In Birdy's Eyes:

Resources for Information, Training, and Technical Assistance

-Birdy

NOTE FROM BIRDY: Below I have given several resources that I have been using to 'fill-in' this Blog with, these resources are being made available to the reader should you need to also tap them for information.  The links are provided to you so that you may directly go to these websites through this Blog.  If you have found these links helpful please leave me a comment on this Blog.  -Birdy

American Academy of Pediatrics Department C: Sexual Abuse
P.O. Box 927
Elk Grove Village, IL 60009–0927
847–228–5005
847–228–5097 (fax)
www.aap.org

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) offers numerous materials for professionals working in the field of child abuse, including policy statements, a program on the visual diagnosis of child physical abuse, and resources for prevention, recognition, and treatment available in print and on CD–ROM. AAP also publishes a public education brochure on child sexual abuse.

American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children
407 South Dearborn, Suite 1300
Chicago, IL 60605
312–554–0166
312–554–0919 (fax)
www.apsac.org

The American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children (APSAC) is the Nation’s only interdisciplinary society for professionals working in the field of child abuse and neglect. It supports research, education, and advocacy that enhance efforts to respond to abused children, those who abuse them, and the conditions associated with their abuse. APSAC’s major goal is to promote effective interdisciplinary coordination and practice among the social workers, physicians, psychologists, researchers, attorneys, law enforcement officers, nurses, judges, educators, and allied professionals who respond to child maltreatment. APSAC is dedicated to:

• .Improving coordination among professionals in the field of child abuse prevention, identification, assessment, intervention, treatment, and research.
• .Developing national interdisciplinary practice guidelines for professionals who work with abused children, their families, offenders, and adult survivors of abuse.
• .Encouraging research in all fields of child maltreatment and disseminating research findings in usable form to all professionals in the field.
• .Furthering interdisciplinary professional education.
• .Providing guidance, support, and encouragement for professionals in this difficult field. APSAC’s annual colloquium offers advanced interdisciplinary professional education with seminars addressing all aspects of child maltreatment: prevention, assessment, intervention, and treatment with victims, perpetrators, and families affected by physical, sexual, and psychological abuse and neglect. These seminars are designed specifically for advanced professionals in mental health, law, medicine, law enforcement, child protective services, and allied fields.

Child Welfare League of America
440 First Street NW., Suite 310
Washington, DC 20001–2085
202–638–2952
202–638–4004 (fax)
www.cwla.org

The Child Welfare League of America (CWLA) is the Nation’s oldest and largest nonprofit organization developing and promoting policies and programs to protect children. CWLA’s membership comprises more than 1,000 public and not-for-profit agencies that provide a wide range of services to more than 2.5 million at-risk, abused, neglected, and otherwise vulnerable children and youth and their families. In cooperation with the State child welfare agencies, CWLA has developed the National Data Analysis System (NDAS), the Nation’s first comprehensive, interactive child welfare database. Accessed through CWLA’s Web site, NDAS promotes effective integration of research, policy, and practice by enabling users to create customized tables and graphs and by providing information and links necessary to understand the data.

Kempe Children’s Center
1825 Marion Street
Denver, CO 80218
303–864–5252
303–864–5302 (fax)
www.kempecenter.org
E-mail: Kempe@KempeCenter.org

The Kempe Children’s Center (formerly the C. Henry Kempe National Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Child Abuse and Neglect) emphasizes the development of treatment programs for abused children, conducts training and consultation programs, and offers technical assistance. A catalog of materials and services is available upon request.

Missing and Exploited Children’s Training Programs

Fox Valley Technical College Criminal Justice Department
P.O. Box 2277
1825 North Bluemound Drive
Appleton, WI 54913–2277
800–648–4966
920–735–4757 (fax)
www.foxvalley.tec.wi.us/ojjdp

The Missing and Exploited Children’s Training Programs, sponsored by OJJDP and Fox Valley Technical College, serve law enforcement, social workers, prosecutors, judges, probation officers, elected officials, State Advisory Groups, and nonprofit service providers. Courses are offered on the following topics:
.

• Child Abuse and Exploitation Investigative Techniques. This course addresses recognition of signs of abuse, collection and preservation of evidence, preparation of cases for prosecution, techniques for interviewing victims and offenders, liability issues, child prostitution, and the perspective of child protective services.
• Child Abuse and Exploitation Team Investigative Process. This course provides hands-on training for investigative teams that focuses on the development of interagency processes and protocols for enhanced enforcement, prevention, and intervention in child abuse cases. Teams are assisted in the development of their own interagency implementation plan for improved investigation of child abuse. 
• Child Sexual Exploitation Investigations. This course presents information on the behavior of the child predator, missing children, child prostitution, use of computers in child exploitation, obtaining and executing search warrants, interviewing the victim, interrogating the suspect, prosecution, Federal agencies’ roles and resources, Federal statutes, case enhancement/victim services, and managing the child exploitation problem.
• Responding to Missing and Abducted Children. This course deals with the investigation of non-family abductions, family abductions, and runaway/thrown-away children; victim impact; reunification/recovery; media; case management; and case enhancement resources.

