Citation

Bishop SJ, Murphy JM, Hicks R, Quinn SD, Lewis PD, Grace MP, Jellinek MS. Child Maltreat. 2001; 6(3): 243-249.

Affiliation

Yale University, Bush Center in Child Development and Social Policy, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2001, American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

11471631

Abstract

Current data show that infants represent an increasing proportion of cases of child maltreatment. To learn more about how infants fare in the current system and to provide baseline data against which to compare outcomes following recent legislative reforms, this study examined a subsample of infants in a sample of 200 care and protection cases brought before the Boston Juvenile Court in 1994. Child, parent, and case characteristics of infants 0 to 3 months of age (n = 46) were compared with characteristics of older children in the sample. All cases were followed prospectively for 4 years, and data were abstracted from court records. Results revealed that the infants were primarily children of substance abusers who had extensive prior histories of child protective service system involvement. Although the majority of the infants were eventually permanently removed from parental custody and adopted, many experienced time delays and multiple placements before achieving permanent homes.

Language: en