Program focuses on ending abuse

By Tracy M. Neal Staff Writer // tracyn@nwanews.com

Posted on Thursday, September 28, 2006

URL: http://www.nwanews.com/bcdr/News/40231/

BENTONVILLE — Victor Vieth encouraged law enforcement officers, prosecutors, and social-
service workers to be part of the first generation to lay the groundwork to end child abuse.

Vieth, director of the National Center for the Prosecution of Child Abuse in Winona, Minn.,
presented his plan Wednesday night at the Shewmaker Center for Workforce Technologies as
part of a week-long training course — Finding Words Arkansas — for professionals on the front
line of investigating and prosecuting childabuse cases.

Finding Words is a program to train law enforcement officers, prosecutors and social-service
workers on child-abuse investigations and prosecutions. The Children’s Advocacy Center of
Benton County is presenting the five-day program.

Vieth presented a plan titled “ Unto the Third Generation: A Call to End Child Abuse Within 120
Years. ”

Vieth spent 10 years prosecuting child-abuse cases, and he has worked for the center for eight
years.

“ We are adrift in a sea of blood, ” Vieth said as he described cases of children being murdered
and sexually and physically abused. “ I think it’s time we stopped it. ”

Vieth presented five obstacles to preventing child abuse.

First, many child-abuse cases are never reported, Vieth said. In 1990, people mandated to report
child abuse revealed only 35 percent of the most serious cases that they had been involved with,
according to Vieth. In 2001, 197 teachers were asked in a study about child abuse, and 26
percent of them said they would report familial abuse, and 11 percent said they would report
abuse involving another teacher.

The next obstacle is the fact that most cases reported will never be investigated. In 1999, 3. 244
million children were reported as abused or neglected, Vieth said. According to a study, only 28
percent to 35 percent of those children will have their cases investigated, he said.

Thirdly, investigators are often inadequately trained for child-abuse investigations. Vieth also said
medical and law schools are not offering enough training for doctors and lawyers when it comes
to child abuse.

According to Vieth, 31 percent of shaken-baby-syndrome cases are not recognized by

emergency-room physicians.

Next, even when the abuse is substantiated, a child is typically older and it’s more difficult to
address the impact of abuse. The average age of a child-abuse victim in court is 10, and the
median age is 13, according to Vieth.
Each year, $ 94 billion is spent in dealing with the aftermath of child abuse, and those costs could
be avoided if children were in the system at younger ages and the abuse was addressed in the
early stages, Vieth said.

He said there are 241, 000 prostituted children in the United States, and many have left their
homes because of abuse.

“ If we had gotten to them at their youngest age, they wouldn’t be dying on the street corners of
our major cities, ” Vieth said.

The last obstacle is that child-abuse victims receive an inadequate share of our country’s financial
resources because the child-protection community lacks a unified voice in communicating the
needs of maltreated children.

Vieth described those in the room as the first generation in the effort to stop child abuse.

He hopes that by 2040, abused children will be reported in the system, and the reports about the
abuse will be of the highest quality. The plan also calls for every university to teach students
entering mandated-reporting professions the skills necessary to perform the task. Mandated
reporters will also receive annual training, which some communities are already doing, Vieth said.
The system must also conduct a competent investigation, and all children must receive a
competent interview. Universities also must develop curriculums for students in which they
receive the proper education and training, and on-the-job training becomes a thing of the past,
Vieth said.

Second and third generations must be recruited to continue the effort for the next 80 years, he
said.

Vieth said it’s important to believe that child abuse can be ended, but the entire country must
come together to lead the charge to do so.

“ We must believe in what we are about to do, ” he said. “ We must believe in the generation that
will follow. ”