 National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
699 Prince Street
Alexandria, VA 22314–3175
800–THE–LOST (800–843–5678)
(hotline and child pornography tipline)
703–274–3900 (business number)
703–274–2220 (fax)
800–826–7653 (TDD)
www.missingkids.org

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) is a private, nonprofit organization that operates under a congressional mandate through a cooperative agreement with OJJDP. NCMEC’s mission is to assist in the location and recovery of missing children and to prevent the abduction, molestation, sexual exploitation, and victimization of children. One of NCMEC’s primary activities is its 24-hour multilingual hotline and child pornography tipline. NCMEC’s CyberTipline (www.missingkids.com/cybertip) allows parents and children to report sexual exploitation by submitting an online form that is reviewed by an Exploited Child Unit information analyst and submitted to law enforcement to include the FBI, the U.S. Customs Service, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. NCMEC also provides a wide range of free services to law enforcement, including technical case assistance; leads/sightings and information dissemination; photograph and poster preparation and rapid distribution; age-enhancement, facial reconstruction, and imaging/identification services; informational analysis; database searches; educational material and publications; and training.

The Jimmy Ryce Law Enforcement Training Center at NCMEC is a national training program that promotes awareness of FBI and other Federal resources that assist law enforcement agencies investigating missing children cases. The following courses are offered: Chief Executive Officer Seminars, which focus on broad coordination and policy concerns, comprehensive response protocols, liability issues, Federal resources, and the new National Crime Information Center (NCIC) flagging system; Responding to Missing and Exploited Children Cases, which provides detailed information on lead and case management, child homicide solvability factors, the impact on victims, and Federal resources; and the NCIC Control Terminal Officer (CTO) Course, which trains State CTO’s with regard to the NCIC flagging system and available Federal technical assistance.

NCMEC also coordinates child protection efforts with the private sector and provides information on effective State legislation to ensure the protection of children.

National Center for Prosecution of Child Abuse  American Prosecutors Research Institute
99 Canal Center Plaza, Suite 510
Alexandria, VA 22314
703–739–0321
703–549–6259 (fax)

The National Center for Prosecution of Child Abuse provides a central resource for improving responses to the physical, sexual, and fatal abuse of children and to criminal child neglect. Its services include expert training and technical assistance by experienced attorneys through in depth training conferences, site visits,
State-specific professional development programs, and telephone consultations; the Nation’s only clearinghouse on criminal child abuse case law, statutory initiatives, court reforms, and trial strategies;  and publications such as the two-volume manual Investigation and Prosecution of Child Abuse, the monthly newsletter Update, monographs, annual statutory summaries, and special reports.


National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime Federal Bureau of Investigation
FBI Academy
Quantico, VA 22135
800–634–4097

540–720–4700
540–720–4790 (fax)

The National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime (NCAVC) is a specialized rapid-response unit that works closely with FBI field offices and State and local law enforcement authorities. NCAVC provides investigative support through violent crime analysis, forensic resource coordination, interview and interrogation strategies, behavioral science profiling of unknown offenders, trial preparation and prosecutorial strategies, and expert testimony. NCAVC also provides onsite assistance to law enforcement agencies upon request and can facilitate access to other FBI services such as Rapid-Start (a major case management support system), Evidence Response Teams, and laboratory services.

National Center for Youth Law

114 Sansome Street, Suite 900
San Francisco, CA 94104
415–543–3307
415–956–9024 (fax)
E-mail: info@youthlaw.org
www.youthlaw.org

The National Center for Youth Law (NCYL) provides information, training, and consultation on youth law matters to legal services attorneys and other professionals serving poor children and youth. Its areas of expertise include abuse and neglect, termination of parental rights, public benefits for children, children’s health, and the rights of children living in institutions.

