level factor). The most recent research on the role of adolescent neural systems in risk behaviour is outlined and discussion is made of how the knowledge gained through research has informed interventions at each level of the ecological system.

Peter Sidebotham goes on to discuss the extreme end of a spectrum of child maltreatment in Chapter 4. The chapter begins with a review of the incidence and heterogeneous nature of fatal child maltreatment. It is argued that prevention requires an in‐depth understanding of the nature and causes of fatal maltreatment and the chapter goes on to present a conceptual model that details the spectrum of violent and maltreatment‐related deaths in childhood, within and outside the family. The model further highlights the heterogeneity of fatal child maltreatment and that risk factors will likely differ between types. Although a number of recognised risk factors for fatal child maltreatment are identified from the published literature, it is concluded that the evidence is limited by poor quality data and it is not possible to predict those children most at risk of death with any certainty over and above those at risk of general harm. It is therefore argued that a strong public health approach is neces...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Table of Contents
• About the Editors
• Notes on Contributors
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Overview and Structure of the Book
• Part I: Research and Theoretical Perspectives
• Part II: Children's Services and Public Health Approaches to Prevention
• Part III: Assessment
• Part IV: Interventions with Children and Families
• Part V: Novel Interventions with Families
• Index
• End User License Agreement