Andreas Jud

Combating domestic violence and intimate partner violence (IPV) is an essential part of human rights and is – among other legislative frameworks – regulated in Europe by the Istanbul Convention. The convention obliges its member countries to conduct regular prevalence studies on domestic violence. Despite this obligation, Germany, as a member state, lacks comprehensive and up-to-date data on parts of the topic. Previous German studies have largely focused on women as victims and men as perpetrators of IPV. This study is one of the first to comprehensively map the epidemiology of IPV perpetration in Germany in general and the perpetration of its subtypes. In a secondary analysis, the prevalence rates of IPV perpetration were calculated for a nationwide representative randomized sample of n = 2,503, gender differences were analyzed, and predictors’ impact was identified using logistic regression. Almost every second participant reported being an IPV perpetrator throughout his/her life. The most common subtype perpetrated was psychological IPV (47.7%), followed by sexual (8.3%), economical (5.9%), and physical (4.0%) IPV. Lifetime experiences of violence (adverse childhood experiences, witnessing IPV, and own IPV victimization) and demographic variables (gender, age, unemployment, and poverty) were used to predict perpetration: male respondents were significantly more likely to be perpetrators of sexual and psychological violence. All types of experiences of violence predicted IPV perpetration, with IPV victimization emerging as the strongest predictor. Experiencing or witnessing violence during childhood was the only predictor for regularly repeated perpetration. The significant connection between experiencing violence in childhood and later IPV perpetration further highlights that prevention of violence in childhood will not only diminish individual suffering but also help to interrupt cycles of violence.

Hospital administrative data are widely used to monitor child physical abuse (CPA), but coding is often inconsistent. We described the national frequency and distribution of CPA-related coding in German administrative data and assessed how ICD-10-GM indicators and procedural coding influence ascertainment and temporal trends. We analysed aggregated German hospital data from the InEK data browser (2019–2024, ages 0–17 years), comparing T74.1 with broader indicator sets (a validated algorithm adapted to ICD-10-GM and an extended German set) and capturing procedural safeguarding documentation (OPS 1–945.x). We summarised principal diagnoses among hospitalisations with CPA-related coding and quantified CPA-related coding among admissions with predefined abuse-relevant injuries (fractures, haematomas) in children aged 0–2 years, a group at increased risk of physical abuse. CPA-related diagnostic coding remained rare (< 0.5% of annual admissions excluding procedural codes) but increased from 2019 to 2024, driven mainly by assessment- and psychosocial-context indicators (particularly Z04.5 and Z65), whereas T74.1 was stable or declining. Several low-frequency codes showed pronounced year-to-year variability. OPS 1–945.x—a child-protection assessment of suspected endangerment rather than confirmed abuse—had the highest counts and increased, with a decline in 2022. CPA-related indicators were mainly associated with head injuries, most often traumatic subdural haemorrhage and concussion. Among children with abuse-relevant fractures and haematomas, explicit T74.1 coding occurred in only a small minority, whereas OPS 1–945.x was more frequent. Conclusion : These findings highlight the need for standardised coding guidance, validation of broader code sets, and training on administrative documentation to improve the surveillance value of hospital data. What is Known: • CPA is under-coded in hospital administrative data; T74.1 is rarely used. • Broader ICD/procedure-based definitions can increase case capture. What is New: • German national discharge data (2019–2024) show stable/declining T74.1 with rising Z04.5/Z65 and increasing procedural codes OPS 1–945.x. • Including the broader indicator and procedural codes (e.g., Z04.5, Z65, OPS 1–945.x) reveals a marked shift in how concerns about CPA are documented, with these codes increasingly used alongside or instead of T74.1, particularly among children admitted with abuse-relevant injuries.

Purpose: Assessing parental cooperation during child protection services (CPSs) interventions raises distinctive analytical challenges due to ambiguous, conflicting information. We compared reasoning language models (RLMs) to retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) in classifying parental cooperation from Swiss CPS reports. Methods: RLMs of three parameter sizes (255B, 32B, 4B) were benchmarked against a RAG-based approach using a consensus dataset of 100 reports independently classified by two expert human reviewers. Results: The largest RLM achieved the highest accuracy (89%), a nine-point improvement over RAG (80%), approaching expert inter-rater reliability (κ = 0.76). Accuracy was higher for mothers (93%) than fathers (85%), mirrored by expert reviewers. Applied to the full corpus, 31% of cases ( n = 3,900) had at least one parent with documented noncooperation. Discussion : RLMs outperformed RAG and approached expert reliability in classifying parental cooperation. Gender differences likely reflect documentation biases rather than model limitations, corroborating the stronger professional focus on mothers.

