Most previous studies of subsequent reports alleging maltreatment of the same child or of revictimization have included only small populations, administrative data from only one State, or relatively short observation periods. Furthermore, the literature has not always been clear as to which category of repeated activity has occurred. Was the child rereported? Was the child rereported and found to be a victim? Was the child rereported and not found to be a victim? This paper uses the following terminology:
- Referral: the process that results in the agency’s decision to either provide an investigation or assessment or to screen out the referral;
- Report: a referral that has been accepted for investigation or assessment;
- Initial Report: the first investigation or assessment within an observation period that occurs for a specific child who has not been the subject of a prior investigation or assessment;
- Rereport: the second, third, fourth, or subsequent report that alleges a child has been maltreated and that receives an investigation or assessment by the CPS agency (also called reinvestigation);
- Victim: a child who has been determined by the CPS agency to have been maltreated;
- Recurrence: the second, third, fourth, or subsequent time that a child has been found to be a victim of maltreatment (also called revictimization or repeated maltreatment); and
- Nonvictim: a child who has not been found to have been maltreated.