ABSTRACT
It is critical for investigators to form an investigative plan when beginning a child abuse investigation. Breaking down the elements of an investigation can assist investigators in crafting a detailed and competent case file. This can translate into a better presentation to the jury. A case presentation in court should look a lot like math homework from elementary school. Your third-grade teacher would not accept your answer without you first showing your work. By outlining each step in the process of obtaining your answer, you assured your teacher that you reached the correct conclusion through proper reasoning and not by guessing or cheating. The same principle applies in child abuse investigations. If investigators outline their work from start (allegation) to finish (suspect interrogation and/ or arrest), jurors can be assured that the appropriate conclusion was reached. While television cops may quickly want to bring in a suspect for an interrogation, a good investigator knows that the upfront collection of information prior to confronting a suspect makes for a better interrogation. While that information collection may take time, the payoff is often a solid suspect admission that greatly enhances both justice in the criminal courts and child safety in the family courts. Investigators have to keep in mind that these cases often do not yield the physical evidence that television shows have told us is present in every case and that will seal the deal at trial. Certainly, in physical abuse cases there can be some physical evidence in the form of visible injury: bruises, abrasions, or broken bones. Even a red mark seen by another person can be considered evidence. But what happens when all we have is a complaint of pain without the accompanying visible injury? And certainly the case of sexual abuse falls into the little or no physical evidence category. How often do we get definitive evidence of sexual assault from a medical exam? What evidence is left behind when an adult male
puts his finger into the vagina of a seven-year-old girl? It does not take a great deal of experience working these cases to learn that we often fall far short of the standards set by fictional cops and CSI technicians on popular shows.
