The CAP Inventory is a screening tool for the detection of physical child abuse to be used by protective services workers in their investigations of reported child abuse cases.

• This 160-item self-report screening instrument is given to the parent or caregiver who is suspected of abuse.
• The primary clinical scale (Abuse) can be divided into six factor scales: Distress, Rigidity, Unhappiness, Problems With Child and Self, Problems With Family, and Problems With Others.
• Contains three validity scales: Lie, Random Response, and Inconsistency.
• The Abuse scale has high internal consistency reliabilities (.92-.96 for controls and .95-.98 for abusers); test-retest estimates for the Abuse scale also are strong (.91 and .75 for 1-day and 3-month intervals, respectively).
• Manual includes information about administration, scoring, and interpretation procedures; an Interpretive Manual for the Child Abuse Potential Inventory provides additional information for interpretation of the CAP Inventory, including applications, limitations, scale descriptions, and references.
• Intervention/treatment programs have successfully used the CAP Inventory at pre- and post-treatment and on a follow-up basis to assist in program evaluation.