Silent Tears Report:
Findings & Recommendations
Victor Vieth
National Child Protection Training Center
The Silent Tears Project
• Selected seven representative counties
• Interviewed 166 front line professionals
(90 questions in 21 categories) with final
notes exceeding 1,000 pages
• Developed an online instrument taken by
an additional 404 professionals
Inadequate undergraduate and
graduate training
• Every professional interviewed said their
undergraduate or graduate training on child
abuse was insufficient or non-existent
• This is true for law enforcement,
prosecutors, child protection workers,
mental health professionals, doctors, nurses,
forensic interviewers, etc.
• This is consistent with 40 years of research
USDOJ Report
Reform undergraduate & graduate training
Undergraduate & Graduate reforms
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26 undergraduate programs
3 law school courses
An emerging online LLM
1 medical school program
1 residency curriculum
2 seminary programs
Thirty-three CAST colleges, universities, law
schools, medical schools, and seminaries
States with CAST universities or colleges
Inadequate training in the field
• Most professionals reported inadequate training
continued into the field
• 64% of DSS workers said they had no
undergraduate or graduate training on child
abuse and 18 % said they had no training in the
field
• Most professionals called for more training with
a strong preference for experiential, laboratory
training in small class sizes
Voices from the frontlines
“I don’t need anymore
PowerPoint presentations—I
don’t remember what’s on the
slides. I need trench training.”
--Law enforcement officer
Training recommendations
• Minimal standards of at least 40 hours of
training before being assigned to respond to
child abuse cases
• Emphasis on experiential learning
• A training facility to conduct “trench training”
• Training portal
• Address unique needs of rural practitioners
Winona State University
NCPTC Training Site
The collection of evidence:
recommendations
• Crime scene photographs in every case
• MDTs set a goal of at least 5 items of
corroborating evidence in every case
• Within 5 years, conduct forensic/investigative
interviews within 2 hours of a report to the
authorities
• Prosecutors involved throughout the case
Faith and child protection: voices from the
silent tears report
• A number of child protection professionals
lamented that church leaders keep child
abuse “in house.”
• “Many perpetrators seek their victims
through religious affiliations. Here at the
Center we see many cases where churches
cover it up. The minister, the faith community
has covered up what happened by
encouraging families to forgive and forget…”
Faith and child protection: voices from the
silent tears report
• One victim of CSA was excommunicated
because she “couldn’t forgive
immediately.”
• One clinician told of a victim who called
for 6 months but declined to give her
name “because you don’t go against
God” and claiming “pure children aren’t
abused.”
Consistent with numerous studies
• 93% of convicted sex offenders are “religious”
(Abel)
• The most egregious sex offenders are active in faith
settings (Smallbone 2006)
• Most offenders use a religious or spiritual theme in
the abuse (Vieth 2011)
• In review of 34 studies of 19,090 adult victims, the
majority had spiritual injuries (Walker, et al 2009)
Faith can also aid in healing
• Religious and spiritual forms of coping “contribute
to decreased symptoms, greater self esteem, and
overall greater life satisfaction.” (Bryant-Davis 2012)
• Religiousness can moderate posttraumatic
symptoms for child abuse survivors (Walker 2009)
• In a study of 2,964 female child sexual abuse
survivors, researchers noted “significantly more
posttraumatic symptoms” in survivors with no
current religious practices. (Elliott 1994)
Chaplaincy Training
Silent Tears and Prevention
Daro & Donnelly:
When prevention falls short
• When proponents “oversimplify” or promote
“singular solutions”
• Prevention is complex and will differ from
community to community and thus puts
prevention in the hands of front line
professionals
• Silent Tears: coloring counties blue,
prevention sentinels, prevention retreats
(review of past cases, etc)
Many more recommendations
• Improving differential or
alternative response
• Juvenile sex offenders
• Expediting legal processes
• Improving mandated reporting
“Till the night be passed”
“Silence in the
face of evil is
itself evil. Not
to act is to
act.”
– Dietrich
Bonhoeffer