Abuse Investigations Research Articles

Evaluating Law Enforcement Efficiency in Incestuous Rape Cases: A Systematic Literature Review Using Data Envelopment Analysis

This systematic literature review evaluates the efficiency of law enforcement agencies in managing incestuous rape cases, employing Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) as a methodological framework. Incestuous rape, a profound violation of individual autonomy and familial trust, remains significantly underreported and poses unique challenges for law enforcement due to its sensitive nature. The review synthesizes findings from 43 studies published since 2015, focusing on resource allocation, case management practices, and judicial outcomes. Key themes identified include police efficiency and performance, sexual assault case management, investigation of incest and child abuse, police perceptions of victim credibility, collaboration and resource allocation, and legal and policy frameworks. The findings reveal systemic inefficiencies, including biases in victim credibility assessments and inadequate resource allocation, which hinder effective case resolution. The review underscores the necessity for law enforcement agencies to adopt victim-centered approaches, enhance training, and foster collaboration with external agencies to improve outcomes for victims of incestuous rape. Ultimately, this research aims to contribute to the discourse on enhancing law enforcement responses to sexual violence, advocating for evidence-based recommendations to optimize practices and policies in this critical area.

An Analytical Study on Political Patronage Corruption in Nepal

This paper delves into Nepal's intricate political patronage and corruption landscape, focusing on its historical context, driving factors, and implications. The study examines the evolution of patronage and corruption, tracing its roots to the Rana and Panchayat regimes and highlighting how these systems nurtured patronage networks. The key results suggest that lack of political stability, poverty, transparency and accountability, and weak institutions are the leading causes of corruption. On the other hand, corruption leads to economic decline and undermines citizens' trust in the political system. Patronage networks only strengthen this process, with politicians trading votes for positions, leading to a culture of corruption and underpinning meritocracy. Despite anti-corruption measures like the Right to Information Act and the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA), challenges persist due to political interference and enforcement deficiencies. Addressing these deeply entrenched issues is crucial for Nepal's progress and development.

Characteristics of Child Sexual Abuse Material in Peer-to-Peer Networks and Predictors of its Severity: Insights From Filenames.

The Internet has empowered millions of perpetrators who create and consume child sexual abuse material (CSAM), the current term replacing child pornography. In this study, we coded data from a random sample of 2980 filenames from files shared in peer-to-peer (P2P) networks from U.S. IP addresses in 2021. Most filenames referenced girls and just under half referenced children aged 5 to 12. A wide variety of child races, ethnicities and nationalities were referenced. Over half of filenames described a sexually abusive act, most of which referenced penetration. The abuse referenced was more severe when filenames referenced children under the age of 13, both girls and boys, incest, and/or children or youth of color. The findings underline the harm to children from CSAM, suggest the value of a racial justice perspective on CSAM, and support the need to search for CSAM as part of contact child sexual abuse investigations.

Cognitions and emotions about child sexual abuse (CECSA): development of a self-report measure to predict bias in child sexual abuse investigations

ABSTRACT A biased mindset can foster confirmatory reasoning and suggestive questioning when adults talk to children about abuse suspicions in child-protection, healthcare, educational or investigative settings. We developed a self-report instrument on Cognitions and Emotions about Child Sexual Abuse (CECSA) that may predict individual propensity for a bias toward the abuse hypothesis. Three subscales, 23 items in total, were created in a sample of 801 students of human sciences via exploratory factor analysis and Ant Colony Optimization. The ‘Naive Confidence’ subscale reflects overestimating one's ability to recognize abused children and overestimating the accuracy of children’s abuse reports, the ‘Emotional Reactivity’ subscale measures the intensity of one's emotional reactions towards the topic of child sexual abuse (CSA), and the ‘Justice System Distrust’ subscale covers distrusting the justice system’s ability to prosecute CSA. The CECSA showed adequate model fit and good internal consistencies. Correlations with other self-report measures demonstrated convergent validity. All subscales predicted biased evaluations towards the abuse hypothesis in scenarios of children displaying unspecific behavioral problems. Given context-specific validations, the CECSA may be used to evaluate training programs or to assess training needs of professionals who talk to children about CSA suspicions.

Reifying risk and health: Cultural normativity, bureaucracy, and moral quandary in child abuse investigations in Japan

Reifying risk and health: Cultural normativity, bureaucracy, and moral quandary in child abuse investigations in Japan

Animal Abuse Investigations: Challenges and Recommendations to Improve Animal and Human Welfare.

