Children 's Assessment Center Research Analysis

Attentively, I watched a television from a large wooden table, crammed into a small interview room. As the young child on the screen painfully disclosed years of horrific abuse and neglect to a forensic interviewer, I observed in silence. Surrounded by a multi-disciplinary team of police officers, Department of Child Services case managers, advocates and prosecutors, I knew my purpose. I wanted to be a voice for those who were unable to speak and advocate for themselves. My internship with the St. Joseph County Prosecutor’s Office, Special Victims and Family Violence Unit, allowed me the opportunity to explore my interest in the legal system and helped kindle my passion for child welfare.

The Children’s Alliance of Hawaii is an agency that works to provide support and care for children who have been victims of sexually abused. For many years, they’ve been working to provide services that will support the development of these children and help them heal from traumatic experiences. The children are exposed to healthy environments where they’re able to rebuild trust, self confidence, and self esteem. This organization also works to ensure that these children develop the skills needed to move into becoming adults in a healthy way. Every year, the Children’s Alliance of Hawaii serves more than 300 children up to age 18 that have experienced sexual abuse.

Testimonies from children who have experienced sexual assault can mean the difference between guilty and not guilty verdicts for the defendant. Often times child victims are psychologically and even physically harmed jeopardizing their statements during the trial. There are a number of reasons for children to be unable to give full accounts of what has occurred to them. For the purpose of protecting child victims and making sure they are heard the courts have implemented innovations that make testifying less traumatic for children and allow for a more accurate description of the assault. Hearsay testimonies are one of the innovations that have been shown to give child victims of sexual assault the chance to be fully heard. Victims directly

In any child abuse investigation, collecting as much information about the charges in question is key. This is accomplished with gathering evidence and conducting interviews with people associated with the child. This also includes interviews with the child. In this paper I will discuss the importance of this interview, called a forensic interview, and a widely used interview technique with children victims of possible child abuse.

This research paper investigates children’s testimony in judicial proceedings throughout the past few decades. An increase in child abuse allegations in the 1980s resulted in mass allegations throughout the United States. As a result, a child is interviewed by law enforcement and social workers regarding what happened during specific incidents. Tactics to acquire the testimony of the children has been up for debate by the judicial system and psychologists. These tactics include suggestibility, repeated questions, or stereotyping that may alter the testimony of children to accommodate interviewers biases, knowingly and unknowingly, resulting in false arrests and imprisonments. Psychological research has initiated a growing concern

Though the CAC offer resources primarily to the child victims; I recognized a need to advocate for the parents and guardians of the children far beyond parenting classes. By conducting assessments and intakes with the parents and guardians of these children I recognized the physical and emotional impact the child endured affected the family as a whole. One can take into consideration that the child's first source of support comes from those in their immediate environment. So to advocate for resources designed to aid the parents to cope and maintain stability within their lives drove me to advocate on their behalf. Therefore because the center's resources are primarily intended to assist the children, such as mandatory referral for therapy to children, who disclose abuse as, well as supplemental insurance, which helps; when applicable to pay for treatments needed on the child's behalf.

When speaking with Nila Grahl, the manager of the Kenosha County Child Advocacy Center (KCCAC), she shared that the main goal was to provide access to a safe and supportive space for children to disclose information about abuse. This goal is the reason that the center provides, “legally sound forensic interviews of child victims and special needs adults in accordance with research based practice” (Sexual Assault Response Team Kenosha County, 22, n.d.)The research based practice and child-centered environment created by the center leads them down a path to successfully aide a child or family in need.

The diagnosis of sexual abuse in children has substantial implications legally, communally and emotionally for the child, the parents and the clinician. Therefore, the FNP must consider the medical-legal implication of the interview with the patient, the parents as well as the history and physical exam of the child. Careful documentation of all findings from the visit is vital to the advocacy of the patient (Burns, et al, 2013).

The beliefs that children are unable invent stories about sexual abuse led to the imprisonment of many innocent people. This outbreak of sexual abuse cases started of in the early 80s, where children claimed that their teacher, parent, doctor, or baby sitter sexually abused them. When a person is sexually abused one expects to see physical signs of “sexual penetration” that provide solid evidence to support a case. However, there are some cases where there are no physical signs present to prove that the child was sexually abused. According to Brainerd and Reyna, “when tissue damage is present, this is not in itself reliable evidence of sexual penetration because these injuries can occur in many ways. As a rule, damage to vaginal or rectal tissue is only a reliable indicator of sexual penetration when it is accompanied by bodily fluids, tissue, or hair from the perpetrator.” When such cases are apparent, the court should not only rely on the child’s memory to decide whether the

The interviews did not clearly set out the sexually orientated premise of the interview as the basis of informing the child of the sexual abuse allegations. In this manner, Hagborg et al (2104) describes this type of initial description of the interview as a detriment to the sexual definitions of the interview based on “ disclosure studies concerning CSA that it was important that the interviewers clearly marked, by being straightforward with the sexual material” (p.170). In this manner, the interview

Along with the normal outcomes of unjust allegations and guilty verdict, those believed to be sex offenders, particularly child abusers, are subject to the negative outcomes of the humiliation. The locations and names of the reported child abuser/sex offenders are recognized by news reports and registers, endangering them to maltreatment and track by groups that are against pedophiles (Cross, 2005). It is understandable that for those who are unlawfully accused of rape the consequences are typically demoralizing, even though the allegations do not end in criminal actions. Truly, an undetermined amount of abuse accusations do not

McPherson, Scribano, and Stevens (2012) defined child sexual abuse as, “engaging a child in sexual activities that the child cannot comprehend, for which the child is developmentally unprepared and cannot give informed consent” (p. 27). The number of affected women in the United States is about 26% and the number of affected men is 16% (Perez-Fuentas, Olfson, Villegas, Morcillo, Wang, & Blanco, 2013). However, as all crimes go, not every single case has been reported. Whether reported or not, child sexual abuse is a very serious crime that can affect the victims tremendously. Retrieving counseling for these victims of child sexual abuse is substantial in helping the child live a fruitful live post-abuse. Trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy as

The Human Services Organization I analyzed is New Beginnings. New Beginnings is an agency that provides sexual assault support services in Daviess, Hancock, Henderson, McLean, Ohio, Union, and Webster counties. The clients of this organization have all been affected by sexual assault or child sexual abuse. Issues within clients are best described as acute trauma responses or chronic trauma, such as sexual difficulties or loss of trust. In order to analyze this agency as efficiently as possible, I interviewed Terri Crowe, the Advocacy Coordinator, from New Beginnings. Terri was able to provide very useful information regarding this organization and how it ticks. Although New Beginnings provides services to seven different counties, there are

Child sexual abuse has been reported up to 80,000 times a year, but the number of unreported instances is far greater, because the children are afraid to tell anyone what has happened (American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry). Childhood sexual abuse is a traumatic experience affecting the lives of not only the victim, but those close to the victim as well. Many think there is only one person truly traumatized, but in fact, everyone involved is affected. The victim has to deal with their experience the rest of their lives. They may be more at risk for other mental issues as well, including depression. The family involved has to deal with its pain, often causing hardship and discord within the family. This is especially true

Sexual abuse to children happens across every socioeconomic status, ethnic, cultural, religion and education. Getting treatment for a victim of child sexual abuse is a difficult process because of the lack of trust by the child. When child sexual abuse occurs the victim’s family has a difficult time talking about the abuse, which leads to the family pretending the abuse never happened. Once the family