Recent studies have demonstrated that large language models (LLMs) can perform binary classification tasks on child welfare narratives, such as detecting the presence or absence of constructs such as substance-related problems, domestic violence, and firearms involvement. However, whether smaller locally deployable models can move beyond binary detection to classify specific substance types from these narratives remains untested. Validate a locally hosted LLM classifier for identifying specific substance types aligned with DSM-5 categories in child welfare investigation narratives. A locally hosted 20-billion-parameter LLM classified child maltreatment investigation narratives from a Midwestern U.S. state. Records previously identified as containing substace-related problems were passed to a second classification stage targeting seven DSM-5 substance categories. Expert human review of 900 stratified cases assessed classification precision, recall, and agreement with the criterion standard (Cohen's kappa). Model reproducibility was evaluated using approximately 15,000 independently classified records. Five substance categories achieved almost perfect criterion-standard agreement (κ = 0.94-1.00): alcohol, cannabis, opioid, stimulant, and sedative/hypnotic/anxiolytic. Classification precision ranged from 92% to 100% for these categories. Two low-prevalence categories (hallucinogen, inhalant) performed poorly. Run-to-run agreement ranged from 92.1% to 99.1% across the seven categories. A small, locally hosted LLM can reliably classify substance types from child welfare administrative text, extending prior work on binary classification to multi-label substance identification. Operating entirely on local hardware and requiring no changes to existing data collection, the pipeline supports substance-specific surveillance, retrospective trend analysis, and improved alignment of services with the substance profiles of investigated families.

Children are a particularly vulnerable group and, in northeast Nigeria, they are severely affected by Boko Haram terrorism. Although previous studies have looked at the effects of terrorism on children’s mental health, there is a lack of peer-reviewed studies on the effects of terrorism on adolescents’ psychosocial adjustment. This study addresses this gap with data on the consequences of Boko Haram terrorism in the northeast of Nigeria. A cross-sectional research design was adopted through systematic sampling. In total, 391 children who were directly affected by Boko Haram terrorism were surveyed. A majority of the sample was male (60.4%). Respondent age ranged from 11 to 23 years ( M = 18.00, SD = 2.83). Analyses revealed that 291 (74.42%) of the respondents reported severe traumatic exposure—a markedly increased percentage compared with prevalence rates in countries without conflict. The majority of respondents (70.4%) reported clinically significant symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD regularly co-occurred with other mental health and behavioral symptoms: depression, anxiety, and aggression. Terrorism-induced distress had an adverse effect on psychosocial adjustment ( R ² = .364, F (6, 385) p < .01). For example, it was found that children were restricted in their social life. Boko Haram terrorism has a devastating impact on adolescents’ mental health; most victims presented clinically relevant symptoms of PTSD. The victimized respondents were affected in their psychosocial adjustment to daily life and their educational development. Their vulnerability increases the risk of becoming potential recruits for terrorists. Supporting the victims would thus not only reduce their suffering but also decrease the likelihood of an ongoing cycle of violence.

Purpose: Domestic violence services (DV services) have faced a number of organizational challenges with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Qualified staff and additional financial resources were quickly needed to meet digitalization requirements; hygiene measures had to be implemented. The aim of this study is to analyze the relation between staff structure and the stress level of employees in the context of the pandemic by controlling for further organizational factors. Method: Survey data was collected online among professionals of German DV service institutions. The sample includes 232 participants. A negative binomial regression model was used to analyze the impact of organizational challenges on employees’ stress level. Results: Data provide evidence that a poor human resource structure increases the stress level of employees. The influence of additional financial requirements however seems negligible. The more the hygiene concept could be adapted to the individual situation of the facility, the less burden was placed on employees. Conclusion: In order to be able to strategically respond to challenges in environmental conditions, it is essential to examine the influence of organizational factors in social services. The adaptation of those factors helps to improve working conditions for professionals during environmental change.

Child maltreatment (CM) is a widespread and underreported public health concern with long-term physical and mental consequences. In Europe, access to timely, effective support remains limited. Inadequate responses exacerbate long-term outcomes and influence life course trajectories, with substantial societal and economic costs. The EU-funded SERENA project aims to improve access to health and social care (HSC) services for individuals who experience CM throughout Europe by enhancing detection and interventions, limiting consequences, and reducing societal burdens. SERENA takes an early life course perspective, and will examine HSC pathways before and after CM detection, assess related physical and mental health conditions, and evaluating the societal costs of CM. Two scoping reviews will examine quantitative and qualitative evidence on barriers and facilitators to access to HSC for children who experience CM, and their service pathways. A mixed methods study will combine quantitative analyses of nationwide longitudinal administrative HSC data from seven countries, supplemented by aggregated child protection data from 26 countries, with qualitative analyses of interviews with adult survivors of CM and HSC professionals in three countries. Examination of HSC pathways will enable us to identify the settings and stages where interventions can be targeted to improve outcomes for children with CM. We will also examine societal costs by analysing direct medical expenses, educational costs, and productivity losses in four countries. An interdisciplinary, participatory synthesis involving stakeholders and adult survivors of CM will assess services, define priority actions, and inform recommendations.SERENA, a consortium of 22 partners across Europe, represents the first multi-country, large-scale, cross-sectorial longitudinal initiative to comprehensively examine CM and HSC service use. By addressing critical evidence gaps, SERENA will provide operationally and economically viable recommendations to enhance service access and public health responses in Europe, with findings that are transferable to diverse international contexts.