Child welfare response to child sexual abuse : too much or not enough?

The goals of this study were to determine the proportion of children that were identified in the 2005 & 2006 at one youth protection agency as victims of sexual abuse or as at risk of becoming victims; to describe the family members and offenders and to determine what decisions concerning treatment and restrictions of contact were consistent with a model of best practice. Information on 18 variables was collected and grouped into child, abuse, offender, and agency response categories. In total, 70 children or about 3% of investigated cases involved either victims or children at risk of sexual abuse. Best practice responses for treatment were followed in 90% of the cases for treatment but only 70% of the cases for restrictions of contact; this difference was statistically significant. Findings show importance of specialized sexual abuse training for workers, managers and judges, more treatment resources for nonoffending parents and further research involving a larger sample and validated best practice model