Citation

Hershkowitz I, Melkman EP, Zur R. Child Maltreat. 2018; 23(2): 196-206.

Affiliation

3 Child Investigations Service, Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, Jerusalem, Israel.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/1077559517734059

PMID

29034734

Abstract

A large national sample of 4,775 reports of child physical and sexual abuse made in Israel in 2014 was analyzed in order to examine whether assessments of credibility would vary according to abuse type, physical or sexual, and whether child and event characteristics contributing to the probability that reports of abuse would be determined as credible would be similar or different in child physical abuse (CPA) and child sexual abuse (CSA) cases.

RESULTS revealed that CPA reports were less likely to be viewed as credible (41.9%) compared to CSA reports (56.7%). Multigroup path analysis, however, indicated equivalence in predicting factors. In a unified model for both types of abuse, salient predictors of a credible judgment were older age, lack of a cognitive delay, and the alleged abusive event being a onetime less severe act. Over and beyond the effects of these factors, abuse type significantly contributed to the prediction of credibility judgments.

Language: en

Keywords

child physical abuse; child sexual abuse; credibility assessment; forensic evaluation; professional judgments