Investigating child maltreatment in out-of-home care: Barriers to effective decision-making

When children are alleged to be abused or neglected in out-of-home care, investigations must determine the facts of the allegations as well as arrange for the safety of children. This paper reports on a secondary analysis of a cross-sectional archival case review designed to assess the quality of investigations and to explore possible barriers to effective decision-making. Methods were used to explore factors that may have led to faulty decision-making in four decision categories: (1) placement in foster homes with prior substantiated child abuse and neglect; (2) determination of findings of new reports of child maltreatment; (3) evaluation of child safety following a report of child maltreatment; and (4) decisions about licensure and corrective action. Results suggest that the faulty decisions identified in this study may be related to: inadequate knowledge, information processing errors, the task environment, perceptual blocks, and expressive blocks. Recommendations are offered for improving the quality of investigative decision-making following reports of child maltreatment in out-of-home care.