Concordance between self-reported maltreatment and court records of abuse or neglect among high-risk youths.
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.
Swahn
Monica H
MH
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
Whitaker
Daniel J
DJ
Pippen
Courtney B
CB
Leeb
Rebecca T
RT
Teplin
Linda A
LA
Abram
Karen M
KM
McClelland
Gary M
GM
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