Introduction and Volume Overview

The field of child maltreatment science has seen significant investment and growth in the use of administrative data to conduct research that informs policies and practices affecting child protective services (CPS) and child welfare system activities. Administrative data refers to data collected by public agencies to support day-to-day operations, record keeping, billing, or similar activities. Research utilizing administrative data not only offers a number of advantages, such as availability of large, population-level samples and greater time- and cost-efficiencies but also poses challenges such as limits to input on the scope or content of data systems, and possible limits or barriers to access. Increasingly, child maltreatment researchers are working with administrative data from child welfare and other systems (e.g., health care, education, justice, or other public systems) to create integrated data systems, which expand the range of outcomes and research questions that may be investigated through administrative data resources. This chapter provides a brief overview of the strengths and limitations of administrative and integrated data systems, as well as providing a summary of the areas addressed by chapters in the volume.