Sex abuse evaluations: Protocols, training

["Eric Mart" <emart@xxxxxxxxx>]

Dear List:

I am currently serving on a state legislative study committee which was
formed to explore the issues of standardized protocols for the
interviewing and general evaluation of children suspected of being
victims of sexual abuse. The legislature has been concerned that these
evaluations are done across the state by a wide variety of professionals
with widely varying levels of education and training. In my personal
experience, many of the evaluations are done with a high degree of
professionalism but an unacceptably high proportion are done so poorly
that it is inevitable that there will be an unacceptably high level of
type one and type two errors. The purpose of the committee is to explore
the adoption of a standardized protocol as well as training leading to
some try of certification.

My question; are those of you doing research in this area aware of
states or municipalities where this has been done successfully? I am
familiar with the work of Lamb, Poole and Kuehnle but I was wondering
about the more practical aspects of the implementation of standards in
real world settings.

Interestingly, the idea of protocols and certification appears to be
strongly opposed by police standards and training and the state child
protection agency, for reasons that are not entirely clear to me,
although I suspect that turf issues play a role. Anyone have any
thoughts? I would appreciate any assistance.

Eric G. Mart, Ph.D. ABPP (Forensic)