Prevalence rates of substantiated and adjudicated ethics violations

Abstract

Summary

This exploratory study examined the ethics violation data from one state’s licensing agency over a 28-year period, from 1985 through 2013. This study used descriptive statistics and chi-square analysis of the data to determine occurrence and prevalence rates in 592 cases. Violations were grouped into seven categories, and days before a license complaint was filed were also examined: dates ranged from 8 years before a license was issued (fraud on license application) to 28 years after being licensed. There were 389 females and 203 males in the sample, with 430 holding a social work license, 160 professional counselors, and 2 marriage and family therapists.

Findings

Of the 592 substantiated and adjudicated cases, 221 related to violations involving licensure, with 169 of those failure to comply with continuing education requirements, and most of those by professionals who have been licensed 10 or more years. Additionally, 156 violations involved boundary crossings, only of which 36 involved sexual boundary violations. Of those involving sexual contact, 22 were by female professionals and 14 by males. An additional 12 cases involved inappropriate sexual relations, but these were unrelated to professional practice. Overall, sexually involved cases represented a little over 8% of the cases, while licensure issues represented 38% of the cases.

Applications

Understanding which violations occur with more frequency enables social work educators to incorporate understanding the ethics of the social work into academic curriculum. Further study enables the profession to look at both what occurs and how that impacts clients, workers, and the public trust.