Objective: To evaluate whether the addition of a wraparound facilitator to regular child protection services improved child and family functioning over 20 months. Method: A single blind randomized controlled trial with concealment and stratification across three sites (N = 135 eligible families with substantiated maltreatment). Results: Based on 2…

Research consistently demonstrates that youths who experience maltreatment are at greater risk for committing delinquent behavior. Yet little is known about how to disrupt this maltreatment-delinquency relationship. Life course theory suggests that youths who bond with prosocial individuals and traditional institutions subscribe to prosocial norms…

The assessment of child sexual abuse has largely been ignored by behavior analysts, although behavior analytic theory and methodology, if applied, likely would advance the field. Three classic cases demonstrate historic errors that might have been avoided, had a behaviorally based approach been employed. Functional analytic interpretations are…

Matthew Stagner and Jiffy Lansing chart developments in the field of child maltreatment and propose a new framework for preventing child abuse and neglect. They begin by describing the concept of investment-prevention as it has been applied recently in fields such as health care and welfare. They then explain how the new framework applies to…

Abuse, neglect, or both often result in removing children from their homes and placing them in foster care. As a result of these experiences, many children learn unhealthy behaviors. These "behavioral challenges" often lead to a cycle of multiple placement disruptions and progressively more restrictive placements. The philosophy,…