Reasoning and bias : heuristics in safety assessment and placement decisions for children at risk
Enosh, Guy
Reasoning and bias : heuristics in safety assessment and placement decisions for children at risk Guy Enosh & Tali Bayer-Topilsky - Oxford Journals, 2015 - British Journal of Social Work .
British Journal of Social Work, 2015, 45(6): 1771-1787
Whether the decision-making process for children at risk is biased against families from lower socio-economic or minority statuses remains a vexing question for social work practice and research. This study successfully isolates the subjective decision-making process and the intervening effect of overexposure of disadvantaged families to the welfare system by utilising a vignette-based factorial survey. The vignettes were drawn from actual welfare files of high, low and ambiguous risk and then edited to correspond with the experimental manipulation. One hundred and five child welfare case workers were asked to evaluate the vignettes, as follows: (i) to assess the level of risk to the child (‘subjective risk’) and (ii) to decide whether they would recommend out-of-home placement. (from the abstract). Record #4822
CHILD PROTECTION
RISK ASSESSMENT
SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE
SOCIOECONOMIC FACTORS
CHILD ABUSE
Reasoning and bias : heuristics in safety assessment and placement decisions for children at risk Guy Enosh & Tali Bayer-Topilsky - Oxford Journals, 2015 - British Journal of Social Work .
British Journal of Social Work, 2015, 45(6): 1771-1787
Whether the decision-making process for children at risk is biased against families from lower socio-economic or minority statuses remains a vexing question for social work practice and research. This study successfully isolates the subjective decision-making process and the intervening effect of overexposure of disadvantaged families to the welfare system by utilising a vignette-based factorial survey. The vignettes were drawn from actual welfare files of high, low and ambiguous risk and then edited to correspond with the experimental manipulation. One hundred and five child welfare case workers were asked to evaluate the vignettes, as follows: (i) to assess the level of risk to the child (‘subjective risk’) and (ii) to decide whether they would recommend out-of-home placement. (from the abstract). Record #4822
CHILD PROTECTION
RISK ASSESSMENT
SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE
SOCIOECONOMIC FACTORS
CHILD ABUSE