Volume 2, Number 4

2005

N AT I O N A L C H I L D P R O T E C T I O N T R A I N I N G C E N T E R

REASONABLE

Efforts

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for the September course have
until November 15, 2005, to reregister for the March course.
If you were registered to
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Reasonable Efforts is published by the

American Prosecutors Research Institute
(APRI), the training and technical assistance provider for the National Child
Protection Training Center (NCPTC) at
Winona State University (WSU). Items
may be reprinted if attributed to the
American Prosecutors Research Institute
and to Winona State University.

Direct inquiries and news article suggestions to NCPTC, 507-457-2890, or write

to National Child Protection Training
Center,Winona State University,
227 Maxwell Hall,Winona, MN 55987.

When the Victim is Very Young:

Assessing Allegations of Sexual Abuse
in Pre-school children (Part 1 of 2)
By Victor Vieth1

n a nationwide survey of sexually abused

children, David Finkelhor concluded the
median age at time of abuse was 9.9
years for boys and 9.6 years for girls.2
However, sexual abuse occurs at all ages,
including infancy. In one study, half of the
women who were abused as children said
the onset of abuse occurred before the age of
five.3 Some experts contend the average age of
sexual abuse victims is only three years old.4
And yet, allegations of sexual abuse involving
children under the age of six are least likely to
be substantiated. Data from the National
Clearinghouse on Child Abuse and Neglect
suggests that the highest substantiation rates
for all types of child abuse are for children
ages 0-6. However, for child sexual abuse
reports, the younger the child the lower the
level of substantiated abuse.5
In this, the first of two articles addressing
sexual abuse allegations among preschool children, the difficulties of substantiating abuse
among this age group will be explored. The
second article will offer tips for overcoming
these obstacles and securing justice for more
of these vulnerable children.
Difficulties in substantiating the sexual
abuse of young children
Dr. Sandra Hewitt gives the following example to illustrate the difficulties of substantiating cases of child sexual abuse among young
children. A two-year-old child was in a
domestic violence shelter with her mother.
The mother was badly beaten by an alcoholic
father. When the mother changed the childs
diaper, she grabbed her vulva and cried
Daddy hurt butt! Daddy hurt butt! The
child was also observed to be nervous and
anxious around her father and had trouble
sleeping after a visit. Police and child protective services conducted a joint investigation
but could not substantiate sexual abuse. The
child was eventually returned to the father for
unsupervised visitation.6
This example illustrates some of the many
difficulties in substantiating allegations of
abuse among very young children. Reasons
for these difficulties include:

1. Physical findings are rare. In prepubertal girls,

the likelihood of diagnostic physical findings, even with penetration, is about 3%.7
2. Any verbal accounts of abuse are rudimentary at
best. As noted in APRIs Child Abuse manual, children who are unable to give verbal
accounts of abuse may use their rudimentary verbal skills together with gestures and
behaviors that suggest an abusive incident.
For instance, the child may point to a
bruised arm or her genital area and say
Owee, Dadda, owee. Some preverbal children reenact abuse in play or other activities. Examples of this include the child
lying back in the crib and spreading her
legs wide or the child pounding over and
over on a stuffed animal.8
3.The younger the child, the greater the concern
about suggestibility. In general, once children
reach the age of ten, they are no more suggestible than adults are.9 However, younger
children, particularly those of pre-school
age, may be unduly suggestive.10 According
to some researchers, this vulnerability leads
younger preschoolers, on occasion, to claim
that they remember actually experiencing
events that they only thought about or
were suggested by others.11
Having said this, we should not assume
that subjecting a young child to a misleading or suggestive question necessarily invalidates an allegation of abuse. According to
one commentator, (a)lthough young children can be misled to report inaccurate
information about their experiences, they
are more resistant to false suggestions about
negative and abuse-related activities12
4. Statements suggesting abuse may have multiple
interpretations. For instance, Dr. Allison
Defelice of Columbia, South Carolina, tells
of a preschooler who informs the day care
provider, Daddy put his pee on my pee.
As it turns out, the child had urinated in
the toilet and her father told her not to
flush since he was going to use the bathroom next. It is easy to see how the state-

ment could be misinterpreted if this child had not been

interviewed by a competent forensic interviewer. If the event
had been misinterpreted as abuse, an interviewer could have
unwittingly planted the idea of an inappropriate touch in the
childs mind. This possibility has concerned a number of
courts.13
5.We think too narrowly. As noted by Dr. Hewitt, we document
child sexual abuse by how well children can talk about what
has happened to them. In other words, substantiation rates
mirror the ability to talk, not probable cause.14 So long as
we collect evidence of sexual abuse primarily based on a
young childs verbal abilities, we will be unable to protect
this population. We need to aggressively look at alternative
forms of documenting abuse and perhaps look more at civil
child protection as opposed to criminal codes.
6. Nonverbal symptoms of abuse may be more difficult to discern
among some preschoolers. Hewitt and Friedrich attempted to fit
the behaviors of preschoolers into categories documenting
that these children were abused, non-abused or uncertain.
The uncertain category was preschool children who came
from very chaotic families.15 According to Dr. Friedrich,
preschoolers coming from chaotic families made substantiation of abuse more difficult since there were so many other
potential contributors to their behavior, and they were less
able to express their concerns.16
Conclusion
Although addressing the abuse of infants and preschoolers presents unique challenges, failure to address this social ill has devastating consequences to our society. According to authors
Robin Karr-Morse and Meredith Wiley, a growing body of
scientific knowledge demonstrates that maltreatment during the
nine months of fetal growth and the first twenty-four months
after birth leads to violent older children and adults.17 To this
end, part II of this article will provide investigative and prosecutorial tips for proving an allegation of sexual abuse in cases
involving preschool victims.