Animal cruelty is widespread, yet it is often overlooked by professionals as a form of trauma and not perceived as a serious crime. This study explores current challenges to the effective management of animal abuse and neglect cases in the state of Colorado, USA, to better understand systemic barriers and their impact on those involved, and offers concrete, practical suggestions for improvement. Interviews with 24 law enforcement and Bureau of Animal Protection (BAP) agents/staff were conducted, and an integrated thematic analysis method was utilized to inductively analyze participants' responses to interview questions. The most common barriers to addressing animal cruelty cases identified by law enforcement/BAP personnel included (1) a lack of places to take removed animals and resources to care for them; (2) challenges working with the district attorney's office; (3) a general lack of knowledge and training on how to address cases and the documentation required; and (4) insufficient enforcement personnel to conduct investigations and conduct required follow-up. Suggested changes include expansion of temporary housing options, additional training, expert investigators and social workers/mental health professionals, and possible amendments to state statutes. In addition, the use of a trauma-informed model is recommended to best meet the psychological needs of all those involved in animal welfare work.

Humanitarian forensic medicine: a systematic review.

Various concerns relating to international humanitarian law and human rights were risen by natural catastrophes (tsunamis, floods, fires), the Covid-19 pandemic, the epidemic breakouts of Ebola, as well as the significant migrant wave observed in the Mediterranean region. Forensic Medicine has direct interactions with both domestic and international law, and thus is frequently asked to provide solutions for these issues. The term "Humanitarian Forensic Action" (HFA), which refers to the application of forensic science to serve humanitarian endeavors, was created. The management of crises including armed conflicts, natural disasters, and humanitarian crises is therefore related to HFA. HFA is a specialized field of forensic sciences that is used to handle the identification of the deceased and human remains, as well as to contribute to the management of the dead, the management of mass disasters, and the investigation of abuse and torture. The psychosocial effects that these tragic events have on the victims, their loved ones, and society at large represent another HFA-related field. Firstly this systematic review aims to present all available international literature that discusses HFA as a unique forensic discipline. Secondly, through this review, it is hoped that HFA awareness will be risen among forensic practitioners, thus allowing improved adoption in general and future development as a branch of forensic sciences. As far as we are aware, there isn't another systematic study that presents the entirety of HFA's branches at once.

Framing Perceived Emotional Abuse by Former Intercollegiate Student-Athletes into Categories Based on Power

ABSTRACT Although contemporary researchers suggest that abuse is especially prevalent in sport, athletes’ experiences of coaches’ emotional abuse are not well understood. To address this gap, the present study was designed to examine how former intercollegiate student-athletes described experiences of emotional abuse in the coach-athlete relationship. Twenty former student-athletes were interviewed, and an inductive comparative analysis was utilized to interpret and situate the data. Results were framed in terms of power and were organized into four distinctive categories. Results highlight a critical need for institutions to reflect on current policies and practices regarding the prevention and investigation of athlete abuse.

Sex differences in the roles of nicotine use and puberty on youth C-reactive protein levels: Effects above and beyond adversity

Inflammation likely mediates associations between nicotine use and negative health outcomes. Sex differences have been observed in nicotine use–inflammation links, and physiological processes during puberty might allow for these differences to arise. In this cross-sectional study of 498 youth (ages 8–13, 52% girls, 77% with history of child maltreatment (CM) investigation), sex-differentiated associations between self-reported nicotine use and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) were explored. Additionally, self-reported pubertal stage was investigated as a moderator of such nicotine use–hs-CRP links. Hierarchical generalized estimating equation models were adjusted for a wide range of adversity effects: CM investigation history derived from state records, self- and caregiver-report of traumatic life events, adversity-related demographic risk factors (i.e., identification with historically marginalized racial and ethnic groups, household income), and other characteristics that may influence the variables of interest (e.g., medication use, age, body mass index). Nicotine use had a negative main effect on hs-CRP among boys (β = −0.50, p = 0.02), and pubertal stage did not moderate this association (β = 0.06, p = 0.71). In contrast, pubertal stage moderated the association between nicotine use and hs-CRP among girls (β = 0.48, p = 0.02) such that a positive association between nicotine use and hs-CRP levels was stronger at more advanced pubertal stages (β = 0.45, SE = 0.21, 95% CI [0.03, 0.87]). Findings suggest that puberty may influence the effect of nicotine on inflammation in sex-differentiated ways and have implications for timing of prevention and treatment efforts geared toward reducing nicotine use and subsequent inflammation-related health risk among youth.

