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Devising Child-Friendly Practices Besides credibility, another special problem requires a special solution: Testifying in legal proceedings can add to the suffering of victimized children. To avoid further traumatizing these youngsters, the idea of developing a child-friendly courtroom setting and protocol quickly caught on (see Libai, 1969). The right to a public trial always has protected […]

The Credibility of Children as Witnesses A 15-year-old boy testifies that a world-renowned pop singer invited him to his mansion for sleepover parties, got him drunk, and then molested him on several occasions two years earlier while he was undergoing treatment for cancer. The boy’s younger brother takes the stand and claims he saw the

ABUSED CHILDREN AND LEGAL PROCEEDINGS Children who survive kidnappings or endure phys- ical and sexual abuse need to bring their problems to the attention of the authorities. Detectives and prosecutors must test the veracity of their accounts in a sensitive manner. If their charges seem credible and adults are arrested on the basis of their

Strange Allegations of Child Sexual Abuse During Rituals A deputy sheriff is arrested and charged with sexually abusing his two daughters, now 18 and 22. Soon the charges emanating from the devoutly religious 22-year-old (who has a history of making unsubstantiated complaints about sexual abuse) grow to alarming proportions: she claims to have attended 850

The Furor over Recalling Repressed Memories of Childhood Sexual Abuse A therapist who is also a sociologist writes a memoir in which she claims that she can now remember how her father abused her when she was a little girl. She believes she has finally figured out why she suffered pain and bleeding between her

More Controversies Surrounding Childhood Sexual Abuse Intense controversies have broken out over the real extent of sexual abuse during childhood. One area of contention surrounds charges of parent–child incest, especially allegations of father–daughter (and stepfather–daughter) sexual contacts. These accusa- tions usually arise during divorce proceedings or shortly afterward. In addition, molestation charges sometimes are leveled

Trends in the Rate of Child Abuse As for changes over time, the fourth NIS study found that maltreatment declined by 26 percent since the third NIS survey in 1993. The level of maltreatment in 2005–2006 had dropped to the level observed in the second NIS survey, which was carried out in 1986. In other

Maximalist Versus Minimalist Approaches to the Seriousness of the Problem Maximalist Arguments The maximalist perspec- tive contends that the time has come to reject the reluctance of earlier generations to face the facts and to recognize the enormity of the crisis. Parents are abusing and neglecting their children in record numbers, and pedophiles, sadistic adolescents,

Estimates of the Incidence, Prevalence, and Seriousness of Child Abuse The U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO, 2011) issued a report that concluded that more accurate statistics are needed because it is difficult to determine the true depth and breadth of the problem in the absence of reliable information. The two official sources of crime statistics,

The Rediscovery of Child Abuse Beliefs about what constitutes child abuse— physical, sexual, and emotional—remain the sub- ject of much debate. Legal definitions of child maltreatment and neglect clearly are socially con- structed: They evolve as time passes, and they dif- fer from country to country and even between subcultures within a society. For centuries,