National Children’s Alliance
1319 F Street NW., Suite 1001
Washington, DC 20004
800–239–9950
202–639–0597
202–639–0511 (fax)
www.nca-online.org

Children’s Advocacy Centers (CAC’s) are community-based programs that bring together representatives from law enforcement, child protective services, prosecution, mental health, and the medical community in multidisciplinary teams to address the investigation, treatment, and prosecution of child abuse cases. The National Children’s Alliance (NCA, formerly the National Network of Children’s Advocacy Centers) is a not-for-profit membership organization of  CAC’s, child advocacy programs, and individuals. NCA sets national standards for CAC’s and provides leadership and advocacy for these programs on a national
level, including national training events and training and technical assistance grants. Primary funding for NCA comes from OJJDP, which has also established four Regional Children’s Advocacy Centers to assist communities in improving their response to child abuse:

.
Midwest Regional Children’s
Advocacy Center, 888–422–2955,
www.nncac.org/mrcac.
.
Southern Regional Children’s
Advocacy Center, 800–747–8122,
www.nncac.org/srcac.
.
Northeast Regional Children’s Advocacy Center,
215–387–9500, 800– 662–4124,
www.nncac.org/nrcac.
.
Western Regional Children’s Advocacy Center, 800–582–2203, These regional centers provide information, consultation, and training and technical assistance to help establish child-focused programs that facilitate and support coordination among agencies responding to child abuse.

National Clearinghouse on Child Abuse and Neglect Information
330 C Street SW.
Washington, DC 20447
800–FYI–3366
703–385–7565 (Washington, DC, metropolitan area)
703–385–3206 (fax)
www.calib.com/nccanch
E-mail: nccanch@calib.com

The National Clearinghouse on Child Abuse and Neglect Information is a service of the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect (NCCAN), an agency within the Administration on Children, Youth and Families, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Clearinghouse provides access to the most extensive collection of information on child maltreatment in the world. Professionals and members of the general public can obtain up-to-date information on all aspects of child abuse and neglect from the Clearinghouse, which will provide annotated bibliographies on specific topics or a copy of the database on CD–ROM on request.

NCCAN publishes the User Manual Series, manuals designed to provide guidance to professionals in the child protection system and to enhance community collaboration and the quality of  services provided to children and families. Two manuals in this series of particular interest to law enforcement officials are A Coordinated Response to Child Abuse and Neglect: A Basic Manual (1992) and The Role of Law Enforcement in the Response to Child Abuse and Neglect (1992). A related publication is Joint Investigations of Child Abuse: Report of a Symposium (1993). These publications are available from the Clearinghouse.

The Clearinghouse also coordinates the Child Abuse and Neglect State Statute Series. A joint project of NCCAN and the National Center for Prosecution of Child Abuse, this five-volume series summarizes State statutes on child abuse and neglect in nontechnical language:

• Volume I, Reporting Laws;
• Volume II, Central Registries;
• Volume III, Investigations;
• Volume IV, Child Witnesses; 
• Volume V, Crimes. 

The series is updated annually and can be purchased in whole or in part from the Clearinghouse.

National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges
University of Nevada
P.O. Box 8970
Reno, NV 89507
775–784–6012
775–784–6628
www.ncjfcj.unr.edu
E-mail: admin@ncjfcj.unr.edu

The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ) represents the more than 9,000 U.S. judges who exercise jurisdiction over delinquency, abuse and neglect, divorce, custody, support, domestic violence, and similar types of cases throughout the country. This past year,  2010, NCJFCJ conducted or assisted in conducting 142 training programs at its headquarters’ training facility, the National College of Juvenile and Family Law.

National Court Appointed Special Advocates Association
100 West Harrison Street
North Tower Suite 500
Seattle, WA 98119–4123
800–628–3233
206–270–0072
206–270–0078 (fax)
www.nationalcasa.org

The National Court Appointed Special Advocates Association (National CASA) is a nonprofit membership organization that supports and develops local CASA programs. CASA—Court Appointed Special Advocates for children—trains community volunteers who are appointed by a judge to speak for abused and neglected children in court. Contact National CASA for startup or local program information.

National Resource Center on Child Maltreatment
1349 West Peachtree Street NE.
Suite 900
Atlanta, GA 30309
404–881–0707
404–876–7949 (fax)
www.gocwi.org/nrccm/

The objectives of the National Resource Center on Child Maltreatment (NRCCM) are to identify, develop, and promote the application of child protective service models that are responsive to State, tribal, and community needs. Operated jointly by the Child Welfare Institute and ACTION for Child Protection, NRCCM offers training, technical assistance, consultation, and information in response to identified needs relating to preventing, identifying, intervening in, and treating child abuse and neglect.