Home Visiting and Child Welfare Involvement: A Matched Comparison Group Study.

The present study is one of the largest quasi-experimental studies to date on the effects of home visiting on documented child maltreatment during a child's first two years of life. In this matched comparison group study, we compare 8796 families that participated in a home visiting program (HV families) to 8796 similar non-participating families (non-HV families) selected from birth records using Coarsened Exact Matching. Using sequential logistic regression, we identify that HV families have significantly higher odds of experiencing a child maltreatment investigation by their child's second birthday compared to non-HV families; however, among those that were investigated, HV families have significantly lower odds of having their first investigation substantiated for maltreatment. Overall, HV families do not differ significantly from non-HV families in the odds of experiencing a substantiated investigation over 2years. We share implications for considering surveillance bias, and we highlight the importance of including both substantiated and unsubstantiated investigations when studying the effects of home visiting on documented child maltreatment.

‘Let’s excuse abusive men from abusing and enable sexual abuse’: child sexual abuse investigations in England’s private family courts

ABSTRACT Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) is an ongoing scourge upon society. There is minimal understanding of the experiences of mothers and children in private law family court proceedings (PLP), when CSA is reported. A qualitative study was conducted and a feminist-informed Foucauldian Discourse Analysis was applied to understand ten life-stories from within a larger sample of 45. Five themes are presented. CSA was overwhelmingly reported as being minimised, with harmful outcomes for children and mothers reported. Pro-father and ‘parental alienation’ narratives were a facilitator of severe harm and continued male violence to victim-survivor mothers and children. Further research into the scale and prevalence of CSA within PLP is urgently required.

A Multilevel Analysis of Individual and Community Factors Associated With Case Dispositions Following Child Maltreatment Investigations.

Understanding service disposition pathways is critical to provide deeper insight into why certain subgroups of the population are at risk for recurrent Child Protective Services (CPS) involvement and may highlight disparities across groups or geographic areas. Using the Decision-Making Ecology Framework as a lens, the present study examines whether service disposition pathways are influenced by risk assessment, safety concerns, child age, maltreatment type, previous CPS involvement, and/or county-level structural vulnerability. We linked administrative data from New Mexico's Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) to data from the American Community Survey. Multilevel models examining associations between case (N = 12,960) and county (N = 33) characteristics revealed that both case (age, maltreatment type, risk/safety assessments, previous CPS involvement) and county-level factors (transportation and housing) were associated with service disposition. Additionally, we observed considerable variation at the county level in both the provision of services and the relationship between risk assessment and service provision. By linking different factors of the decision-making process in child welfare cases to intervention strategies, the analysis reveals that the perception of risk can vary based on geographical context resulting in different outcomes for families who have similar risks but different county-level vulnerabilities.

Critically Contextualising a Mega-Event: Nordic Sports Commentaries During the 2022 World Cup in Football

Prior to the FIFA 2022 World Cup, Nordic news media emphasised their ambitions of persistently covering problematic aspects of this mega-event to be hosted in Qatar, a country subjected to severe criticism of its human rights breaches in the build-up to the event. Focusing on the genre of commentary journalism—a form committed to articulating opinions on social and cultural issues—this study illuminates how key Nordic news media argued for their views on the World Cup 2022.<em> </em>Drawing on empirical material from Danish and Norwegian broadcasters and tabloids, the study analyses commentaries (excluding “sports only” commentaries) published during the event, highlighting the types of arguments, the discourses they articulate or imply, and their attribution of agency to organisational actors. Although a critical and contextualising argumentation runs through commentaries made during the tournament, the reasoning changes its character to such a degree that it is pertinent to categorise the commentaries as reflecting two distinct discursive phases. Argumentation in the first phase sustains a critique of FIFA and the organiser. Arguments were typically formulated as personal attacks but tended to elaborate on their premises by providing fact-based background from investigations of power abuse. The argumentation in the second phase changes its character by more clearly emphasising the <em>action</em> needed to transform current problematic <em>circumstances</em> in accordance with stated <em>goals</em>, not least a reformation of FIFA. The commentators now tend to be less moralising and more diverse and reflective in how they argue for changes in the governance of mega-events in football.

