Objective: To describe trends of felony sexual abuse prosecutions between 1992 and 2002 for two districts of a large urban city that differed primarily in their use of children's advocacy centers (CACs) for sexual abuse evaluations in children. Methods: Aggregate data for two districts of a large urban city were provided from 1992 to 2002 from the…

Objective: This study was designed to identify the frequency, methods, and practices of universal assessments for domestic violence (DV) within child advocacy centers (CACs) and determine which factors are associated with CACs that conduct universal DV assessments. Methods: The study design was a cross-sectional, web-based survey distributed to…

Objectives: The study examines street children's daily lives in Khartoum, Sudan to recommend ways to improve their conditions and to successfully assist them off the streets. Methods: In 2000-2001, eight researchers conducted participant observation for 7 weeks; 20 groups of children engaged in role-plays and drawing activities; over 500 children…

Objective: This study examines the impact of Children's Advocacy Centers (CAC) and other factors, such as the child's age, alleged penetration, and injury on the use of forensic medical examinations as part of the response to reported child sexual abuse. Methods: This analysis is part of a quasi-experimental study, the Multi-Site Evaluation of…

Objectives: This study compared health care assessments, referrals, treatment, and outcomes for young adolescent sexual assault/sexual abuse victims seen at a hospital-based Child Advocacy Center (CAC), to that provided to similar victims evaluated by other community providers. A second purpose was to document how common DNA evidence is found…

Background: Immediate medical assessment has been recommended for children after sexual abuse to identify physical injuries, secure forensic evidence, and provide for the safety of the child. However, it is unclear whether young children seen urgently within 72 hours of reported sexual contact would have higher frequencies of interview or…

Objective: Child Advocacy Centers (CACs) are designed to improve the community collaborative response to child sexual abuse and the criminal justice processing of child sexual abuse cases. CACs, in existence for 16 years, now have standards for membership developed by the National Children's Alliance (NCA) that include nine core components. And…

This commentary discusses the end of the use of corporal punishment as a potentially important aspect of primary prevention of physical abuse, explains why this potential has been ignored, and suggests that ending use of corporal punishment should become an explicit goal of those concerned with preventing physical abuse. (Contains references.)…

This lecture examines problems of global child abuse from a human rights perspective, balancing the "good news" of the international concern for children's welfare against the scale of the crisis it reflects. The author recommends that child advocates embrace a "pessioptimistic" attitude, acknowledging these extremes by disallowing both naivete…

Court-appointed child advocates, attorneys, guardians ad litem, and therapists (total n=116) made custody decisions and abuse likelihood ratings for children in one of two vignettes that varied as to whether mother or father was incompetent to parent without threat of further abuse. Decisions were not affected by sex role stereotypes,…

Thirty-one child forensic mental health professionals specializing in cases involving allegations of sexual abuse were surveyed to assess their normative evaluation and testimony practices with respect to clinical interviews and child psychosocial assessment. Survey questions covered the evaluation process and methods, the limits of expert…

Explores current and future challenges to children in Europe. Social trends and the impact on European family life are analyzed, including having smaller families and delaying childbearing. Discusses the need to collect data on children in the European Union and to establish pan-European child protection policies. (CR)