Contribution of Children's Advocacy Centers to Felony Prosecutions of Child Sexual Abuse

• NCJ Number: 226368
• Journal: Child Abuse & Neglect Volume: 33 Issue: 1 Dated: January 2009 Pages: 12-18
• Author(s): Aaron Miller; David Rubin
• Date Published: January 2009
• Length: 7 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study compared trends in felony sexual abuse prosecutions between 1992 and 2002 in two districts of a large urban city that differed primarily in their use of children's advocacy centers (CACs), which conduct sexual abuse evaluations of children.

Abstract

Although substantiated reports of child sexual abuse declined in both districts during the study period, felony prosecutions of child sexual abuse doubled in "District 1," where the use of CACs nearly tripled, compared to a neighboring district ("District 2"), where the use of CACs remained fairly constant over time. District 1 experienced a 59-percent decrease in the incidence of reports of child sexual abuse during the study period; however, felony prosecutions of child sexual abuse increased from 56.6 to 93.0 per 100,000 children. District 2, on the other hand, experienced a 49-percent decrease in the incidence of child sexual abuse reports, but felony prosecutions of such cases did not significantly increase in District 2. In 1992, CACs in District 1 evaluated approximately 400 children, increasing to 1,187 children by 2002. The number of children evaluated by CACs in District 2, however, increased only modestly, from nearly 800 in 1992 to 1,000 in 2002. The strength of the link between increased CAC use and increased felony prosecutions, along with the stepwise fashion in which it occurred, should encourage future research designed to confirm these findings and identify the attributes of CAC performance that might impact the likelihood of prosecuting child sexual abuse. Relevant aggregate data for the two districts for the study period were obtained from the district attorney's office, the child protective services agency, and all CACs serving both districts. Summary statistics were calculated over time and compared for the districts for ecological trends, using negative binomial regression. 1 table, 4 figures, and 18 references