Failure starts in college
FAILURE TO PROTECT CHILDREN FROM ABUSE BEGINS IN COLLEGE
Victor Vieth[1]
Americans are justifiably outraged about recent allegations of child sexual abuse in the Los Angeles school district, particularly allegations that school and other authorities may have failed to react appropriately to earlier complaints of abuse. The possibility that clear outcries of abuse may have been ignored or not properly responded to is part of a pattern we have seen developing through in other recent cases at Penn State, Syracuse and the Citadel. The disturbing trend in these cases can be seen in the fact that these are not isolated instances. Indeed, a number of studies conducted over the course of 20 years, have found that most mandated reporters, including teachers, social workers, physicians, and physician assistants fail to report the majority of child abuse cases. Even when reports are made, most cases are deemed unfounded, or not properly investigated. The failures of mandated reporters and child protection professionals begins at the undergraduate and graduate level where institutions of higher education fail miserable to properly prepare graduates who will encounter abused children as mandated reporters or as child protection professionals.
Most mandated reporters won’t report cases of child abuse
A 1990 study found that only 40% of instances of child abuse and 35% of the most serious cases known by mandated reporters were relayed to Child Protective Services. More recent studies show that 50% of mandated reporters do not disclose accounts of suspected substantiated abuse, to proper authorities.
There are many reasons witnesses choose not to report child abuse. Unfortunately, one of the most common reasons suspected abuse goes unreported is because of relationships between witnesses and alleged abusers. Insufficient evidence, lack of certainty that abuse has occurred, the belief a report will cause additional harm are just a few of the reasons cited by reporters who have failed to meet their obligation to disclose abuse. Ambiguity in some mandated reporting statutes and lack of training on how and to whom to report also contributes to underreporting. Regrettably, a lack of legal obligation is also cited among some witnesses, as a reason for their failure to report. This is perhaps the most unsettling of all, as it is they who hold the power to seek justice for those who can’t. Most victims of abuse will not come forward on their own out of fear of the alleged perpetrator, shame or embarrassment about their victimization or concern about community response.
Many serious cases of maltreatment are not investigated
When universities and other institutions of higher education fail to properly equip the professionals who will be responsible to future victims, these would-be officials are forced to learn—on the job—what they should have experienced in training. As a result, even cases of severe child abuse are screened out of the system with little to no investigation.
Indeed, according to the Fourth National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and Neglect (NIS-4), a large percentage of cases of child abuse identified by professionals were not investigated properly. Only 50% of the nation’s identified cases of child abuse received investigation and only 30% of the cases in which children suffered from “serious harm” were explored by authorities.
Most colleges and universities do not prepare mandated reporters and child protection professionals
Over two decades of research document US law enforcement officers, social workers, nurses, doctors, prosecutors, judges, and other child protection professionals leave their undergraduate and graduate institutions inadequately prepared to respond to cases of child abuse.
In a 2006 study, Winona State University analyzed the websites of 1,416 universities and colleges wherein bachelor degrees were offered in the following fields: criminal justice/law enforcement (393), social work (340), human services (113), nursing (390), medicine (96), psychology (794), sociology (639), and education (105). WSU professors searched these sites using the terms “child maltreatment,” “child abuse and neglect,” “child protection,” “child welfare,” and “child advocacy.” Only 29% (410) of these web sites had any course work addressing issues of child maltreatment. Moreover, when course work was offered, it was typically in fields of sociology or psychology—thus leaving the vast majority of child protection professionals with no training at the undergraduate level. Where undergraduate coursework on child mistreatment was offered, the coverage was often cursory. Not one of the 1,416 universities analyzed had any sort of concentration on child maltreatment.
Commenting on his lack of training, social worker Marc Parent said he received “Two weeks of solemn discussion on child protective issues, but little on getting a drug dealer to let you into an abandoned building or talking a restless police officer into sticking around until you get through with a case and back into your car.”
The problem extends to graduate schools as well. A study of American Psychological Association (APA) accredited graduate programs found that many of the programs “fall far short” of guidelines proposed by the APA for minimal levels of competence in handling child maltreatment cases. The study found, the lack of graduate training for psychology students “contradicts the rapidly expanding literature on responding to maltreatment and the demands of this interdisciplinary, professional endeavor.”
Discussing her educational background, psychologist Anna Salter writes:
In the two years I spent at Tufts getting a Masters degree in Child Study and the five years I spent at Harvard getting a Ph.D. in Psychology and Public Practice, there was virtually nothing on child sexual and physical abuse in any course I took. I had one lecture on the victims of child abuse, but not a single lecture anywhere on offenders. Ironically, many of the lectures were on maladies so rare I’ve yet to see them in twenty years of practice.
The need for reform
The National Child Protection Training Center is working with dozens of universities throughout the United States to implement undergraduate and graduate courses that will prepare mandated reporters, such as teachers, to recognize and report reasonable suspicions of abuse. In addition to better preparing future mandated reporters, these universities also provide certificate, minors, majors and graduate degrees in Child Advocacy Studies—programs that will better prepare future law enforcement officers, social workers, mental and medical health professionals, as well as prosecutors and judges to competently respond to allegations of child abuse from the outset. Unless and until these or other common sense measures are taken at universities throughout the country, tragedies like the abuse coverups at Penn State, Syracuse, the Citadel and the LA School District will not be isolated instances—they will continue to be the norm.
