Despite substantial research documenting the relative equivalent risk for unsubstantiated or substantiated reports of child maltreatment [18–22], a records purge cycle was enacted by law in 2003, which mandated the purging of any unsubstantiated case without recurrence or service within 3 years and any substantiated cases without recurrence or services within 10 years. In other words, either the subsequent receipt of formal service or a recurrence before the purge date extends the retention period for the record. The total proportion of all records purged is unknown, but could represent up to one third of all reports ever made on the children in this study. Maltreatment recurrence following first-time reports in Missouri data is on the order of 50%. [23] We note that maltreatment report rates in Missouri have been fairly consistent over the period from 1997–2006. [24]
