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Blanca Ramirez

Mrs. Briones

ENGL 1302-228

8 February 2024

Child Protective Services: An Annotated Bibliography

Bae, Hwa-ok, et al. "Effect of Child Protective Services System Factors on Child Maltreatment

Rereporting." Child welfare 89.3 (2010): 33-55. ProQuest. Web. 30 Jan. 2024.

CPS receives numerous reports of child maltreatment cases every year which they

conduct reports on. Additionally, CPS does not investigate all the cases they receive

which results in rereporting of neglect cases. This study shows to what extent CPS

system factors are associated with rereporting of child maltreatment. The system has five

factors: reporting source, contact by CPS workers, investigative level at intake, post-

investigation services, and duration of CPS involvement. This system is designed to

identify victims of abuse to prevent the reoccurrence of maltreatment. Still, the study

shows that one-third of 1.4 million children in 9 states were rereported and 17% of the

victims were revictimized. CPS is failing many children who must experience

reoccurring abuse in homes that have already been reported previously. The system is

failing so many innocent lives.

Camasso, Michael J., and Radha Jagannathan. “Decision Making in Child Protective Services: A

Risky Business?” Risk analysis 33.9 (2013): 1636–1649. Web.

Child Protective Services is an organization that the community views as a safety net for

the maltreatment of children; however, that isn’t necessarily the case with CPS. Every

year CPS receives millions of reports for alleged child maltreatment but only a portion of
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the reports are taken in for investigation. The study shows that in 2010 3.3 million child

maltreatment reports were sent to CPS, but only 1.8 million of the cases were

investigated which leaves 1.5 million cases uninvestigated. Horrific stories of child abuse

have been published due to the system failing to take action to evacuate abused children

from dangerous people whom they call family. CPS uses risk assessments to make

decision making among the cases they will take in for investigation. Social workers use

professional skills, knowledge, training, and technology to decide which child needs

more saving from abuse. Many children unfortunately die at the hands of abusers because

CPS found their case not as important as the others. Every child's life is important.

Cummings, Caroline, et al. “Coping and Work-Related Stress Reactions in Protective Services

Workers.” The British Social Work Journal 50.1 (2020): 62–80. Web.

The state relies on social workers to succeed in making sure children are safe in their

homes and are not at risk of any abuse; however, has the state ever thought of how these

cases may mentally affect social workers? Most social workers experience secondary

traumatic stress (STS) and trauma from work-related stress in the many cases they have

had to work on. 228 social workers completed a form on how they individually cope with

the stress and strategies they use. The study examined coping mechanisms that social

workers use and their experience and found it useful for workers to be able to sustain the

cases they see every day which may result in heartbreak. It also showed that empathy

reduced the likelihood of experiencing burnout and STS. People forget that social

workers are human, and nobody wants to see a child experience abuse.
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Farmer, G. L., et al. "Prevalence of Risk and Protective Factors for Homelessness among Youth

in Foster Care." Child welfare 99.1 (2021): 1-23. ProQuest. Web. 30 Jan. 2024.

Although many children are placed into permanent homes while being in foster care,

many are not. Every year about 18,000 children age out of foster care and must become

independent which leaves the youth at risk of homelessness. The study displays data that

represents the percentages of youth aging out of foster care who end up homeless. A

study conducted by Dworsky in 2013 found that 31 to 46 percent of foster children had

been homeless at least once by the age of 26. Foster kids that displayed a higher risk of

homelessness had previously run away, juvenile delinquent history, gender, ethnicity, and

termination of parental rights. The results of the study revealed that the largest group to

be at a higher risk of homelessness was the children who had a history of running away

from home. Youth who have a record in the juvenile justice system showed a similarly

high rate of becoming homeless out of foster care.

Fong, Kelley. “Concealment and Constraint: Child Protective Services Fears and Poor Mothers’

Institutional Engagement.” Social Forces, vol. 97, no. 4, 2019, pp. 1785–810. JSTOR,

https://www.jstor.org/stable/26732919. Accessed 31 Jan. 2024.

Child protective services target families with low income which they believe may have

hazardous conditions for the children living in the home. In this study, 83 mothers who

had a low income qualified for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)

and spoke English were eligible for the study. The findings were that mothers with a low

income were good mothers and were committed to their children but always had a

constant fear of CPS seeing otherwise and taking away their children due to financial

circumstances. CPS examines mothers who withdrew from education. The study
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discusses mothers who worry about CPS that housing and material hardship, other

stressors and adverse experiences, and harsh discipline of children often attract CPS

reports.

