Citation

Carnes CN, Nelson-Gardell D, Wilson C, Orgassa UC. Child Maltreat. 2001; 6(3): 230-242.

Affiliation

National Children's Advocacy Center, Huntsville, Alabama, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2001, American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

11471630

Abstract

A subset of children referred due to suspected sexual abuse require more than one interview for professionals to reach an opinion about the veracity of allegations. The National Children's Advocacy Center's forensic evaluation model was designed for that specific group of children. The multisite study of the model reported here followed a 2-year pilot study. Professionals in 12 states adopted the model and collected data for 2 years on a total of 147 participants. In 44.5% of the cases, a credible disclosure was obtained, with 73% of these cases supported in the legal system. The forensic evaluation procedure yielded clear information to be used in child protection and prosecutory decisions in 64% of the cases (combining cases with credible disclosures and abuse unlikely findings). Finally, the study examined the effects of the length of the evaluation and of the case and child characteristics on evaluation outcomes.

Language: en