Recommendations for Training
Police and the health care/social service/probation system must begin to recognize the many different faces of sexual abuse. They should consider these aspects of abuse of minors:
1. Source of First Report:
a. Family member
b. Mandated reporter
i. School official
ii. Therapist
iii. Physician/medical workers
c. Other
2. Unit making first intervention
a. Police
b. Social Services, (Child Protective Services)
c. Juvenile Probation Department
3. Consider theVictims Situation and Source of Suspected Perpetrator (Perp Source)
a. Minor in place at home Perp Source: family member, ie: parent, sibling, grandparent, uncle/aunt, cousin;
b. Minor in place at home or in foster care/residential mental health facility Perp Source: known non-family care giver, ie: coach, teacher, priest, baby sitter;
c. Minor in place at home or foster care/residential mental health facility Perp Source: stranger
d. Minor in foster care/residential mental health facility Perp Source: staff, peer resident,
e. Minor awol from home or foster care/ residential mental health facility Perp Source: stranger/known non-family care giver or known family member
f. Minor awol from home or foster care/residential mental health facility involved as sex worker: - Perp Source: pimp or john
4. Training considerations:
a. Minors Need to be educated about saying no to any older person/adult especially in positions of authority, with info on how to report attempted abuse.
b. Family members & general public A public program of education of family members needs to be developed using schools and media with emphasis on:
i. recognizing the signs of abuse and its symptoms, ie: change in school performance, depression, angry outbursts, bed wetting, encoprisis, avoiding formerly trusted perp, inability to trust others
ii. that males are victims too (publicize FBI figure 1 out of 6 or 7 males experience abuse)
iii. how to report sexual abuse
c. Mandated reporters - professional training should include:
i. recognizing the signs of abuse and its symptoms, ie: change in school performance, depression, angry outbursts, bed wetting, encoprisis, avoiding formerly trusted perp, physical sensitivity to being touched or examined, loner behavior
ii. understanding cultural myths and their effect on male victims ie: males should fight back otherwise its their fault, males should be grateful for an older females sexual attention, males become homosexual when abused by males,
iii. understanding the special problems males have admitting or remembering abuse because a male bias against expressing emotions, shame, feeling at fault
iv. understanding the way symptoms attack a victims ability to trust others
v. understanding that sexual abuse trauma to males interferes with their sexual development often resulting in sexual identity confusion
vi. understanding the effects of hyper-sexualization and sexual identity confusion on males who have to also face homophobia and peer expectations of adolescent sexual behavior (ie: macho behavior)
vii. investigation techniques which do not add to the trauma of the victim
d. Intervention:
i. Police training should include awareness of the above as well as:
1. the need for training in sensitivity to male victims [comment too often the cultural myths mentioned above create a bias against males as the facts of the suspected abuse unfold this is true of adult males being abused by a spouse where the police officer will automatically side with the woman. Because of this, a male minor reporting an abusive situation must be taken seriously]
2. that many AWOL youth are running away from something often it is abuse in their home or foster home/residential mental health facility and sometimes it is sexual abuse
3. that minors involved in the sex industry are first of all, VICTIMS of sexual abuse, whether by their pimps or their johns The crime is being committed by the perpetrator not the minor. Police policy should be to target pimps who maintain minors on the street, and Johns who prey on them.
4. that male minors involved in the sex industry, are often acting out earlier abuse which has contributed to their being on the streets
5. that some male minors on the street, have been rejected/abandoned by their families for being or acting homosexual (whether because of sexual orientation or from sexual identity confusion) They are the VICTIMS of sexual abuse or abuse from neglect by their parents.
6. that children in foster care/mental health facility have a greatly increased chance of being victims of sexual abuse.
7. that criminal behavior such as drugs and stealing by minors working the street for sex is a part of their surviving on the street
8. that early intervention, first contact with a minor working on the street, is the best opportunity to provide services that will help the child, police should refer first time minors on the street to social services for help rather than criminalizing them in the probation system
ii. Social Services/Probation are the front-line investigators of reports of sexual abuse. They need training to:
1. be aware of all of the above
2. be aware of the need to provide specialized resources for victims of sexual abuse. [Comment, too often referrals are made to therapists who are not experienced in treating sexual abuse of males and the special problems that they present] Specialized resources should be identified and made available to all Social Workers and Probation Officers which should include experienced therapists, local non profit organizations providing services to street kids and to gay-lesbian-transgender youth, and 12-step organizations such as SA, Al-Anon, & teen Al-Anon programs
5. Coordination and Training of Investigative Services
a. Investigation. Forensic investigation of minor sex abuse victims should be done only through referral to a well planned multi-disciplinary investigation unit. At the very least it should be staffed by a District Attorney, Social Worker, and a Medical Health worker. [Comment: much like adult rape investigation units Minors need to be brought to experienced investigators as early as possible. An example of such a unit is the CALICO unit serving Alameda County in California]
b. Physical Examination. Physical forensic investigation should only be performed by an experienced and well trained medical facility, such as a local Childrens Hospital. The investigation should employ the LEAST INTRUSIVE method possible.. The guiding principle should be to provide medical and mental health support for the victim and to avoid retraumatizing the minor in the name of criminal investigation of the abuse offense.
c. Coordination of Services. Police, Social Services, Probation, Juvenile Courts must provide a system wide plan to deal with youth from first contact to providing adequate placement and subsequent therapeutic services. Emphasis must be made on EARLY INTERVENTION of AWOL youth before they become and are considered as seasoned veterans of the street, thus in the eyes of the system considered untreatable and who will only be dealt with when they graduate into the adult criminal system. [See Program being developed by the ICPC of the Alameda County Mental Health Department resulting from their Task Force on Minors Involved in Prostitution.]