Fong, Kelley. “Getting Eyes in the Home: Child Protective Services Investigations and State

Surveillance of Family Life.” American Sociological Review, vol. 85, no. 4, 2020, pp.

610–38. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/48595835. Accessed 31 Jan. 2024.

CPS investigates millions of families a year, disproportionately poor families, and people

of color. Multiple visits to the home are useful in cases to help gather as much

information and evidence as needed to make sure the children are in a safe household.

The data is collected upon CPS visits, conversations, interviews with reporters, and

interviews with investigated mothers. The data is set from 37 cases investigated by CPS

in Connecticut. It showed that parents who have instability and people of color are often

watched by CPS not from a distance but personally with frequent home visits. Responses

to child maltreatment fall back on the parents' behavior rather than systematic injustices.

Font, S. A., Kennedy, R., & Littleton, T. (2023). Child protective services involvement and

exclusionary school discipline. Child Development, 94, 1625–

1641. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13941

Children often have a hard time adjusting when CPS takes them. Many of them have

higher odds of suspension compared to children who have no contact with CPS.

However, the study shows that many children before CPS were already on the pathway

leading to suspension before contact with CPS. This data determines that the bad

behavior is not caused by system-induced stress. From ages 5-6 and 14-15, 74% were

white, 7% were black, 11% Hispanic, 8% other, 49% female. Once inputted into foster
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care the odds of suspension decreased in white children and children with special needs.

However, it is concluded that children who were maltreated and abused are more likely

associated with rule-breaking and aggressive behavior at home, at school, and with the

law.

Font, Sarah A., Kierra M. P. Sattler, and Elizabeth Gershoff. "When Home is Still Unsafe: From

Family Reunification to Foster Care Reentry." Journal of Marriage and Family 80.5

(2018): 1333-43. ProQuest. Web. 30 Jan. 2024.

Foster care is a temporary home for children taken away from their families for various

reasons. The states focus their efforts on reuniting children in foster care with their birth

family; however, once returned home 1 in 5 children are put back in foster care within 5

years. One of the main reasons for the removal of children is parental substance abuse

and mental health concerns. In 2016 more than a third of child removal from homes was

influenced by parental substance abuse. The study focused on children between the ages

of 16 and older who exited foster care to reunite with their families within 3 years of

entry. The study showed that more than 16% of children reentered foster care and were

more likely to have behavioral problems. Children who were originally removed from

home due to SAMH reentered foster care totaling the number to 68% of the cases.

Geoffrey D. Kahn, Holly C. Wilcox & Elizabeth A. Stuart (2024) Identifying Causal Risk

Factors for Self-Harm Among Adolescents With U.S. Child Protective Services Contact,

Archives of Suicide Research, 28:1, 173-183, DOI: 10.1080/13811118.2022.2150104

Many children who feel like they have it rough at a young age often side with self-harm

to make themselves feel better or some sort of satisfaction. In 2020 suicide was the

second leading cause of death in young adults between the ages of 10-24. The article
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displays the common risk factors associated with self-harm in children, feelings of

worthlessness, parental psychological aggression, and an adult who supports and believes

in them. The study examined 881 children between the ages of 11-17 in the system. The

results showed that children who have adult encouragement and support are 42% less

likely to do self-harm than if they had less support 95%. Adolescents who reported

feelings of worthlessness were 73% more likely to do self-harm than those who did not

have that feeling. Parental psychological aggression had no clear response and the ratio

was close to 1. The article discussed the approach to prevent self-harm in adolescents in

CPS-involved youth.

Hirsch, Bomi Kim, et al. "Physically Hazardous Housing and Risk for Child Protective Services

Involvement." Child welfare 94.1 (2015): 87-104. ProQuest. Web. 30 Jan. 2024.

Child protective services investigate the quality and safety of homes to determine

whether the homes have hazardous conditions that may result in child neglect. For most

of the investigations, CPS targets families with low income which is important to

determine hazardous conditions which may result in child neglect but not physical abuse.

Housing problems include insect or rodent infestations, structural deficiencies, lack of

utilities, etc. may be a threat to children within the home. Moreover, parents who may

have housing problems often accumulate stress which may put a child in danger of

physical abuse. For CPS to become involved in a case they must have concerns about

housing measures followed by an interview with the family. The study showed that 7% of

the sample families had been investigated by CPS more than one time. Neglect-related

investigations were 5%, physical abuse-related investigations were 4%, and 3% already

had an allegation against them after the interview.

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