Analyzes data from 4,313 Wisconsin Central Registry of Child Abuse reports (1973-1978) to determine that initial social worker investigations of child abuse contain weak predictors on the probability of a subsequent incident and that the prediction may be different in metropolitan and nonmetropolitan environments. (Author/LC)

Since the phenomenon of reabuse is postulated as being more probable after initial child abuse than is the probability of an initial abuse and since only modest inquiry has been directed at this phenomenon, research was conducted to answer two questions: Is there patterning to reabuse? And if so, is this different in metro and nonmetro…