TO

1 Director, APRIs Child Abuse Programs.

2 David Finkelhor, et al, Sexual Abuse and Its Relationship to Later Sexual
Satisfaction, Marital Status, Religion, and Attitudes, 4 JOURNAL OF
INTERPERSONAL VIOLENCE 379-99 at 381 (1989).
3 Steven N. Gold, et al, Characteristics of Childhood Sexual Abuse Among Female
Survivors in Therapy, 20 CHILD ABUSE AND NEGLECT 323, 328 (1996).
4 Gavin de Becker, Foreword to ANNA SALTER, PREDATORS ix (BASIC BOOKS
2003).
5 SANDRA K. HEWITT, ASSESSING ALLEGATIONS OF SEXUAL ABUSE IN
PRESCHOOL CHILDREN: UNDERSTANDING SMALL VOICES 2 (SAGE 1999).
6 Id. at 2-3.
7 Dr. Rich Kaplan, When Child Abuse Hits Home, a conference of the National
Child Protection Training Center, presented in Winona, MN June 21-25,
2005, citing Berenson, et al, A Case Study of Findings Resulting From Sexual
Abuse, 42(4) AMERICAN J. OBSTET. GYNECOL. 82-83 (APRIL 2000). Hager, et
al, Children Referred for Possible Sexual Abuse: Medical Findings in 2384
Children, 26 CHILD ABUSE AND NEGLECT 645-659 (2002).
8 INVESTIGATION AND PROSECUTION OF CHILD ABUSE THIRD EDITION 22-23
(Sage 2004).
9 John E.B. Myers, Gail S. Goodman, Karen Saywitz, Psychological Research on
Children as Witnesses: Practical Implications for Forensic Interviews and Courtroom
Testimony, 27 PACIFIC LAW JOURNAL 1, 26 (1996).
10 Stephen Ceci, et al, The Possible Role of Source Misattribution in the Creation of
False Beliefs Among Preschoolers, 62 THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF
CLINICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL HYPNOSIS 304 (1994)
11 Id.
12 Jodi A. Quas, et al, Individual Differences in Childrens and Adults Suggestibility
and False Event Memory, 9 LEARNING AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 359,
362 (1997). For an excellent overview of the correlation between age and
suggestibility, see JOHN E.B. MYERS, MYERS ON EVIDENCE IN CHILD,
DOMESTIC AND ELDER ABUSE at 25-28 (ASPEN 2005).
13 See e.g. In Re GB, 838 A.2d 529, 530 n. 1 (2004) (commenting that children
in the three to four-year old range are most vulnerable to suggestions by
the questioner.)
14 HEWITT, supra note 5 at 3.
15 WILLIAM N. FRIEDRICH, PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT OF SEXUALLY ABUSED
CHILDREN AND THEIR FAMILIES 155 (SAGE 2002)
16 Id.
17 ROBIN KARR-MORSE AND MEREDITH S. WILEY, TRACING THE ROOTS OF
VIOLENCE 15 (ATLANTIC MONTHLY PRESS 1997).

APRI PUBLISHES COMPREHENSIVE PLAN

END CHILD ABUSE IN THE UNITED STATES

APRI has published a bold, but practical plan for significantly

reducing if not eliminating child abuse in the United States
over the course of three generations.The plan is contained in
an article entitled Unto the Third Generation: A Call to End
Child Abuse in the United States within 120 Years. The article
is published in Volume 12, Numbers 3/4 (2006) of the Journal of
Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma. The article is simultaneously
published as the lead chapter in a book entitled Ending Child
Abuse: New Efforts in Prevention, Investigation and Training. The
book is edited by Victor I.Vieth, Bette L. Bottoms and Alison
R. Perona and is published by Haworth Press.

Unto the Third Generation is the first scholarly work to

argue we can end child abuse and then back it up with a concrete plan.The plan was peer-reviewed by dozens of child
protection authorities and then delivered in keynote addresses
to more than 10,000 front line child protection professionals
from all 50 states and 17 different countries. For additional
information about APRIs plan to eliminate child abuse, contact the National Center for Prosecution of Child Abuse at
703-549-4253 or the National Child Protection Training
Center at 507-457-2890.

The American Prosecutors Research Institute (APRI) provides research, training and technical
assistance to the National Child Protection Training Center (NCPTC) at Winona State
University (WSU). APRI is a non-profit affiliate of the National District Attorneys Association
(NDAA).This publication was prepared under Cooperative Agreement No. 2003-JN-FX-K009
from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, U.S. Department of
Justice. Points of view in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily
represent the official position of the U.S. Department of Justice, NDAA, APRI or WSU.
This information is offered for educational purposes only and is not legal advice.

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