APRI Highlights - Spring 2003

Answering the Call: Ending Child Abuse within 120 Years

Victor Vieth

Director, National Center for Prosecution of Child Abuse

In 1999, child protection leaders throughout America issued a National Call to Action to significantly reduce, if not eliminate, child abuse over the course of a century.1 In response to this call, the National Center for Prosecution of Child Abuse is drafting a plan to end child abuse in America within 120 years. There are several key features of this plan.

First, we must get abused children reported into the system. At the present time, most mandated reporters do not report even when they suspect a child is being abused. NCPCA plans to partner with Winona State University in Minnesota to develop a model curriculum for the mandated reporters of tomorrow that will enable them to do a better job of recognizing abuse and making quality reports. We hope to market this curriculum to every public and private university in America so that, by 2040, no one leaves college ill-equipped to recognize child abuse and to respond appropriately.

Second, children reported into the system must be competently interviewed. NCPCA, in partnership with CornerHouse, a child sexual abuse evaluation and training center in Minnesota, has presented quality forensic interview training at the national level in the form of a course entitled Finding Words. In a related initiative, known as Half a Nation by 2010, we are helping states develop their own version of the course. Eventually, every state will have quality forensic interview training for front line workers and, by 2040, every child reported into the system will be interviewed by someone competent to perform this function.

Third, we must do away with on-the-job training for social workers, police officers and other professionals who investigate these cases or otherwise work with child abuse victims. Winona State University, in consultation with NCPCA, intends to design a model undergraduate curriculum that will turn out graduates well equipped to respond to reports of child abuse. By 2040, front line workers will no longer be dependent on on-the-job training as their only preparation for an extraordinarily challenging responsibility.

Fourth, we must give civil child protection professionals the same resources as those handling the criminal side of child abuse. A prosecutor handling a criminal case of child abuse can access ongoing training, technical assistance, and publications through the National Center for Prosecution of Child Abuse. We need to develop a similar program for civil child protection professionals.

Fifth, prevention efforts must come from the ground up. Beginning in college, we need to teach front line child protection professionals the art of becoming community leaders so they can advocate for prevention in each community. What will work in a small, rural community may be very different from an urban center. As front line workers grow in their advocacy skills and begin to articulate the needs of children to governmental leaders, the level of support for child protection efforts may also change.

With this sort of massive change, the culture that permits child abuse will be radically altered and we predict the incidence of child abuse will decline dramatically. To complete the job, though, succeeding generations must duplicate and build on any successes we have and learn from and correct any failures. This is the child protection community’s mandate for the years 2040-2120.

We are in the process of revising the plan before publishing it in a peer-reviewed journal. To learn more about this proposal, please contact the National Center for Prosecution of Child Abuse.

1 David L. Chadwick, The Message, published as part of Convening A National Call to Action: Working Toward the Elimination of Child Maltreatment, 23 Child Abuse & Neglect 957, 959 (1999).