The APSAC Advisor is a peer reviewed quarterly news journal for professionals in the field of child abuse and neglect.
The APSAC Advisor provides succinct, data-based, practice-oriented articles that keep interdisciplinary professionals
informed of the latest developments in policy and practice the field of child maltreatment. It is designed to highlight
best practices in the field and publish original articles and current information about child maltreatment for professionals
from a variety of backgrounds including medicine, law, law enforcement, social work, child protective services, psychology,
public health and prevention in the U.S.
If you wish to learn more about submitting an article to the Advisor, please click here.
This library contains Advisor issues dating back to the first issue in 1988. The most recent issue appears at the top.
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In the listing below, click on a year and issue number to see the articles in that publication.
2007 Number 4
Gang Prevention: A Collaborative Response
“The American gang scene is poorly understood and is a great source of public concern, in spite of years of research and years of suppression and intervention efforts” (Esbensen & Osgood, 1999, p. 194). It is not clear how gangs intersect with the overall problem of juvenile delinquency. It is also unclear whether or not specific intervention and prevention techniques are needed to prevent gangs, or if prevention should be aimed at the broader goal of preventing juvenile crime.
Substance-Exposed Infants: Current Issues and Responses
While the topic has not been on the front pages for quite some time, the issues related to substance-exposed infants still affect at least 400,000 babies born each year - and closer to a million infants, if exposure to tobacco and alcohol are included. When the numbers are expanded to include all children under the age of 18, the fact that more than seven million children were prenatally exposed to alcohol, tobacco, or other drugs is a national health concern of major import.
Mandated Reporting and Child Welfare Agencies: A Look at the Data
Mandated reporting is a cornerstone of the child protection system in the United States. Recently, some (Melton, 2005) have called for abolishing this policy, asserting that it is more harmful than beneficial. In addition to mandated reporting laws, other aspects of child welfare policy have drawn criticism, including concerns about unnecessary intrusiveness, low effectiveness, and general overreaching (Besharov, 1990; Melton & Thompson, 2001). It is only in the last 2 decades that we have begun to develop sufficient empirical data to effectively evaluate these concerns.
The purpose of Journal Highlights is to alert readers to current literature on child abuse. Selected articles from journals representing the variety of disciplines reflected in APSAC's membership are presented in the form of an annotated bibliography.
APSAC Advisor 19(4): Full Issue