PROPOSAL FOR NEW COURSE
Child Advocacy Studies – CAST 401/501
Child Advocacy II: Professional and system responses to child maltreatment
Four semester hours including a one-credit lab
A. Course description:
1. CATALOG DESCRIPTION
This course is the second course for the child advocacy studies and focuses on the
responses of professionals to allegations of child maltreatment. The purpose of this
course is to expand the student’s knowledge and skills in identifying and investigating
child maltreatment. Students majoring in criminal justice, education, social work,
sociology, psychology, nursing, paralegal and other areas where knowledge of child
maltreatment investigation and advocacy are necessary will receive extensive forensic
interviewing training. CAST 301 is a prerequisite for 401/501 or consent of instructor.
Students taking this course for graduate credit will be expected to complete an additional
assignment.
2. COURSE OUTLINE
I. Course introduction
a. Overview of different systems involved in addressing child
maltreatment
b. Review of criteria for alleged child maltreatment.
c. Review of the role and laws related to mandated reporters
II. Initial responses to child maltreatment by professionals
a. Health care
b. Law enforcement
c. Prosecution
d. Social Services
III. Understanding differences between criminal and civil proceedings.
a. Federal and State Statutes
b. State and Federal Statutes
c. Precedent-setting Case Law
d. Health care and mental health systems
IV. Demonstrate the beginning interviewing skills needed for child maltreatment
investigation and prosecution, using developmentally-appropriate questions
a. Overview of forensic interviewing protocols
b. Preparing for the interview
c. Interview guide
d. Video/audiotaping
e. Documentation considerations, e.g. questions about time, clarification
of details from each event and verifying chronology
V. Describe forensic interview protocols used in interviewing children
a. Forensic interviewing protocol used by NCPTC
b. Establishing rapport/nonverbal communication
c. Environmental considerations
d. Relationship between child and interviewer
VI. Developmentally appropriate questions
a. Establishing a narrative
b. Open-Ended Questioning
c. Alternative Hypotheses/Explanations
d. Clarification Questions
e. Introducing topics
VII. Special Interview techniques
a. Anatomically correct dolls or Drawings
b. ADHD, PTSD, Anxiety, Fear, Oppositional behavior, Common
Defense Mechanisms
VIII. Understanding Issues related to child victims
a. Suggestibility, recantation, memory
b. Impact of multiple interviews
c. Multi-victim cases
IX. Forensic interviewing, child maltreatment investigations and diversity
a. race
b. religion and ethnicity
c. gender and sexual orientation
d. class
X.
Common Interviewing problems
a. Disclosure reasons
b. Allegations made during divorce
c. Interviewing witnesses
d. Additional investigative techniques
XI. Prosecution and Witness preparation
a. Qualifying expert witnesses
b. Medical and DNA evidence
c. Depositions
XII. Courtroom procedures, standards of evidence and other trial related issues
a. Plea negotiations
b. Pre trial motions
c. Defense and prosecution approaches
d. Support systems for the child during the court process
XIII. The role of professionals and potential complications in the case work
process
a. Law enforcement
b. District Attorney
c. Medical
d. Educational
e. Mental health therapists
f. Social Services Case Worker
g. Faith community
XIV. Prosecution issues regarding the perpetrator
a. Types of perpetrator
b. Defenses used
c. Difficulties corroborating the child’s testimony
XV. Effective child advocacy
a. Throughout the investigative process
b. Throughout the trial process
c. Understanding the larger picture e.g. domestic violence, and
professional responsibilities
3. INSTRUCTIONAL PLAN
This course will include lectures and small-group discussions; students will examine
relevant case studies, and will complete exercises and assignments that require them to
demonstrate mastery of the analyses and skills developed in the course.
4. COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND METHODS OF EVALUATION
1. Students will actively participate in small group collaboration to determine critical
aspects of child maltreatment in the cases presented to them, present their findings
to the large group, and write a short individual paper presenting the critical
findings.
2. Using case examples, students will make decisions regarding appropriate case
planning using Minnesota Department of Human Services criteria.
3. Using case examples, students will determine if civil or criminal charges, or both,
would be the appropriate course of action.
4. Students will research the role of other professionals may play in child
maltreatment such as mandated reporters and/or information required by these
professionals to assist authorities. These professionals include medical,
educational, or mental health professionals. This will be the topic of the researchbased, required paper. Details of this paper will be described on a separate
handout.
5. Students will participate in a 1 credit/2 hour lab per week that will focus on
forensic interviewing and investigation.
Assignment for students taking course for graduate credit:
Students will write scholarly paper, 20 pages in length, APA style.
