Re:

["Anna Hagemeister" <AHAGEMEI@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dr. Jeff Edleson
jedleson@umn.edu
He's at the University of Minnesota, School of Social Work, also see electronic clearinghouse under his direction, www.mincaca.umn.edu - the is the Minnesota Center Against Violence and Abuse. (May not be in the APA database because he's a social worker not a psychologist.)

Annelies Hagemeister
Research Assistant
MINCAVA

>>> lrgreenberg@earthlink.net 10/15/01 09:08 AM >>>
Does anyone happen to have Jeff Edleson's email address?  I'd like to 
request a copy of the article and he isn't in the APA email database.

Thank you.

Lyn R. Greenberg, Ph.D.
12401 Wilshire Blvd, Suite 303
Los Angeles, CA  90025

(310) 399-3684

(310) 399-7154 fax

lrgreenberg@earthlink.net


At 10:25 AM 10/11/2001 -0500, carolyn hartley wrote:
>If any parallels can be drawn between criminal prosecution of child abuse 
>and the prosecution of intimate partner violence (I think there are), then 
>some of your suspicions are no doubt true.
>
>         With regards the charging of domestic violence assaults, Langen 
> and Innes found that one third of domestic violence cases that were 
> classified as misdemeanors, if committed by strangers, would have been 
> classified as felonies.  Langen and Innes further found that many of the 
> domestic simple assaults, classified as misdemeanors, actually involved 
> relatively serious injuries.  Injury to the victim in the misdemeanor 
> cases occurred almost as frequently as injury in the felony cases 
> classified as rape, robbery and aggravated assault, and "in terms of 
> actual bodily injury, as many as half of all incidents of domestic 
> violence that police would classify as misdemeanors are as serious as or 
> more serious than 90% of all the violent crimes that police would 
> classiy as felonies."
>
>Patrick A. Langan and Christopher A. Innes,  Preventing Domestic Violence 
>Against Women.  (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of 
>Justice Statistics, 1986).
>
>I believe there is literature out there on the prosecution of child sexual 
>abuse -  the challenges of relying on child testimony, etc.  There is also 
>quite a bit that has been written about the decision to charge in rape 
>cases - that the "stand-up" nature of the victim has a huge influence on 
>the prosecutor's decision.
>
>I think there are many reasons why parents are not charged with "crimes 
>against children" in the case of child maltreatment.  One reason may be 
>that we have traditionally relied on child protection systems and 
>therefore family courts to address issues of child abuse.  In the same way 
>that domestic violence for so many years was considered a "family matter" 
>- child abuse has been thought of in a similar manner.
>
>There has been much progress made towards "criminalizing" domestic 
>violence - which has in turn required the criminal justice system to 
>respond to this abuse - there had been significant improvement in this 
>response but much work remains to be done.
>
>I am not sure if you are suggesting this is a direction we want to move 
>towards in the child protection field.  I don't know that it would be a 
>productive move.  I do however think we need more connection between the 
>criminal and family courts to better respond to child maltreatment, 
>particularly with regards to child sexual abuse and domestic violence - in 
>order to better hold sexual offenders and batterers accountable for their 
>abusive behavior.
>
>Take the issue of failure to protect due to domestic violence - if the 
>mother is being battered by her partner, the state can find for neglect 
>due to exposure to domestic violence.  The mother in many of these cases 
>is the 'founded perpetrator' due to failure to protect.  Unless the 
>batterer is found to hve directly maltreated the child, he may not be 
>founded for the maltreatment.  The state can recommend batterer treatment, 
>but has little leverage to get the batterer to comply beyond the threat of 
>losing custody of his children - he can't be sent to jail for not 
>following through because he has not been criminally prosecuted.  And if 
>the batterer is not the biological father of the children or legally 
>married to the mother he may not be included in an treatment plan for the 
>family.  See Jeff Edleson's article on the invisibility of fathers in the 
>child protection system.
>
>Edleson, J.L. (1998).  Responsible mothers and invisible men:  Child 
>protection in the case of adult domestic violence.  Journal of 
>Interpersonal Violence, 13,2,  294-298.
>
>
>Carolyn Hartley, Ph.D.
>Assistant Professor
>University of Iowa
>School of Social Work
>
>At 11:12 AM 10/10/2001 -0400, you wrote:
>>Hello:
>>
>>I am interested in research data relating to adults being charged with 
>>crimes against children. I suspect that: 1) adults are often not charged 
>>with crimes that they commit against children; 2) adults are charged with 
>>less severe crimes than they may be if the act were committed against 
>>another adult; 3) parents are rarely charged with crimes against their 
>>children; 4) when charged with crimes against their children, parents are 
>>more often found guilty of less serious offenses than what they are 
>>originally charged with.
>>
>>I am interested to know of any research that addresses these issues.
>>
>>Frank
>>Program Manager
>>Michigan Child Welfare Law Resource Center
>>611 Church Street, Suite 4C
>>Ann Arbor, Michigan  48104-3000
>>P: (734) 998-9191
>>F: (734) 998-9190