Surveillance in youth protection: The figures' waltz
To estimate the frequency of child maltreatment presents many conceptual, methodological and technical challenges. The method to conceive the maltreatment and to measure its frequency will influence the obtained estimate. This will eventually have an impact on the services to be offered to prevent the problem, notably in youth protection. These services must be well-documented and their efficiency evaluated, which again presents new challenges. For instance, let us mention performance indicators such as the recurrence rate, the average duration of intervention and the service discontinuity rate. The purpose of the present text is to think about how we make use of the numbers in youth protection. This reflection will reveal the urgency to establish reliable indicators for the follow-up of the phenomenon of maltreatment and the practices. Concrete action avenues are suggested to improve our understanding, our knowledge and our surveillance of the phenomenon of maltreatment.