Maltreatment in Early Childhood Tools for Research-Based Intervention

Detect and put a stop to child abuse!

For mental health professionals, social workers, legal professionals, and policy makers, Maltreatment in Early Childhood: Tools for Research-Based Intervention examines strategies and ideas for professional training in child protection in the United States. Derived from presentations at the San Diego Conference Responding to Child Maltreatment, this book addresses current assessment issues, the intersection of child maltreatment and other social problems, the history of child protection, and the intricacies of courtroom testimonies, and provides guidance for case management. Through insight into research and case studies, Maltreatment in Early Childhood explores effective approaches to child-friendly services, multivictim cases, therapy, and victim recantation to help you assist sexually abused children or children who have witnessed domestic abuse.

Addressing a variety of challenges that face all those involved with youth in need of assistance due to abuse, this informative book examines why children of different racial identities may display different secret-keeping behavior, and presents a variety of approaches that encourage clients to talk about their situation.

Maltreatment in Early Childhood explores child abuse from a historical and political context, and discusses key issues relating to all facets of this social problem, including:

• understanding the pros and cons of asking children to recall their experiences through specific types of questions, such as invitational questions and less preferred questions, which may or may not reveal true answers
• deciding if the Validity Checklist, the second part of the Analysis procedure, is able to determine truthfulness of allegations in child sexual abuse cases
• testing the efficacy of the model designed at the National Children's Advocacy Center (NCAC), which may be used to validate abuse and determine if children's statements are accurate
• overcoming difficulties in the child protection system, including the probability of multiple interviews and potential contamination of children's narratives by a variety of sources, to produce fair evaluations and successful prosecutions
  
  With tables and charts that will help you easily explore research findings, Maltreatment in Early Childhood provides you with the information you need in order to determine the truth of children's statements, how to present statements in court, and how to affect changes that will protect and assist victims of childhood sexual abuse.