Mental health articles

Decision-making process within child protective services: A corollary concern is how child protective services makes decisions. While certain studies suggest that child protective services workers maintain beliefs that are not empirically supported (Downing et al., 1990; Ryan et al., 1991), we have no information concerning why child protective services workers maintain these beliefs and how […]

Nonoffending guardians in child sexual abuse Studies have traditionally defined expectations for nonoffending guardians as those placed on them by the system, regardless of whether they were realistic, and then determined whether nonoffending guardians could meet those expectations. As such, quantitative studies on normative responses to abuse disclosure for nonoffending guardians are sorely needed. Funding […]

Scope of the problem of child sexual abuse In 1997, the General Accounting Office (GAO) concluded that “focuses on such topics as the causes and effects of child sexual abuse” are mostly irrelevant to “most local agencies’ attempts to reform their services” (“GAO Calls For,” p. 132). Instead, this book has demonstrated conclusively that this […]

Identification and control of the offender in child sexual abuse If children are allowed to remain in their homes with their nonoffending guardians, then the manner in which offenders are handled by the system must also change. The most important change is that offenders need to be removed from the child’s environment or, if allowed […]