Portable Guides to Investigating Child Abuse: An Overview

• NCJ Number: 165153
• Author(s): Janet McNaughton
• Date Published: June 1997
• Length: 8 pages
• Publication Series: OJJDP Portable Guides to Investigating Child Abuse
• Agencies: OJJDP
• Publication Type: Report (Technical Assistance)

Annotation

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention has developed a series of 11 portable guides to assist police officers, social workers, medical personnel, attorneys, judges and others involved in reporting, investigating, and prosecuting child abuse and neglect.

Abstract

The guides aim to provide practical guidance in a user-friendly format for on-the-job reference. Their development was based on the recommendations of a focus group of nationally recognized leaders in the field of child abuse investigation, who were convened by OJJDP to discuss the best format for addressing the need to facilitate communication between law enforcement and the other professions represented on a multidisciplinary team. Each guide measures 5 by 9 inches, can be stored easily in the glove box of a police cruiser, has 16 to 24 pages, and addresses a specific aspect of investigating a suspected case of child abuse or neglect. Each of the 11 guides addresses a specific aspect of investigating a suspected case of child abuse or neglect: NCJ 160938 Recognizing When a Child's Injury or Illness Is Caused by Abuse; NCJ 160939 Photodocumentation in the Investigation of Child Abuse; NCJ 160940 Sexually Transmitted Diseases and Child Sexual Abuse; NCJ 161235 Diagnostic Imaging of Child Abuse; NCJ 161406 Battered Child Syndrome: Investigating Physical Abuse and Homicide; NCJ 161623 Interviewing Child Witnesses and Victims of Sexual Abuse; NCJ 161841 Child Neglect and Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy; NCJ 162424 Burn Injuries in Child Abuse; NCJ 162425 Law Enforcement Response to Child Abuse; NCJ 162426 Criminal Investigation of Child Sexual Abuse; and NCJ 162427 Understanding and Investigating Child Sexual Exploitation. Summaries of each guide and information for ordering by telephone, mail, or e-mail or obtaining via the OJJDP Web site.