E10,F10

RURAL CHILD ABUSE AND CHILD DEATH INVESTIGATIONS:  WHAT THE SMALL AGENCY NEEDS TO KNOW

Presenters: Jim Holler

Abstract Category:

Instruction Level: Beginner

Presentation: Click Here

Description:      

This workshop will address the duties of the investigating police officer and CPS worker as they begin to investigate a child abuse complaint and what forms of evidence should be collected in every case. Investigators will be provided with the essential information on the use of consent forms, the neglect of children, the dynamics of physical abuse, and the reconstruction and investigation of soft tissue injuries. This workshop will also address the duties of the first responding police officer, which in many of these rural areas may be the officer that will ultimately investigate the child’s death. The workshop will address investigative techniques to help determine whether the child’s death was a natural, accidental, suicidal, or homicidal death.

Abstract: 

The average size of a rural police department in the United States is under ten (10) officers. These officers are tasked with having to know a little about all types of crimes and investigative techniques that must be followed to achieve successful prosecutions. The importance of the rural police function is likely to mount due to increasing urban to rural migration and a climbing crime rate (up as much as 30 percent in some parts of the midwest). These rural areas also present small, many times understaffed, child protective service agencies which are tasked with the investigations of all types of child maltreatment.

Child maltreatment can happen anywhere and does happen frequently in these rural areas. Anyone, regardless of social, economic, or educational level, can physically abuse, neglect, and/or kill a child; and law enforcement officers from these areas, along with child protective services, need to be able to handle these cases the best way possible in order to protect the child and bring about successful prosecutions against the perpetrators. Police officers and CPS workers must be able to recognize the behaviors of abusive parents or caretakers and be able to begin to process all important information relating to the assessment of soft tissue injuries in victims of child abuse. This workshop will address the duties of the investigating police officer and CPS worker as they begin to investigate a child abuse complaint and what forms of evidence should be collected in every case. Investigators will be provided with the essential information on the use of consent forms, the neglect of children, the dynamics of physical abuse, and the reconstruction and investigation of soft tissue injuries.

This workshop will also address the duties of the first responding police officer, which in many of these rural areas may be the officer that will ultimately investigate the child’s death. The workshop will address investigative techniques to help determine whether the child’s death was a natural, accidental, suicidal, or homicidal death. It will include key crime scene and forensic evidence techniques that could be used by the officer.

The workshop will stress the importance of an initial investigation of the residence or area where the child’s body was located, and what can be done to help assure that the crime scene was thoroughly processed. The importance of including a Child Protective Service worker (CPS) in the initial investigation of the child’s death will be stressed. This workshop will help prepare both CPS and law enforcement to deal delicately with a suspected accidental child death, while conducting the death investigation and letting the family grieve over their loss.