Prevent Child Abuse America
200 South Michigan Avenue, 17th Floor
P.O. Box 94283
Chicago, IL 60690–9950
800–CHILDREN
312–663–3520
312–939–8962 (fax)
www.childabuse.org

Prevent Child Abuse America is a not-for-profit organization that has worked for more than 25 years with local, State, and national groups to create public awareness of child abuse and promote healthy parenting and community involvement as effective strategies for preventing child abuse. author suggests ways to help children overcome their anxieties and deal with questions they don’t understand. The section concludes with a detailed discussion of five phases of conducting an interview: preparation, setting and context, rapport building and developmental observations, information exchange, and closure.

The second section of this guide, “Interviewing Children Who May Have Been Sexually Abused,” by athleen Faller, focuses on techniques for interviewing children in cases where sexual abuse has been alleged. Beginning with the challenges facing the interviewer in such cases, the discussion covers evaluating the level of likelihood that abuse has occurred, preparing for the interview, questioning, using anatomical dolls and other media, weighing the evidence, assessing the level of certainty, and deciding how to proceed. The author stresses the importance of using questions that are more open ended and avoiding leading or coercive questions. She presents a continuum of examples of investigative questions, beginning with the kinds of open-ended questions that elicit the most credible responses and concluding with the kinds of close-ended questions that should never be used with child victims. The use of polygraph tests and the significance of null findings are also addressed. (NCJ 161623)

Child Neglect and Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy

Donna Rosenberg, M.D., Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Denver, Colorado, and Forensic Pediatrician, Colorado Child Fatality Review Team.

In cases of child neglect, the success of the investigation, the collection of evidence, and the court proceedings may hinge on the investigator’s understanding of what constitutes neglect. This guide explores the complex issue of child neglect, beginning with the standard against which neglect is measured: the duty of the child’s parents or designated caretakers to provide a reasonable and prudent level of care for the child. The primary ways in which parents may fail in this duty to a degree that constitutes neglect are then examined. These topics include the failure to provide food, fluids, medical care, nurturance, or supervision, or to intervene when the child is endangered. Under each of these areas, the circumstances that qualify as neglect are defined and the ways to detect neglect are described.

These include the types of evidence to look for, the kinds of records to check, the points to look for in medical or autopsy records, and the people who should be consulted. Guidance is given on factors to consider when deciding to seek civil or criminal court involvement. The importance of distinguishing neglect caused by poverty from neglect not caused by poverty is also discussed.

This guide also addresses Munchausen syndrome by proxy (MSBP), a form of child abuse in which a parent intentionally fabricates an unidentifiable illness in the child, sometimes with serious or even fatal consequences. The author presents criteria for diagnosing MSBP and summarizes in a table the most common symptoms exhibited by children who are victims of MSBP and the mechanisms perpetrators use to cause these symptoms. Investigation by a multidisciplinary team is recommended, and the personnel needed for the team and the goals of the investigation are outlined. (NCJ 161841)

Burn Injuries in Child Abuse

Phylip J. Peltier, Criminal Investigator, San Diego District Attorney’s Office, San Diego, California; Gary Purdue, M.D., Professor, Department of Surgery, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center,
and Co-Medical Director, Burn Intensive Care Unit, Parkland Memorial Hospital, Dallas, Texas; and Jack R. Shepherd, Inspector and Executive Assistant, Investigative Services Bureau, Michigan State Police,
East Lansing, Michigan.

This guide focuses on methods for determining whether a child’s burn injury was deliberately inflicted or resulted from an accident. Three types of burn injuries are considered: those caused by spills or splashes, those caused by immersion in a tub or other container of hot liquid, and those caused by contact with flames or hot solid objects. Burn patterns indicative of each type of injury are described and the ways each type of burn is typically inflicted are discussed. Skin conditions that may give the appearance of a burn injury are also described. The authors present recommendations regarding medical examination, reenactment of the incident to determine the veracity of the caretaker’s report, documentation, and working with other agencies. The guide includes a table outlining the characteristics of first-through fourth-degree burns; an evidence worksheet, with instructions, for use at the scene of an immersion burn; and an Investigator’s Checklist. (NCJ 162424)

Law Enforcement Response to Child Abuse

1. Bill Hammond, Law Enforcement Consultant/Trainer, Rockville, Maryland;
2. Kenneth Lanning, M.S., Supervisory Special Agent, Federal Bureau of Investigation Missing and Exploited Children’s Task Force, Quantico, Virginia;
3. Wayne Promisel, Detective, Child Services Section, Fairfax County Police Department,
   Fairfax, Virginia; 
4. Jack R. Shepherd, Inspector and Executive Assistant, Investigative Services Bureau, Michigan State Police,
5. East Lansing, Michigan; and Bill Walsh, Lieutenant, Dallas Police Department Youth and Family Crimes Division, Dallas, Texas.

-Birdy