Abuse is over-reported, overwhelming the already overburdened system,
as evidenced by the fact that out of approximately 3,000,000 abuse and
neglect reports taken each year, over 2,000,000 are unsubstantiated.
These numbers have remained fairly consistent since 1990.
The reason is that the standards are so lax and definitions so vague,
that any parent can be painted as abusive. Advocates of the system
claim that accused parents are guilty, but that there just isn't enough
evidence against them to prove it. With the ultra lax standard used in
such cases, workers would have to be completely incompetent to allow
2,000,000 guilty parents each year to get away with maltreating their
children.
If these figures remain consistent, this indicates that twenty million
families are needlessly intruded upon in a decade. Twenty million
families cannot all be wrong.
One reason the number of cases that are actually substantiated is so
high, is that a CPS worker does not have to prove abuse. If he or she
cannot find something specific, but feels that a parent does not measure
up to certain standards, the worker can simply say he or she feels the
child is “at risk” of future maltreatment. This is called "erring on
the side of the child."
An at risk assessment is based on a scientifically unproven, variable
and discriminatory checklist of indicators coupled with a caseworker’s
subjective opinion. Caseworkers are trained to look for abuse rather
than looking for the truth. Indicators include things like being a
single parent, being poor or uneducated, having more than three children, or
having been abused as a child. None of these things proves that abuse
is imminent, and not every abused child grows up to be an abuser.
Many parents, classified in the "at risk" category end up losing
custody of their children even though there is no evidence of abuse or
neglect having occurred. The exact number is unknown, since at risk cases
are not counted separately but are instead included in the tally of
substantiated reports. For more information on statistics, visit the
National Clearinghouse for Child Abuse and Neglect Information.