The Recurrence of Maltreatment of Children - an Indicator of the Effectiveness of Social Services?

The main objective of this article is to bring into attention and to present the situation of repeteated cases of child maltreatment as these are highlighted in several studies and reports in other countries. We present and analyze a series of approaches of the recurrence term from the foreign literature and the results of research who are showing the incidence of this phenomenon for different forms of maltreatment (abuse and/or neglect), age, gender and other variables. Finally, it discusses aspects related to the complexity of factors that can interven and affect the quality of different types of services provided to children and families in which there was an episode of abuse and /or neglect.