ardent_wolf t1_iyedosg wrote on November 30, 2022 at 7:47 PM

I’m tired of seeing this study constantly misrepresented. The PA sub was all over this too because it said they have the lowest, which completely ignores the terrible state of child protective services in PA.

2nd lowest rate of child abuse cases does not mean 2nd lowest rate of child abuse. It simply means only PA reports less child abuse than NJ per 100,000 people. It’s impossible to definitively show which states actually abuse children more, and reported cases are the best metric we have. But it does not mean what OP says it means.

Low case rate can be from lack of child abuse. It can also be if cases are difficult or cumbersome to report, if an entity is or isn’t bound by mandatory reporting laws, the existing infrastructure and agencies set up to process complaints and investigate them properly, etc.

Teknicsrx7 t1_iyeqcir wrote on November 30, 2022 at 9:08 PM

All these types of studies rely on what’s reported, it’s all very misleading when represented as more than what it is.

ardent_wolf t1_iyeub3m wrote on November 30, 2022 at 9:33 PM

The study isn’t the problem, and there are few metrics that would be useful besides reported cases. But the article doesn’t discuss any context, it simply says how many cases each state reports and then tries to sell courses to social workers in NY.

Discussion of how much child (or any other type of) abuse is happening in a given state should also include socioeconomic indicators that influence child abuse rates to help fill in the gaps from unreported crimes. The reports themselves mean little.

Say, for example, that a state introduces a massive budget increase to its child protective services dept and hires many well-paid social workers. They start spending money to advertise their reporting hotline, institute mandatory reporting across a variety of industries, and educate the populace about signs of child abuse. Their cases will increase dramatically, but that doesn’t mean their policies led to more child abuse. Hence the issue with the study as presented in this article.