Responding to Child Maltreatment: A framework for mapping child protection agencies

This report aims to gather data on legal, health and social services responses to child maltreatment. The first step in this mapping exercise is to map out the network of agencies and organizations tasked with responding to child maltreatment, including government-run child protective services, child protection teams at hospitals, not-for-profit helplines, psychotherapists at private practices and community-based child welfare organizations, to name a few examples. This paper offers a framework for mapping child protection along the dimensions of levels of authority, functions and processes. Beyond high-income countries with well-established child protection systems, it gives special consideration to informal structures such as councils of community leaders and non-governmental organizations’ consortiums in low-income countries.