CIS Overview
The Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect (CIS) is a national effort to collect data on children who come to the attention of a child welfare authority due to alleged or suspected abuse and/or neglect in the year the study is conducted. Prior to 1998, there were no reliable national data on the reported incidence of child abuse and neglect in Canada. The primary objective of the CIS is to provide a reliable estimate of the incidence of reported child abuse and neglect. A second objective of the CIS is to compare findings over time. As a result, data collection for the CIS is completed in five- year cycles. The first cycle of the CIS data collection was conducted in 1998 and acts as a baseline against which future cycles of the study can be compared.
In addition to documenting overall changes in rates of reported and investigated physical abuse, sexual abuse, neglect, and emotional maltreatment, the CIS monitors short-term investigation outcomes, including: substantiated maltreatment rates, placement of children in care, use of child welfare court, and criminal prosecution. By conducting five-year cycles, the CIS allows for comparisons over time to be made. For example, the cycles of 1998 and 2003 have documented that Aboriginal children tend to be over-represented at every stage of child welfare intervention, including investigative reports, substantiation of maltreatment, and admission into formal child welfare care. Data from the CIS has been used to guide research, policy, and child welfare service provision.
Data collection for 2008 cycle of the Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect (CIS-2008) is complete. Thirty Site Researchers have collected data from 116 child welfare agencies across Canada in ten provinces and three territories, involving almost 2,000 child welfare workers. Nearly 17,000 CIS forms have been completed and reviewed for missing information or inconsistencies prior to being scanned into the database. Data cleaning will continue into late 2009, and the final report will be released in the fall of 2010. In addition to the CIS-2008 Major Findings Report, 5 provincial incidence reports (British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario & Quebec) will be produced as well as a First Nations Incidence Report (FNCIS-2008).
