title: Concordance between self-reported maltreatment and court records of abuse or neglect among high-risk youths.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We examined the concordance between measures of self-reported maltreatment and court records of abuse or neglect in a sample of detained youths.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data were collected by the Northwestern Juvenile Project and include interviews from 1829 youths aged 10-18 years. Participants were newly detained youths in the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center in Illinois between 1995 and 1998. Self-reported cases of child maltreatment were compared with court records of abuse or neglect in the Cook County judicial system.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We found that among detained youths, 16.6% of those who reported any maltreatment, 22.2% of those who reported the highest level of maltreatment, and 25.1% of those who reported that they required medical treatment as a result of maltreatment had a court record of abuse or neglect. Among those with any self-reported maltreatment, girls (vs boys) and African Americans (vs Whites) were more likely to have a court record (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]=2.18; 95% confidence interval [CI]=1.53, 3.09; and AOR=2.12; 95% CI=1.23, 3.63, respectively).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Official records seriously underestimate the prevalence of maltreatment, which indicates that multiple data sources are needed to document the true prevalence of maltreatment.
authors.affiliation: Office on Smoking and Health, Division of Violence Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Ga 30341-3724, USA. mswahn@cdc.gov
authors.forename: Monica H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Swahn
authors.forename: Daniel J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Whitaker
authors.forename: Courtney B
authors.initials: CB
authors.lastname: Pippen
authors.forename: Rebecca T
authors.initials: RT
authors.lastname: Leeb
authors.forename: Linda A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Teplin
authors.forename: Karen M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Abram
authors.forename: Gary M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: McClelland
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002649:Child Abuse / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003415:Crime / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007087:Illinois; D008297:Male; D000297:Psychology, Adolescent; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012308:Risk Management / Q000706:statistics & numerical data