摘要：Objectives. We examined the concordance between measures of self-reported maltreatment and court records of abuse or neglect in a sample of detained youths. Methods. Data were collected by the Northwestern Juvenile Project and include interviews from 1829 youths aged 10–18 years. Participants were newly detained youths in the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center in Illinois between 1995 and 1998. Self-reported cases of child maltreatment were compared with court records of abuse or neglect in the Cook County judicial system. Results. We found that among detained youths, 16.6% of those who reported any maltreatment, 22.2% of those who reported the highest level of maltreatment, and 25.1% of those who reported that they required medical treatment as a result of maltreatment had a court record of abuse or neglect. Among those with any self-reported maltreatment, girls (vs boys) and African Americans (vs Whites) were more likely to have a court record (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]=2.18; 95% confidence interval [CI]=1.53, 3.09; and AOR=2.12; 95% CI=1.23, 3.63, respectively). Conclusions. Official records seriously underestimate the prevalence of maltreatment, which indicates that multiple data sources are needed to document the true prevalence of maltreatment. Child maltreatment is a significant problem in the United States and results in many injuries, fatalities, and other negative health outcomes. 1 In 2003, an estimated 906000 children were confirmed victims of maltreatment according to the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System, which collects statistics from state Child Protective Services (CPS) agencies. 2 However, CPS data are an underestimate of the total incidence of child maltreatment. Another source of data, the National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and Neglect, reports that only about one third of children who are neglected and abused come to the attention of the CPS when also including information from community professionals (e.g., police and sheriff’s departments, public schools, day-care centers, hospitals). 3 These data sources do not obtain information about self-reported child maltreatment. In fact, less than 1% of referrals to CPS agencies were made by the alleged victims. 2 Data on self-reported maltreatment is rarely collected from children and adolescents. Accordingly, there is limited information about the extent to which cases of self-reported maltreatment is captured by CPS agencies. One previous study of adults (aged 18 years and older) found that only 24% of those who self-reported cases of child maltreatment also had court records, 4 which suggests that there is limited overlap between self-reported maltreatment and court records of maltreatment. In this study we examined self-reported maltreatment in a high-risk population of detained juveniles in order to determine the proportion of children who reported maltreatment who also had records of abuse or neglect in the county court system.
