Prevalence and Perpetrators of Child Maltreatment in Foster Care

Most of the children in care have experienced at least one form of child maltreatment (e. g. Havlicek & Courtney 2016). In fact it often is the reason why they are in out-of-home care. It is also known that children with... [ view full abstract ]

Most of the children in care have experienced at least one form of child maltreatment (e. g. Havlicek & Courtney 2016). In fact it often is the reason why they are in out-of-home care. It is also known that children with maltreatment experiences have a higher risk of again becoming victims of maltreatment (e. g. Hindley/Ramchandani/Jones 2016). Reviews of the literature (e.g. Biehal 2014) show that foster families cannot be regarded as a safe place. But we cannot extrapolate these findings to Germany as we can assume that e.g. carer recruitment, training and supervision, number of contacts of professionals with the foster family and thresholds for investigations of allegations are not the same. So the research question is, whether foster care in Germany is a safe place for children? The study presented is the first representative study providing data on child maltreatment in foster families in Germany. Since the study also covers the perpetrators it is able to distinguish child maltreatment during a foster care placement from maltreatment by foster carer or other members of the foster family.


Method
The study was done as a standardized online-survey among all 579 local youth authorities (Jugendamt) in Germany as a part of the evaluation of the new child protection law (Bundeskinderschutzgesetz). The response rate was 83 % (N=481). Among other topics concerning child protection in foster families the local youth authorities were asked for the number of allegations for child maltreatment in foster families during the last year, the number of substantiated child maltreatment during the last year and the perpetrators. The list of possible perpetrators covers the members of the foster care family as well as the biological parents, youngsters and adults, who are not member of the foster family. The results allow a profound estimation of the number of allegations and substantiated cases of child maltreatment in foster care per year. Furthermore a comparison with the maltreatment prevalence rate per year for children not living in out-of-home care is possible. Also aspects of the action of the professionals in the local youth authorities, such as the number of contacts of professionals with the foster children are gathered in the survey and are part of the analysis.

Results
The proportion substantiated cases of child maltreatment is one third of the total number of allegations. Per year 3.6 of 1,000 children in foster care are victims of maltreatment during their foster care placement. Approximately 90 % of the perpetrators are members of the foster family, the vast majority foster parents. 10 % of the perpetrators are persons other then foster family members. There is no evidence that foster families are an unsafe place compared to birth families. The ratio between reported and unreported cases of maltreatment in foster families compared to reported and unreported cases of maltreatment in birth families will be discussed.

Conclusions
Compared to other countries the prevalence of child maltreatment in foster families per year seems to be low. Still the results signalize the necessity for further efforts to make foster families a safer place for vulnerable children. Especially because other research shows that even children in care only report a small proportion of maltreatment events (e.g. Samson-Commissie 2012). Sensitivity for this topic among child welfare professional should therefore be increased and foster carer recruitment, training and supervision should take the possibility of child maltreatment in care into account.