Epidemiology of Child Maltreatment Recurrences

The recurrence of child maltreatment following a report to Child Protective Services is one index of the effectiveness of the public child welfare system. This article reports on the analysis of the patterns and frequency of recurrences of substantiated instances of maltreatment in an urban child welfare system. Results from survival analyses indicated that risk of recurrence was greatest during the first 30 days following a report, that risk declined with time and remained relatively low for 2 years following the termination of services, and that recurrence was dependent on the type of maltreatment. Most recurrence families experienced only one recurrence, but a clustering effect was apparent for families that experienced multiple recurrences.