NCJ Number
74518
Date Published
1979
Length
0 pages
Annotation
This new award-winning film presents three situations dramatizing the problems that confront law enforcement officers when they investigate child abuse.
Abstract
The film emphasizes that law enforcement officers find it difficult to determine if child abuse has actually been committed, to conduct a sensitive interview with the child, and to remain dispassionate when questioning the suspected abuser. The three situations that are presented are designed to provoke discussion about strategies and techniques that are effective in child abuse investigations. In the first situation, a dramatized domestic assault scene involving two children, the film suggests that the police officer interview family members separately and aviod being judgmental. In the second situation, a suspected child abuse case, the film emphasizes the importance of early intervention and teamwork by police, schools, medical personnel, and protective services. In the final case, which concerns sexual abuse, the importance of the police officer's sensitivity in interviewing family members and of the officer's sense of timing is shown. The film is intended as an attitudinal and behavioral training tool for police, social service workers, child abuse therapists, and students of criminal justice.