Cherish Your Exceptions

Abstract

As the Director of a Child Advocacy Center that evaluated over 1500 children in 2002 for allegations of child abuse or neglect, I have seen many cases enter the Child Protection system. Of these, only a small percentage was ever accepted for criminal prosecution. Those deemed acceptable differ in two major respects from the vast majority of other cases in which allegations of abuse or neglect are sufficiently substantiated to warrant out-of-home placement or other protective interventions. Either the child is able to provide a clear, credible, and consistent account of his/her abuse or there exists convincing supporting evidence, such as a sexually transmitted disease in a non-sexually active child, DNA evidence, serious injuries consistent with the alleged abuse, pornographic pictures of the child, a confession, or credible witnesses. This evidence must strongly point to an identifiable perpetrator(s), and there must be a clear timeline of opportunity and the absence of significant confounds. The average prosecutor prefers to have multiple complementary forms of evidence and is usually quite reluctant to go to trial solely on a child’s testimony. Indeed,