Chapter 17: Recommendations for Child Victims

The recommendations below, which appear in the May 1998 New Directions
Report, have been reformatted for replication and distribution. 

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Victimization is a serious threat to America's children and youth. Each year in
our country, hundreds of children write to the President, First Lady, and the
Attorney General about being abused. They ask to be protected. They ask for
police officers and judges to intervene. They harbor hope that somebody who
is "in charge" will help. Numerous State and Federal laws now exist to protect
children from physical and sexual abuse, and to provide an array of rights and
services for child victims who participate in the criminal or juvenile justice
process. More can be done, however, to protect the rights and improve the
treatment of child victims. Therefore, to address the need for increased victim
services and rights for our Nation's children who are touched by crime, the
following recommendations are set forth by the field: 

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1. Communities should establish children's advocacy centers to provide
child-friendly locations where abused children can receive the services they
need to heal and information for the evaluation and investigation of their cases.
To ensure the highest quality of intervention, training should be provided to
professionals on conducting forensic interviews, to medical professionals on
conducting child abuse examinations, and to mental health professionals on
employing abuse-specific treatment approaches.

2. Children who witness violence should be provided the same level of victim
assistance and special protections within the criminal and juvenile justice
systems as child victims.

3. To ensure child abuse cases are recognized and reported as early as
possible, training on the identification and signs of abuse, as well as the impact
of child victimization, should be provided to all professionals who come into
contact with child victims. 

4. There should be an improved governmental response to the problem of
missing, abducted, and sexually exploited children.

5. All jurisdictions should establish or support court school programs to help
educate child victims and witnesses about the court process and their role
within it. 

6. States should enact legislation to open access to criminal history records,
and they should adopt regulations and policies necessary to meet the
requirements of the National Child Protection Act.

7. The Federal Government should examine data collection regarding child
victimization to ensure that all crimes against children, from their birth through
the age of majority, are uniformly reported, categorized (by age of the child,
type of crime, and offender relationship to the child), and analyzed at the State
and Federal levels. 

8. All States should authorize judges to exclude from the courtroom persons
who are not necessary to child-related court proceedings if requested by the
victim or the victim's representative or if the court determines that there would
be substantial psychological harm if the child were to testify in open court.

9. State laws should be reviewed and amended where necessary to protect the
privacy of child victim records including audio- and videotaped interviews. 

10. All States and the Federal Government should enact or amend child
hearsay rules to govern the admission into evidence of reliable statements made
by children under 16 years of age to an adult concerning acts of physical and
sexual abuse. 

11. Additional court procedures should be implemented to assist in the
prosecution of child victimization cases. 

12. Courts and prosecutors need to be provided uniform guidance on
establishing competency when a child's capacity to testify is challenged.

13. All States should enact statutes requiring speedy criminal trials and civil
child protection adjudications for child victims. In addition, all court cases
involving child victims, including criminal, juvenile, domestic violence, and
domestic relations, should implement speedy trial and appellate provisions and
utilize child victim court dockets. In every case involving a child victim, judges
should weigh the adverse effect of continuances and delays.

14. All States should consider alternatives to live in-court testimony for children
under the age of 18.

15. Specially trained lawyers and court-appointed special advocates should be
provided to children in all civil child protection and other abuse-related
proceedings. 

16. Early intervention programs such as Head Start and Healthy Start programs
should be implemented nationwide. The staff of these programs must be trained
to recognize the signs of child abuse, how to report abuse to appropriate
authorities, and how to provide referrals for victims and their families. 

17. Child-serving institutions such as schools, social service, and law
enforcement agencies should make diligent efforts to identify troubled youth and
refer them to social service or victim assistance programs before they run away
from home. Efforts also should be undertaken to identify and assist runaway,
thrown-away, and homeless child victims. 

18. Child abuse prevention programs that address computer exploitation should
be developed and publicized.

19. Federal and State governments should support the significant additional
research that is needed to document effective treatments for child victims,
especially victims of child sexual and physical abuse and children who witness
violence.

20. Convictions and substantiated allegations of spousal or child abuse should
create a rebuttable presumption against awarding temporary or permanent
custody to an offending parent. Parents convicted of child or spousal abuse
should not be granted the right to visitation without independent supervision.

21. States should include driving while under the influence of alcohol or other
drugs with children in the vehicle as a form of child endangerment. Such drivers
should receive enhanced sanctions when criminally convicted, and evidence of
driving under the influence should be considered by family and juvenile courts
when determining custody and visitation rights in cases affecting the 
parent-child relationship.

22. Health insurance providers, particularly managed care providers, should
ensure that their practices facilitate immediate, specialized assistance for child
victims and witnesses of crime. Managed care providers should join
multidisciplinary children's advocacy centers or teams and should authorize
payments for out-of-plan examinations by specialists in the treatment of child
abuse without prior approval.

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