Background

Media reports of child deaths as a result of abuse and neglect can influence how children move throughout the foster care system. Using the theoretical frameworks of moral panics and street level bureaucracy, the current study examined how news reports of violent child abuse and neglect cases relate to foster care children with implications for decision-making among child welfare workers.

Methods

Data from the AFCARS were assessed to evaluate the potential relationship between news report of child death and subsequent changes in trends in referrals to entry into foster care and exits out of foster care. News reports were coded using content analysis.

Results

For foster care entries, there was a delayed (1–2 months after news stories) increase in foster care entries after an increase in the number of articles on child deaths. For foster care exits, there was an immediate (same month as news stories) decrease in foster care exits after an increase in the number of articles on child deaths. This relationship reversed after 1 month, with more articles resulting in increases in exits.

Conclusions

Based on these results, it is possible that child services workers might be sensitive to news reports of violence against children and possibly use their professional positions to make decisions to help protect children and enact their own discretionary “street-level policies.”

中文翻译：

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媒体报道的儿童死亡及其与寄养儿童出入的关系

背景

媒体关于虐待和忽视造成儿童死亡的报道可能会影响儿童在整个寄养系统中的活动方式。本研究使用道德恐慌和街头官僚主义的理论框架，研究了暴力虐待和忽视儿童的新闻报道如何与寄养儿童相关联，对儿童福利工作者的决策产生了影响。

方法

对AFCARS的数据进行了评估，以评估儿童死亡新闻报道与转入寄养服务和退出寄养服务的趋势变化之间的潜在关系。新闻报道使用内容分析进行编码。

结果

对于寄养儿童条目，在有关儿童死亡的文章数量增加之后，寄养儿童条目出现了延迟（新闻报道后1-2个月）的增加。对于寄养服务出口，在有关儿童死亡的文章数量增加之后，寄养服务出口立即减少（与新闻报道同月）。1个月后，这种关系发生了逆转，有更多的文章导致出口增加。

结论

根据这些结果，儿童服务工作人员可能会对暴力侵害儿童的新闻报道敏感，并可能利用其专业职位做出决定来帮助保护儿童并制定自己的酌情“街道一级政策”。