Creating Community Responsibility for Child Protection: Possibilities and Challenges
Date
2009
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Publisher
The Future of children
Abstract
The current evidence base for community child abuse prevention, observe Daro and Dodge, offers both encouragement and reason for caution. Although theory and empirical research suggest that intervention at the neighborhood level is likely to prevent child maltreatment, designing and implementing a high-quality, multifaceted community prevention initiative is expensive. Policy makers must consider the trade-offs in investing in strategies to alter community context and those that expand services for known high-risk individuals. The authors conclude that if the concept of community prevention is to move beyond the isolated examples examined in their article, additional conceptual and empirical work is needed to garner support from public institutions, community-based stakeholders, and local residents. We begin our inquiry into community-based efforts to prevent child maltreatment by examining the theoretical frameworks of the new approach. We then explore five different community prevention efforts and summarize the empirical evidence evaluating their efficacy. Although not an exhaustive sample, these five initiatives are representative of efforts under way in many states to reduce maltreatment risk or enhance child development. After examining the unique challenges posed by community-based strategies to address abuse and neglect, we conclude by discussing key lessons learned and considering the likely financial and political benefits of embracing community-wide change to achieve measurable reductions in child maltreatment. (Author Text)
Description
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Keywords
child abuse, prevention, models, literature review
Citation
Daro, D., & Dodge, K. A. (2009). Creating community responsibility for child protection: Possibilities and challenges. The Future of children/Center for the Future of Children, 19(2), 67-93.