Child Sexual Abuse : Intervention and Treatment

by Child Welfare Information Gateway

The manual addresses the needs of professionals regarding child sexual abuse, describes professional practices, and discusses how to assist sexually abused children and their families. Treatment techniques for the victim, the nonoffending parent or mother, and the offending father are offered, and research on reliability and suggestibility of child witnesses is reviewed briefly. The focus of the manual is on case management and substantiation and is designed to assist child protection workers, child abuse investigation and mental health staff, legal professionals, and education and health care professionals. Child interviewing techniques and sample questions are included. The document contains a glossary ...

Preface

The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act was signed into law in 1974. Since that time, the Federal Government has served as a catalyst to mobilize society's social service, mental health, medical, educational, legal, and law enforcement resources to address the challenges in the prevention and treatment of child abuse and neglect. In 1977, in one of its early efforts to achieve this goal, the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect (NCCAN) developed 21 manuals (the User Manual Series) to provide guidance to professionals involved in the child protection system and to enhance community collaboration and the quality of services provided to children and families. Some manuals described professional roles and responsibilities in the prevention, identification, and treatment of child maltreatment. Other manuals in the series addressed special topics, for example, adolescent abuse and neglect.

Our understanding of the complex problems of child abuse and neglect has increased dramatically since the user manuals were first developed. This increased knowledge has improved our ability to intervene effectively in the lives of troubled families. Likewise, we have a better grasp of what we can do to prevent child abuse and neglect from occurring. Further, our knowledge of the unique roles key professionals can play in child protection has been more clearly defined, and a great deal has been learned about how to enhance coordination and collaboration of community agencies and professionals. Finally, we are facing today new and more serious problems in families who maltreat their children. For example, there is a significant percentage of families known to Child Protective Services (CPS) who are experiencing substance abuse problems; the first reference to drug-exposed infants appeared in the literature in 1985.

Because our knowledge base has increased significantly and the state of the art of practice has improved considerably, NCCAN has updated the User Manual Series by revising many of the existing manuals and creating new manuals that address current innovations, concerns, and issues in the prevention and treatment of child maltreatment.

This manual is intended to address the needs of professionals who encounter child sexual abuse in the course of their work. It describes professional practices in sexual abuse and discusses "how to" address the problems of sexually abused children and their families. It is not designed for laypersons, and it makes an assumption that the reader has basic information about sexual abuse.

Professionals from a range of disciplines and with varying levels and types of training confront child sexual abuse in their work. This manual is designed to be useful to all of them. It should meet the needs of child protection workers, the front line staff mandated to investigate reports of child maltreatment. Legal professionals, including judges, guardians ad litem, prosecutors, family lawyers, and law enforcement personnel, should find the manual informative. It should be valuable to mental health personnel: social workers, psychologists, and psychiatrists, who have responsibilities for reporting, diagnosing, and treating child sexual abuse. Educators and health care professionals, including the full range of physicians likely to be asked to examine sexually abused children; nurses; and other medical specialists will also benefit from the material in the manual.

The manual cannot substitute for the discipline-specific training of the professions. Moreover, the manual does not cover all aspects of child sexual abuse in depth. Issues regarding substantiation and case management are explored in greater depth than treatment techniques and research. In addition, specialized legal and medical information regarding sexual abuse is not covered in this manual.

Working In The Field Of Child Sexual Abuse

Emotional reactions to child sexual abuse are to be expected and are normal. However, it is important to recognize them and to prevent them from impairing our professional judgment or interfering with our role performance. This chapter examines the following issues: universal emotional reactions to child sexual abuse, the impact of the professional's gender, the role of socioeconomic and professional status, the effect of personal experiences, and coping with personal issues. In addition, this chapter describes how to incorporate a victim-centered approach into our work when there are competing case concerns.

The Professional as a Person

Despite education and training, which specifies how to perform our professional roles, each of us has personal reactions to our work. Child sexual abuse probably arouses more personal reactions than many of the problems we encounter. Although these may become less intense over time, they do not disappear. Nevertheless, they should not be regarded as a sign of inadequate role performance. After all, if we had no emotional reaction to the plight of a sexually abused child or a father facing a life sentence in prison, something would be wrong with us.

About the Author

www.childwelfare.gov
Formerly the National Clearinghouse on Child Abuse and Neglect Information and the National Adoption Information Clearinghouse, Child Welfare Information Gateway provides access to information and resources to help protect children and strengthen families. A service of the Children's Bureau, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.