Journalist: Kathleen Wilson
Date: February 3, 2008
Summary: Ventura County California has implemented a new strategy, differential response, intended to break the cycle of child abuse and neglect. The strategy was initially proposed in the late 1990s. Differential response assigns a different response to families who experience child abuse and neglect based on the level of risk. Research findings have been mixed regarding whether the differential response strategy actually reduces the incidents of abuse when compared to the traditional methods of responding to child abuse and neglect. More research is needed to examine whether the strategy is effective and cost-effective.
Relevance: Strategies that address the problem of child abuse and neglect, and that are effective and cost-effective are important to disseminate because they can be replicated.
Questions:
1. Who initially proposed the differential response strategy? When?
2. What is the traditional method of investigating child abuse and neglect referrals?
3. Can you describe the mixed research results? Why are these results considered “mixed”?
4. Why are the early research results considered promising?
5. What has been a “pitfall” to implementation of the differential response strategy?
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