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.
2024 Number 1
The United States continues to grapple with longstanding policies and systems that have adversely impacted historically marginalized communities who identify (and are racialized) as non-White. These stem from a legacy of structural and systemic racism, and the long-term consequences of sanctioned colonization. This legacy rests upon a field of scholarly research that is similarly fraught with white supremacy. As a field, we must examine the process of producing and publishing the body of evidence that has codified harmful policies and practices. Although racial and ethnic disparities have been discussed for decades in the child welfare and health systems, systemic racism has received comparatively little attention in academic research and practice journals. In this commentary, the authors detail concrete steps over the coming years that will advance diversity, equity, inclusion and justice through American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children’s (APSACs) practice journal, the Advisor. The journal is committed to anti-racist publication processes, such that the journal pledges to develop procedures, processes, structures, and culture for scholarly research that promotes diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice in all forms.
Practice in U.S. Children’s Advocacy Centers: Results of a Survey of CAC Directors
Children’s Advocacy Centers (CACs) coordinate the investigative and service response to child victimization through the use of multidisciplinary teams (MDTs). They offer children and families medical, therapeutic support, advocacy services, and other services. Presenting results from a U.S. survey completed by 222 CAC directors in 2015, the current study focuses on the composition of MDTs and the forms of assistance CACs provide. Large percentages of CACs had representation on the MDT from all the core group of disciplines specified by the standards of the National Children’s Alliance (NCA), the membership group of CACs. Small but meaningful proportions of CACs had representation on their MDTs from disciplines that are not typically centrally involved in child maltreatment investigation and services, but they could play a critical role in some cases. A wide range of services specified in the article was provided to children and caregivers often or routinely. CACs varied on the provision of other services, such as support groups for children and for caregivers, domestic violence risk assessment and safety planning, and helping caregivers with protective orders, information about civil remedies, and legal assistance. This research suggests that CACs are meeting NCA standards while varying to some degree in the specific forms of assistance they provide. It also suggests that CACs may want to consider adding more types of professionals to their MDTs.
Child maltreatment investigations have historically faced challenges with adequate evidence identification and collection woes. This can result in subpar outcomes for children impacted by abuse and neglect. This article serves as a primer for multidisciplinary team (MDT) professionals to better recognize the scope of evidence (both traditional and non-traditional) that can be considered for processing. It also explores key considerations on evidence handling and review of potential atypical MDT collaborators who can further empower investigators.
Poverty and neglect can often be inappropriately conflated, particularly in dental practice settings where access to community supports for families is limited and variable. Although poverty and neglect are interrelated, poverty is not synonymous with neglect. Dental professionals, whose practices are frequently private or external to care networks, find themselves particularly vulnerable, isolated, and ill supported to address pertinent social issues faced by families seeking care and unable to effectively mitigate barriers to obtaining regular, preventive oral health care. Dental health care settings may thus, by necessity, lean frequently on child welfare and social service agencies to help manage cases of adverse oral health involving impoverished children, particularly when in-office social work support and access to community-based resources are limited. This article aims to provide alternative sources of interventions in a dental practice setting across three trajectories-practical, office-based efforts, and development of broader, external resource networks and policy change.
Using Public Policy to Support Children in Families With Substance Abuse Disorders
Amid the COVID-19 global pandemic, substance abuse has increased. Consistent with this increase has been an increase in the incidence of infants with prenatal substance exposure (IPSE). Prenatal exposure to illicit drugs, licit drugs used illicitly, and alcohol have a range of negative health effects on newborns. This article reviews these effects and federal and state policies in this area, using child maltreatment report data to characterize associations with state statutes. We then review courts’ rationales for prohibiting agency action to protect IPSEs and re-frame and re-conceptualize these cases within the existing “aggravated circumstances” framework in federal law.
Institutional (Chain of Command) Child Abuse Reporting: An Exploratory Overview
This study aims to address a gap in the literature in the United States regarding institutional reporting and its impact on children. Institutional or chain of command child abuse reporting requires the mandatory reporter (MR) to report suspected child maltreatment to their supervisor or designee rather than directly to child protective services (CPS), or law enforcement, or both. After reviewing limited available research, anecdotal evidence, expert opinions, and court cases and after comparing statutory reforms, the authors identify serious child safety concerns regarding institutional reporting: It is the common denominator of ongoing child sexual abuse in institutions and organizations, it places the MR at greater risk of retaliation, it decreases child maltreatment reporting, it dilutes the report’s validity and makes it more difficult to assess danger in the home, it increases the liability risk for the institution/organization, it attracts predators, it prioritizes lawsuit fears over children’s safety, and it allows reporting law violations. The study concludes with limitations and recommendations for needed legislative changes to better safeguard vulnerable children and the MRs tasked with protecting them.
APSAC Advisor 37(1) - Full Issue