Recurrent reporting of child maltreatment: State of knowledge and avenues for research

This paper highlights divergences, rarely reported in the literature, among findings concerning some determining factors in recurrent reporting of child maltreatment. The study of reported maltreatment is first placed in its social and legal context, drawing attention to the conceptual, methodological, and epidemiological issues involved in this field of research. A preliminary survey of the main large-scale studies on recurrence leads to a number of observations. More detailed examination of findings reveals several divergences with regard to the determining factors of recurrence, including the roles of neglect, the child's age, provision of postinvestigation services, and the associated surveillance effect. Some avenues for future inquiry are suggested, such as combining administrative and research data, using certain innovative analytical methods and comparing determinants over different observation periods.