Conclusion
Although a large proportion of children involved in the child welfare system subsequently become involved in the juvenile justice system, statistics alone do not adequately tell the story of these children. To fully understand the toll exacted by child abuse and neglect, policymakers must read the files of incarcerated youth. Many of these youth come from abusive homes and often have moved in and out of foster care for years before ending up in the juvenile correctional system. Few have ever known a truly stable home environment.
Any program that effectively reduces abuse and neglect can serve as a prevention strategy for juvenile delinquency. Given the firmly established relationship between abuse/neglect and subsequent delinquency and criminality, it seems imperative that policymakers embrace emerging technologies that significantly improve decision making and help communities devote resources to children and families most at risk. It is clearly time to resolve age-old conflicts between clinical judgment and structured decision making. In particular, the use of empirically based risk assessment is not a question of replacing professional judgment with statistical inference; it is simply a matter of using the best information available to protect children from harm.
As demonstrated by the OCAN and Michigan evaluation research, structured decision making represents a practical and efficient way to improve the Nation’s child welfare systems. By reducing the extent of maltreatment experienced by children, the SDM model can make a significant contribution to breaking the link between abuse and delinquency.
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