Mandated reporting policies and the detection of child abuse and neglect

In federal fiscal year 2019, approximately 3 million reports of suspected child abuse or neglect (CAN) met the criteria for an investigation or alternative response. Yet only 656,000 children were found to be victims of CAN. Such a large proportion of unsubstantiated CAN reports may indicate that the child welfare system is using already limited resources on reports that could be avoided with policies that better foster the accurate detection of CAN. Little research exists examining the relationship between mandated reporting policies and reported and substantiated CAN. To address this gap, we explore how five different mandated reporting policies are associated with rates of reporting and odds of substantiation. We utilized data from NCANDS, the SCAN Policies Database, and the U.S. Census. We found mandated reporting policies were not associated with rates of reporting or substantiation. However, the relationship between different policy characteristics and reports and substantiation were moderated by child race/ethnicity and the type of CAN experienced.