Social workers’ knowledge about children’s memory and child interviewing

BackgroundThe Child Protective Services (CPS) can be prominent actors in child abuse investigations as they often conduct the first safety assessment upon receiving a report of concern for a child. As part of this assessment, CPS may conduct an interview with the child. However, to date, little is known about how these interviews are conducted. ObjectiveThe present study aimed to shed light on Swedish social workers’ experience with interviewing children and knowledge about children’s memory and witness abilities. Participants and SettingA total of 204 social workers participated in an online survey and answered questions concerning memory functioning and interviewing children about suspected abuse. MethodsResponses were analyzed using qualitative (content analyses) and quantitative (descriptive) approaches. ResultsThe main findings concern a lack of standardized interviewing guidelines, with CPS workers instead using various interviewing techniques with limited empirical support. When asked to elaborate on the challenges they perceived interviewing children, many mentioned the difficulty of asking proper questions. A few expressed feeling unequipped for the task of interviewing children. Further, participants' knowledge regarding children's memory varied. Many expressed awareness that memories can be vulnerable to suggestion and that emotions cannot verify a memory's authenticity. However, participants were more insecure regarding the possibility of repressing and, subsequently, recovering memories. ConclusionsImprovement is required; CPS needs further education and support when conducting interviews with children regarding suspected abuse. Implementing a research-based method can facilitate these interviews and improve children’s right to be heard and legal certainty.

“Just Did The Best That I Could Do”: CPS Social Workers’ Perceptions of Self-Efficacy in Legal Aspects

Child protective services (CPS) social workers assess safety and risk needs during abuse and neglect investigations to determine if legal interventions are needed. However, only 60% of abuse and neglect cases have safety and risk assessed during the investigatory process in North Carolina. This study aimed to explore the perceptions of self-efficacy among rural North Carolina CPS social workers in child abuse and neglect investigations. Understanding CPS social workers’ perceptions of self-efficacy and factors that may influence their self-efficacy is vital to improving job satisfaction, retention, and the legal and investigative processes relating to child abuse and neglect. A purposive sampling approach was used to recruit nine CPS social workers in rural counties in North Carolina. Through a process of open, axial, and selective coding, we conclude that a CPS social worker’s self-efficacy is impacted by factors relating to leadership and legal teams, longevity, previous social work experience, and paperwork and caseload demands.

Law enforcement perceptions of job stress and barriers to supportive resources when working child sexual abuse cases in the southern United States

PurposeThe purpose of this paper was to examine law enforcement officers' perspectives on job stress and barriers to supportive resources when working child sexual abuse cases in a large southern state. It is well documented in the literature that professionals who work in healthcare, emergency services and law enforcement face tremendous amounts of stress and consequences to their physical and mental health. Little research has been done to examine how child sexual abuse investigations impact law enforcement, and how these specialized officers perceive access to supportive resources.Design/methodology/approachThis qualitative study was part of a larger quantitative study and included 20 law enforcement officers who participated in anonymous, semi-structured phone interviews.FindingsFindings included (1) child sexual abuse cases are difficult, specialized and disturbing (2) barriers to supportive resources include law enforcement culture, the stigma of asking for help, awareness and accessibility of resources and leadership as gatekeeper to the resources and (3) officers perceive both formal and informal resources to be helpful and at best should be proactively available to all officers in the state. A model of the findings was developed to illustrate the implications for practitioners and scholars.Research limitations/implicationsThis study was not without weaknesses, specifically the small number of participants, volunteer sampling does not represent the general population and the sampling technique means some demographics may have been missed by researchers.Practical implicationsThis study adds to the literature on law enforcement mental health, occupational health and mental health resources. It confirms established research in the literature and provides insight into officer perspectives about barriers that prevent access to informal and formal supports that could improve their emotional well-being.Originality/valueThis study is the first of its kind, to our knowledge, that asks detectives and investigators of child abuse cases about mental health resources. These law enforcement officers are at high-risk for traumatic stress, compassion fatigue and burnout due to the specialized cases they investigate.

법제화 이후 대학 인권센터의 과제와 전망

How are Human Rights Centers at the universities acting after the amendment of the Higher Education Act and the enforcement of it?This research reviewed some principles relating to the status of human rights centers in order to play the proper role to protect the human rights in the universities. Those principles are composed of norms, independence, diversity, strengthening of proper authority to protect victims of human rights violation.
 Several problems are found to improve the key functions (investigation of human rights abuses, human rights education, and policy development on human rights) such as ambiguous definitions of the jurisdiction and authority, necessity of separation of investigation and dicision, the defficiency of working staffs and instability of their employment, absence of policy development of human rights.
 There are five suggestions to solve these difficulties. Firstly, human rights centers need to strengthen the function of education and policy development of human rights. Secondly, independence of human rights centers are guaranteed through the process of substantive management even though it is very hard to secure the legal and formal independence in the universities. Thirdly, stronger power should be given to the human rights institutions. Fourthly, instruction and manuals should be made to deal with the power harassment at working places properly. Fifthly, the government (the Ministry of Education) may have the national organizations to assist the human right centers established in the middle of financial predicaments. Newly opened human rights centers need more sophisticated design to have the expertise and efficiency as a human rights institution so that they can play the right role protecting the human rights in the universities.

