Family Protection or Family Policing? Examining Police Referrals, Police Investigations, and Criminal Charges in Child Welfare Investigations

Background and Purpose

Many jurisdictions have established protocols that guide decisions about when both child protection and police should respond to potential allegations of abuse or neglect, but the scope and impact of combined police and child protection intervention is not well-understood. This descriptive study will examine the extent of police involvement among families investigated for child protection concerns in Ontario and the characteristics of investigations where there was a police referral or a simultaneous police investigation and where police investigations resulted in criminal charges.

Methods

Data used for this analysis were derived from the sixth cycle of the Ontario Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect-2018 (OIS-2018). The OIS-2018 employed a multi-stage sampling design to capture information about investigations conducted by selected child welfare agencies over a three-month period. OIS-2018 sample data were weighted to derive provincial annual incidence estimates, and data for this study included an estimated 97,185 child protection investigations conducted in Ontario in 2018 involving children aged 0 to 17 where there was at least one allegation of an event of maltreatment. Police involvement was defined by four mutually exclusive categories: 1) no police involvement, 2) police referral only, 3) police investigation only, and 4) police referral and police investigation. Among cases where there was also a police investigation, there was an additional indicator for whether that investigation resulted in criminal charges. For both police involvement and criminal charges, we assessed differences in child, family, household, and investigation characteristics, including investigative dispositions.

Results

Among all investigations focused on allegations of maltreatment, 66% had no police involvement, while 8% had a police referral only, 7% had a police investigation only, and just under 20% had both a police referral and police investigation. Among child protection investigations where there was a simultaneous police investigation, 44% resulted in criminal charges. Investigations involving younger children, younger primary caregivers, caregivers with substance use concerns, or secondary caregivers contending with social isolation or mental health concerns all had high rates of police involvement and criminal charges. Notably, investigations with a primary concern about exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV) were more likely than other allegation types to have police involvement, with nearly half (49%, p<0.001) having both a police referral and a police investigation. Similarly, child welfare investigations focused on exposure to IPV were more likely to have a police investigation that resulted in criminal charges (55%, p<0.001). Investigations involving police were more likely to be substantiated but resulted in a transfer to ongoing child welfare services or a placement in out-of-home care at similar rates to those where there was no police involvement.

Conclusion and Implications

This study found that police involvement in child maltreatment investigations was common, particularly for cases involving concerns about IPV. And yet, police involvement and criminal charges were not predictive of more intensive child welfare service responses. These data provide baseline information for policymakers, practitioners, and advocates to consider whether these interventions represent their protective goals, particularly among families already experiencing high levels of vulnerability.