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Extended Child Forensic Evaluation
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The Extended Forensic Evaluation is a process developed at the National Children’s Advocacy Center (NCAC) in Huntsville Alabama. Investigative techniques are paired with selected therapeutic techniques to allow facts to be discovered in a non-threatening milieu, in a legally defensible manner. The goals are fact-finding and clinical assessment.
Specific details and information pertaining to alleged or suspected abuse are gathered to offer an opinion concerning the credibility a child’s disclosures. The evaluator is most interested in specific details related to the alleged offense, developmental factors related to the disclosure, motivation factors possibly affecting the disclosure, and alternative explanations. In addition, throughout the evaluation the evaluator is assessing the possibility of trauma symptoms and treatment needs of the child. Each evaluation process is strategically developed for the individual child and circumstances.
Interviewing rules governing the evaluation process are posted and periodically reviewed during the evaluation process. The rules are: You know more than I about what happened; Always tell the truth; No guessing; If you don’t know or don’t remember, say so; If I repeat a question, it doesn’t mean the first answer was wrong; If a question is too hard, we can come back to it later; you can correct me if I get something wrong; and You can tell me if you don’t agree with me.
For many children, abuse disclosure is a process not an event (Sorenson and Snow, 1991). Front-line investigative interviewing models are designed to respond to children who are in the active disclosure phase of that process. Numerous studies have shown there is a subset of children who may need time and safety with a professional in order to present facts. (Berliner & Conte, 1993; Bourg et al., 1999; Elliot & Briere, 1994; Gonzalez et al., 1993; Keary & Fitzpatrick, 1994). The average duration of a Forensic Evaluation is recommended to be one session with the non-offending caregiver and five sessions with the child, with each session one-week apart and 1 hour in duration.
Session topics include: Session #1 Orientation and social history; Session #2 Rapport building and developmental assessment; Session #3 Social and behavioral assessment; Session #4 Introduce topic of concern; Session #5 Clarification of topic of concern; and Session #6 Body safety awareness and closure.
The efficacy of the model has been examined in two studies, a pilot project in Huntsville Alabama (Carnes, Wilson, & Nelson-Gardell, 1999) and a nationwide multi-site project (Carnes, Nelson-Gardell, & Wilson, 2001),
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References
Berliner, L. & Conte, J. (1993). Sexual abuse evaluations: Conceptual and empirical obstacles.
Child Abuse and Neglect, 17, 111-125.
Bourg, W., Broderick, R., Flagor, R., Kelly, R., Ervin, D., & Butler, J. (1999). A child
interviewer’s guidebook. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Carnes, C., Nelson-Gardell, D. & Wilson, C. (2001) Extended forensic evaluation when sexual
abuse is suspected: A multi-site filed study. Child Maltreatment, 6, 229-241.
Carnes, C., Wilson, C., & Nelson-Gardell, D. (1999). Extended forensic evaluation when sexual
abuse is suspected: A model and preliminary data. Child Maltreatment, 4, 242-254.
Elliot, D.M., & Briere, J. (1994). Forensic sexual abuse evaluations of older children:
Disclosures and symptomatology. Behavioral Sciences and the Law, 12, 261-277.
Gonzalez., L.S., Waterman, J., Kelly, R., McCord, J., & Oliveri, M.K. (1993). Children’s
patterns of disclosures and recantations of sexual and ritualistic abuse allegations in
psychotherapy.. Child Abuse and Neglect, 17, 281-289.
Keary, K. & Fitzpatrick, C. (1994). Children’s disclosure of sexual abuse during formal
investigation. Child Abuse and Neglect, 18 (7), 543-548.
Sorenson, T., & Snow, B. (1991). How children tell: The process of disclosure in child sexual
abuse. Child Welfare, 70, (1), 2-3.
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