There are a number of decision-making conceptual frameworks that situate child protection decision-making in their organisational and social environments (Benbenishty et al., 2016; Helm and Roesch-Marsh, 2016; Whittaker, 2018). The decision-making ecology (DME) approach is one of these theoretical frameworks, developed to explain decision outcomes in child welfare. Developed by a group of US researchers, it has gained considerable traction as a framework that is complex enough to account for the range of influences on decision outcomes, conceptualising these outcomes as the result of dynamic interactions between external, organisational, individual decision-maker and case factors (Baumann et al., 2011, 2013). The DME grew out of a recognition that decision outcomes are variable in child protection, even when cases are similar, an important justice issue for children and families (Keddell, 2014). The DME proposes that variability is not only linked to differences between individual decision-makers, but also complex interactions between different parts of the child protecion system and the societies they are embedded within.

中文翻译：

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面向儿童保护研究的关键决策生态学方法

有许多决策概念框架将儿童保护决策置于其组织和社会环境中（Benbenishty 等，2016 年；Helm 和 Roesch-Marsh，2016 年；Whittaker，2018 年）。决策生态学 (DME) 方法是这些理论框架之一，旨在解释儿童福利方面的决策结果。由一组美国研究人员开发，它作为一个框架获得了相当大的吸引力，该框架足够复杂，可以解释对决策结果的影响范围，将这些结果概念化为外部、组织、个人决策者和决策者之间动态相互作用的结果。案例因素（Baumann 等人，2011 年、2013 年）。DME 源于这样一种认识，即儿童保护中的决策结果是可变的，即使案件相似，儿童和家庭的一个重要司法问题（Keddell，2014 年）。DME 提出，可变性不仅与个体决策者之间的差异有关，还与儿童保护系统不同部分及其所在社会之间的复杂相互作用有关。