Effects of Drugs and Substance Abuse on Students’ Academic Performance in Secondary Schools in Turkana County, Kenya: Research Methodology Formulation

The problem of drug abuse in secondary schools has various adverse effects on student learning, performance and moral habits. Unless this menace of drug abuse is minimized, the schools would become unmanageable since indiscipline cases would become very overwhelming. Investigation of drug abuse and its effects on academic performance in secondary school students in Turkana County, Kenya is still extremely limited. This paper discusses in detail drug and substance abuse in Kenya focusing on its causes, forms and effects on secondary school students. Some previous research studies were cited and presented to support the aforementioned. Various strategies of addressing the associated problems were presented using results from previous studies as yardsticks. This paper succinctly discusses on the research methodology formulations for the future study of drug abuse and its effects on academic performance in secondary school students in Turkana County, Kenya. Questionnaire and other relevant tools shall be the instruments for investigation. The study will target County Director of Education, principals, non-teaching staff, teachers/teaching staff and students in public secondary schools in Turkana County. The thorough investigation is expected to be carried out between August - November 2024 using the formulated questionnaires and interview schedules as data collection tools. In conclusion, the research methodology formulation is expected to be applicable to handle the research objectives.

Fabrication of an Optoplasmonic Raft with Improved SERS Performance Detecting Methamphetamine through Bubble Enrichment.

In this work, a novel raft-like structure that combines noble metal nanoparticles (NPs) with an interconnected layer of hemispherical dielectric shell was fabricated and characterized. It was discovered that this hybrid material can enhance the optoplasmonic interaction between plasmonic and dielectric components, thereby improving the sensing performance in surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS). Varied geometric parameters of the fabricated optoplasmonic raft, including the inner diameter and thickness of the dielectric shell, were attempted and analyzed through numerical simulation and experimental SERS measurements. With particular size, thickness, and incident orientation, the silica shell focuses the incident optical flow into the deposited silver NPs, undergoing similar near-field focusing behavior in comparison with other optoplasmonic entities. This optoplasmonic raft floating on the water surface is able to harvest the target molecules effectively through bubble enrichment, which rapidly captures and concentrates analytes from the aqueous phase. With a limited sampling time, the sensing performance of the developed optoplasmonic raft is improved by applying the optimized parameters involved in bubble enrichment. The substrates and corresponding enrichment method were implemented in the detection of methamphetamine (METH), achieving a limit of detection (LOD) down to 0.035 nM. As for practical onsite detection, the developed substrate and bubbling strategy were applied in an assembled set, employing a portable Raman spectrometer and an air pump. This set is able to detect METH dissolved in regular commercial beer, which is quite competent in the investigation of drug abuse.

‘It’s why you get up in the morning’. A Straussian grounded theory study of coping in police officers who investigate rape and child abuse

Policing by its very nature has been widely recognised as being inherently stressful with little that can be done to prevent police officers’ exposure to both primary and secondary trauma. Officers involved in the investigation of child abuse and sexual offences have been further recognised as working in some of the most stressful and demanding roles in policing. However, there has been little research within this high-risk group of officers which seeks to understand how they cope with both the organisational and occupational stressors they are exposed to, as well as which strategies help them to ‘ get up in the morning’. Data were collected through twenty-three (23) semi-structured interviews, with Straussian Grounded Theory used as a framework to develop a model of coping. This study highlighted that although some officers were affected by the traumatic nature of their work, there were other risk factors present which appear to have impacted on them more significantly including ‘burnout’, ’compassion fatigue’ and ‘moral injury’. Protective factors were identified as ‘being in control’, ‘organisational, social and peer support’ as well as ‘having a purpose’ all of which impacted on an officer’s ability to cope with the work they do. The present findings extend our knowledge of key concepts relating to police officer coping which may help officers working in these high-risk roles to cope with challenges they face daily. Recommendations for further research on how to support this group of officers, as well as implications for practice are discussed.