Students will chose a topic related to forensic investigation within their discipline. In
example, a criminal justice student might chose to examine the difficulties of
interviewing different age victims within related families. The student would be expected
to address the role of the investigator from the beginning of the disclosure of sexual
maltreatment to disposition of the case. This would include the possible effects on the
children, dynamics of the maltreatment, victim perpetrator relationship, age appropriate
questions, process of inquiry, use of language in interviewing, interviewing protocol
used, anticipated difficulties or blocks in the interviewing process, corroborating
evidence needed for the children’s statements, understanding hearsay preparing to testify,
defending your interview in court. Other topics might be the disabled child, shaken baby
syndrome, pedophilia/paraphilia, methamphetamine use in the house, unsupervised guns
in the home resulting in child homicide, the emotionally maltreatmentd child or the
neglected child.
5. COURSE MATERIALS
Required:
APRI, (2004). Investigation and Prosecution of Child Maltreatment 3rd Edition.
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Recommended:
Gudjonsson, G. H. (2003). The Psychology of Interrogations and Confessions: A
Handbook. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons Inc.
Prendergast, W. E. (2004). Treating Sex Offenders, Second Edition. New York: The
Haworth Press.
Salter, A. C. (2003). Predators, Pedophiles, Rapists and Other Sex Offenders. New
York: Basic Books.
6. BIBLIOGRAPHY
American Prosecutor’s Research Institute (2004). Investigation and Prosecution of Child
Maltreatment. Third Edition. Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks.
Berliner, L. (1999). Research update on children and memory: WSIPP Guidelines for
Protocols Work Group. Harborview Center for Sexual Assault and Traumatic
Stress: Seattle, WA
Boakes, J. (1999). False complaints of sexual assault: Recovered memories of childhood
sexual maltreatment. Medical Science Law, 39(2), 112-20.
Botash, A. (2001). Evaluating child sexual maltreatment: Education manual for medical
professionals. Violence and Maltreatment Abstracts, 7(3), 163-252.
Burkhart, M. (1999), “I Take it Back”: When a Child Recants, American
Prosecutor’s Research Institute, 12 (3), 2-5.
Bryant, R.A., Harvey A.G. (2003). The influence of litigation on maintenance of
posttraumatic stress disorder. Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases, 191(3),
191-3.
Canaff, R. (2004) Pediatric Sexual Assault Nurse Examination: Challenges and
Opportunities for MDTs in Child Sexual Maltreatment Cases, Update 16:9,
APRI’s
National Center for the Prosecution of Child Maltreatment.
Davies, G. & Westcott, H. (1999). Interviewing Child Witnesses under the Memorandum
of Good Practice: A research review. Policing and Reducing Crime Unit
Research, Development and Statistics Directorate Clive House, Petty France,
London
Eisen, M.L., Qin, J., Goodman, G.S., & Davis, S.L. (2002). Memory and suggestibility in
maltreated children: Age, stress, arousal, dissociation, and psychopathology.
Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 83(3), 167-212.
Faller, K. & Toth, P. (2004). APSAC Interview Clinics. APSAC Advisor, Spring 2004,
2-4.
Feiring, C., Taska, L., & Chen, K. (2002). Trying to understand why horrible things
happen: Attribution, shame, and symptom development following sexual
maltreatment. Child Maltreatment,
7(1), 24-41.
Finnegan, M. (2000) Creating and Administering a Kids Court. American Prosecutor’s
Research Institute, Update 13 (5).
Geddie, L., Fradin, S., & Beer, J. (2000). Child characteristics which impact accuracy of
recall and suggestibility in preschoolers: Is age the best predictor. Child
Maltreatment and Neglect, 24(2), 223-235.
Golding, J. M., Stewart, T. L., Yozwiak, J. A., Djadali, Y., & Sanchez, R. P. (2000). The
impact of DNA evidence in a child sexual assault trial. Child Maltreatment , 5(4),
373-383.
Hiltz, B. (2002). Using Interpreters in Interviews. American Prosecutor’s Research
Institute, 15 (12), 1-3.
Hiltz, B. & Bauer, G. (2003). Drawings in Forensic Interviews of Children. 16:3,
APRI’s. National Center for Prosecution of Child Maltreatment: Alexandria, VA.
Holmes, L. & Finnegan, M. (2002) The Use of Anatomical Diagrams. American
Prosecutor’s Research Institute, 15 (5), 1-5.
Holmes, L. (2000). Using Anatomical Dolls in Child Sexual Maltreatment Interviews.
American
Prosecutor’s Research Institute, 13 (8), 1-3.
Holmes, L. & Sellers (1997) Awareness of Racial, Ethnic, Cultural Differences. In
Coordination of child protection cases: A guide for child protections services, law
enforcement and county attorneys in Minnesota.
Holmes, L. & Vieth, V. (2003) Finding Words/Half a Nation: The Forensic Interview
Training Program of CornerHouse and APRI’s National Center for Prosecution of
Child Maltreatment. APSAC Advisor, 15 (1), 4-8.
