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Preventing Delinquency Through Improved Child Protection Services
Richard Wiebush, Raelene Freitag, and Christopher Baird
Introduction
Research on the Effects of Childhood
Maltreatment
Childhood Maltreatment and
Subsequent Offending
Childhood Maltreatment and
Other At-Risk Behaviors
OJJDP’s Comprehensive Strategy and the Role
of CPS
Structured Decision Making: Background
Origins of SDM
The Need for SDM in Child Welfare
Services
Principles of the SDM Model
The SDM Model
Response Priority Assessment
Safety Assessment
Risk Assessment
Family Strengths and Needs Assessments
Risk and Needs Reassessment
Risk-Based Service Standards
SDM for Children in Out-of-Home Care
Summary
Management Components of the SDM Model
Workload Measurement
Quality Assurance and Evaluation Using
SDM Management Information
Evaluations of the SDM Model
Evaluation of Research-Based Risk
Assessment
Evaluation of the Michigan SDM System
Conclusion
References
Points of view or opinions expressed in this document are those of the authors and do not
necessarily represent the official position or policies of OJJDP or the U.S. Department of
Justice.
The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention is a component of the Office of Justice Programs, which also includes the Bureau of Justice Assistance, the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, and the Office for Victims of Crime.
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A Message From OJJDP
As discussed in this Bulletin, research
indicates that the prevalence of child
abuse or neglect among delinquent
offenders is substantially greater than
it is among the general population.
Moreover, maltreated children are significantly
more likely to become involved
in delinquent behavior than
their nonmaltreated peers, and delinquent
youth with a history of abuse or
neglect are more likely to continue
their offending behavior than delinquents
who have not suffered child
abuse or neglect.
Given the links between child maltreatment
and juvenile offending, designing
and implementing programs to
reduce the incidence of child maltreatment
as a means of preventing delinquency
are a promising—though often
overlooked—strategy.
After reviewing what is known about
the links between childhood maltreatment
and juvenile and adult offending,
the authors review OJJDP’s
Comprehensive Strategy for Serious,
Violent, and Chronic Juvenile Offenders
and examine the role that child
protective services’ prevention efforts
can play in delinquency prevention
and intervention.
Programs that prevent child abuse
and neglect or that intervene effectively
when child maltreatment occurs
can also serve as effective strategies
to prevent future delinquency. It is our
hope that the information in this Bulletin
will serve both of those worthy
program goals.
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