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GUIDING PRINCIPLES IN ASSESSING CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE CASES

GUIDING PRINCIPLES IN ASSESSING CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE CASES. Guiding Principle #1: Children’s Safety and Welfare Always Come First!. The law and APA guidelines make it clear that when children are involved it is the children’s best interests that should always be given top priority

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GUIDING PRINCIPLES IN ASSESSING CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE CASES

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  1. GUIDING PRINCIPLESIN ASSESSING CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE CASES

  2. Guiding Principle #1:Children’s Safety and Welfare Always Come First! • The law and APA guidelines make it clear that when children are involved it is the children’s best interests that should always be given top priority • The child’s best interests and safety are more important than: • The wishes of the adults involved in the case • The therapeutic relationship

  3. Guiding Principle #2 The Goal of Every Child Sexual Abuse Evaluation Should be to Arrive at the Truth

  4. Case Vignette: “Alicia”What is ‘the truth’ in this case?

  5. What was the major mistake that the investigators made in the “Alicia” case ? • ________________________________

  6. What is the greatest obstacleto arriving at the truth in all CSA Cases? • The natural human tendency to jump to conclusions • When we think we already “know” what happened, there’s no reason to consider or investigate other possibilities

  7. What Are the Costs Associated With Mistakenly Concluding that Abuse Occurred or that the Wrong Person was the Abuser? • An innocent person could lose their freedom (prison); their money (defense costs/job loss); their relationships (marriage, children, friends); their reputation; their sanity. • An innocent child could lose a loving parent; their mental health; their standard of living. • Other family members are adversely impacted, i.e., the non-offending parent, siblings, etc.

  8. What are the Costs Associated With Failing to Detect Sexual Abuse? • The identified victim continues to be abused. • The victim fails to receive support and appropriate services. • The perpetrator is likely to abuse other children.

  9. Mistaken Judgments in Either Direction are Extremely Costly!

  10. When evaluating for possible sexual abuse, focusing on only ONE possibility causes us to ignore OTHER possibilities

  11. TYPES OF BIASES WHEN EVALUATING FOR POSSIBLE CSA • “Confirmatory Bias” • “Disconfirmatory Bias” • Both types of bias involve jumping to conclusions, then seeking to prove that those conclusions are correct • Objectivity is lost and ‘the truth’ is obscured when this happens

  12. CONFIRMATORY BIAS • Jumping to the conclusion that the child was sexually abused then seeking information that confirms that conclusion, while ignoring information that does not support that conclusion • The child is displaying abnormal sexual behavior so she must have been sexually abused • Ignoring the possibility that the child may be imitating something she saw her parents doing when they thought she was sleeping

  13. DISCONFIRMAORY BIAS • Jumping to the conclusion that the child was not sexually abused then seeking information that disconfirms sexual abuse, while ignoring information that the child was sexually abused • The child’s allegations came forth during an acrimonious custody battle, therefore the child must have been ‘coached’ by her angry mother to make false allegations against her father • Ignoring the fact that neither the mother nor the child had anything to gain by making false sexual abuse allegations

  14. How Can Psychologists Avoid “Jumping to Conclusions” When Performing CSA Evaluations? • Always consider MULTIPLE hypotheses • Develop at least three hypotheses for every case at the outset, and explore the merits of each one

  15. Some Possible Theories When Child Sexual Abuse is Suspected • The child was sexually abused • The child was not sexually abused: • the child’s allegations were misunderstood • the child was inadvertently led to make false allegations • the child was deliberately coached to make false allegations • the allegations are deliberate fabrications

  16. Remember . . . First impressions can be misleading

  17. KEY POINTS IN EVALUATING CSA CASES • Children’s safety and welfare are paramount • The goal of every CSA screening/evaluation is to arrive at the truth • The greatest obstacle to arriving at the truth is the natural tendency to “jump to conclusions” • Developing at least three theories at the outset and investigating the merits of eachis a powerful antidote to jumping to conclusions

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