Lyon, T. & Saywitz, K. (2000). Qualifying Children to Take the Oath: Materials for
Interviewing Professionals. University of Southern California Law School,
University Park, Los Angeles, California
Merchant, L & Toth, P (2004). Child Interview Guide. Washington State Criminal
Justice Training Commission: Seattle, Washington
Miller, G. H. (2002). The psychological best interest of the child is not the legal best
interest. Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law 30(2), 196200.
New York State’s Children’s Justice Task Force (2003). New York State Children’s
Justice Task Force Forensic Interviewing Best Practices. Children’s Bureau,
Administration on Children, Youth and Families, United States Department of
Health and Human Services: Washington, D.C.
Olafson, E & Kenniston, J. (2004). The Child Forensic Interview Training. APSAC
Advisor, Winter, 2004, 11-19.
Ragland, E. & Fields, H. (2003). Parental Alienation Syndrome: What professionals need
to know, Part 1 & 2. American Prosecutor’s Research Institute, 16 (6), 2-5.
Rogers, L. (2004). Emergency Medical Professionals: Assisting in Identifying and
Documenting Child Maltreatment and Neglect. American Prosecutor’s Research
Institute, 17 (7), 1-4.
Starling, S. P., Sirotnak, A. P., & Jenny, C. (2000). Child maltreatment and forensic
pediatrics medicine fellowship curriculum statement. Child Maltreatment, 5(1),
58-62.
Steele, L. (2003). Child Forensic Interview Structure, National Children’s Advocacy
Center. APSAC Advisor, Fall, 2003, 2-5.
Toth, P. (2004). Child Interviewing: Different Approaches in Action. WA State Criminal
Justice Training Commission: Powerpoint presented at the International Society
for the Prevention of Child Maltreatment and Neglect; Brisbane, Australia
Vieth, V. (1999). Defending the Investigative Interview. American Prosecutor’s Research
Institute, 12 (2), 1-4.
Vieth, V. (2002) Crossing the Bridge that Divides Cultural Sensitivity and the Interview
Process. Finding Words Training Manual. American Prosecutor’s Research
Institute: Alexandria, VA
Vieth, V. (2004). When Parental Discipline is a Crime: Overcoming the defense of
reasonable force in the investigative stage. American Prosecutor’s Research
Institute, 16 (10), 2-6.
Walker, A.G.(1999). A Few Facts About Children’s Language Skills. In Handbook on
Questioning Children. ABA Center on Children and the Law, Washington DC.
B. Rationale
1. MAJOR FOCUS AND OBJECTIVES
Upon completion of the course, the student will be able to:
1. understand the Minnesota Department of Human Services criteria for alleged
maltreatment so appropriate action can take place
2. describe the initial responses to child maltreatment by professionals
3. understand the differences in system responses between civil and criminal
proceedings
4. identify applicable state statutes, the case work process and potential
complications.
5. describe the investigative process and the roles of interdisciplinary team
members
6. demonstrate the beginning interviewing skills needed for child maltreatment
investigation and prosecution, using developmentally-appropriate questions
7. explain the courtroom procedures, standards of evidence, and other trialrelated issues
8. understand issues related to child witnesses such as recantation, suggestibility,
memory, and the impact of multiple interviews
9. understand preparation of prosecution witnesses and the effects of child
treatment and testifying on the child
10. understand perpetrator issues such as pedophilia, interviewing the perpetrator,
legal charges
11. understand the roles of other professionals including medical, educational,
mental health personnel and other mandated reporters
12. identify needed support systems for the child and the family and access child
placement needs
13. demonstrate the skills needed to serve as an effective child advocate
throughout the investigative process.
14. explain how issues of race, class, sexual orientation, religion, gender and
social justice influence investigation of child maltreatment
2. COURSE CONTRIBUTION TO PROGRAM
This is the second in the three-course sequence for the Child Advocacy Studies Program.
It builds on the foundation established in CAST 301, and develops students’
understanding of civil and criminal processes involved in the development and
prosecution of child maltreatment cases.
3. COURSES TO BE DROPPED
No courses will be dropped. This is part of a new program, funded with assistance from
the National Child Protection Training Center.
C. Impact on other departments, programs, majors, and minors
1. IMPACT ON OTHER DEPARTMENTS
Some of the content of this course is covered in existing courses, but not in the systematic
and comprehensive way that this course addresses issues related to child maltreatment
and child advocacy.
2. IMPACT ON CREDIT REQUIRMENTS
This course will have no impact on the credit requirements of any major or minor. It will
be available for elective credits for students in Social Work, Criminal Justice, Paralegal,
Nursing, and other majors.
D. University Studies Course Proposals
This course is not being submitted for inclusion in the University Studies Program.