Are Two Systems Better Than One?: How Interactions Between Police and CPS Workers Influence Outcomes in Child Maltreatment Cases
Restricted (Penn State Only)
Author:
Hanrath, Lily Savannah
Graduate Program:
Criminology
Degree:
Doctor of Philosophy
Document Type:
Dissertation
Date of Defense:
March 05, 2021
Committee Members:
Jeffrey Todd Ulmer, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor Jeffrey Todd Ulmer, Committee Chair/Co-Chair Sarah Anne Font, Committee Member Eric Silver, Committee Member Christian Michael Connell, Outside Member Eric P Baumer, Program Head/Chair
Keywords:
CPS Police Arrests Substantiation Child Abuse
Abstract:
Cases of child abuse are handled in an overlapped space by both law enforcement (LE) and Child Protective Services (CPS). Due to a divide in research fields, little is known about how these two systems independently handle investigations and how they interact. This study has three goals: 1) Understand the Population of Child Sexual and Physical Abuse Incidents Investigated Separately by the LE and CPS Systems 2) Examine Whether State CPS-LE Collaboration Policies Have an Influence on Outcomes in the LE and CPS Systems and 3) Examine How State Aggregate Case Characteristics May Influence Outcomes Differently in States with Different CPS-LE Collaboration Policies. To do this, I compare data from the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) and the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS). Data is contextualized by three theories: Focal Concerns Theory, the Decision-Making Ecology, and Inhabited Institutions Theory. Results suggest that similar factors predict arrest and substantiation with differing relationships between case characteristics and child removal and state level policies influence rates of case progression both directly and indirectly. Findings are consistent with predictions that factors related to dangerousness, blameworthiness, and credibility, and policies that are less ambiguous, and apply more isomorphic pressure will relate to more case progression. However, there appears to be a large amount of nuance of exactly when and how each policy examined relates to outcomes that should be explored in future research.
