Beginning with the passage of The Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration Act in 1994 and Megan's Law in 1996, the federal government and states have passed numerous pieces of legislation to control and restrict those convicted of sex offenses. This study surveyed the attitudes of undergraduate students…

This article describes the state of knowledge about extended assessments/forensic evaluations in situations of possible sexual abuse. It provides a critical review of the modest body of relevant research, describes two models for extended assessments, and presents descriptive survey findings of 62 professionals conducting extended assessments,…

Purpose: This paper highlights the forensic implications of language impairment in 2 key (and overlapping) groups of young people: identified victims of maltreatment (abuse and/or neglect) and young offenders. Method: Two lines of research pertaining to oral language competence and young people's interface with the law are considered: 1 regarding…

This article presents a commentary on "Making the Most of Information-Gathering Interviews With Children," in which, according to Jones, Larsson and Lamb provided a helpful overview on memory retrieval and communicative ability and on ways these may be fostered in interviews with children. They explored three interview protocols that have been…

Child sex abuse cases have been the target of considerable psycho-legal research. The present paper offers an analysis of psychological constructs for jury selection in child sex abuse cases from the defense perspective. The authors specifically delineate general and case-specific jury selection variables. General variables include…

Based on an examination of key elements of criminal law, this article argues that child abuse is best prevented and treated through civil proceedings rather than criminal action. (SS)

This article will present the restorative justice model and examine how the restorative justice philosophy and process can be applied to clergy-perpetrated sexual abuse and religious sexual misconduct to resolve legal claims and allow the process of healing to begin. Restorative justice is a holistic approach to criminal, civil, and church law…

Discusses potential obstacles involved when interviewing child victims of sexual abuse, including risks of false allegations and the interviewer's difficulty in maintaining true objectivity. Underlines importance of tailoring whole procedure to child's developmental level. Examines Statement Validity Analysis, advocating the need to approach this…

Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the trajectory of cases through four systems: child protection, law enforcement, the dependency courts, and the criminal courts. Method: This study focused on a county selected from a 41-county telephone survey conducted for the National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and Neglect (NIS-3). For this…

Impetus to prosecute child abuse has increased considerably with earlier involvement of police and legal reforms for more child-centered practices. Research on implementation of the Memorandum of Good Practice is presented to propose that prosecution of abuse is neither achieved nor achievable in majority of cases and that assumption on which…

Objective: To understand how the Swedish legal system perceives and handles mentally handicapped children who may have been victimized. Method: Twenty-two judicial districts in Sweden provided complete files on 39 District Court cases (including the Appeals Court files on 17 of these cases) involving children with learning difficulties or other…

This information memorandum of the Wisconsin Legislative Council describes 1987 Wisconsin Act 332, relating to crimes and civil offenses against children and providing penalties. An introduction describes how Act 332 will reorganize existing crimes against children into a separate chapter of the Criminal Code and will revise crimes and offenses…

Parents have the right to their children, but their children have a right to live. The Criminal Code should be amended to oblige parents to prove their innocence. If the Crown can establish that the child was beaten when only parents were present, parents should prove they were not responsible. (Author)

An article by Seligson contended that the current intrafamilial child sexual abuse treatments are driven by legal concerns rather than the needs and complex feelings of the child. A survey of therapists (n=41) at an urban outpatient clinic do not support any of Seligson's major contentions, as a majority of therapists ranked legal matters as their…

Analysis of records of dependency and criminal filings in 833 substantiated intrafamilial child abuse and neglect cases in 3 U.S. cities indicated that legal intervention was rare, with dependency filings and prosecutions in just 21% and 4% of the sample, respectively, although treatment plans and out-of-home placements occurred more frequently.…