Background: The LIRIK, an instrument for the assessment of child safety and risk, is designed to improve assessments by guiding professionals through a structured evaluation of relevant signs, risk factors, and protective factors. Objective: We aimed to assess the interrater agreement and the predictive validity of professionals' judgments made…

Objective: The aim of the study was to examine caregiver management strategies for child sexual abuse (CSA) when presented with hypothetical scenarios that vary in physical invasiveness. Methods: One hundred fifty three caregivers were given 3 scenarios of CSA with 7 management strategies presented in the 21-item Taking Action Strategies (TAS)…

This study examines the effects victim disability (physical vs. intellectual vs. none), victim resistance (physical vs. verbal vs. none) and respondent gender (male vs. female) have on attributions of blame and credibility in a hypothetical case of child sexual abuse. Three hundred and thirty-five respondents read a fictional police statement…

Cognitive distortions about sexual offending were examined in 11 girls who committed sexual offenses, 12 girls who committed non-sexual criminal offenses, and 21 girls with no history of sexual or non-sexual offending. Participants responded to 12 vignettes that described sexual contact between an adolescent girl and a younger boy. The vignettes…

Do child molesters hold distorted beliefs (or cognitive distortions) that support their sexual offending? To test this hypothesis, we asked 28 child molesters and 20 inmate controls to read a description of child molestation. Within this vignette, we planted 10 ambiguous descriptions. If child molesters' information processing were driven by…

In the United States, reported child abuse rates vary dramatically with race. We employed a scenario methodology to examine whether teachers, whose professional obligations include reporting suspected instances of abuse, exhibit bias in evaluating a possibly abused child. Each teacher (180 White, 180 Black, and 180 Hispanic) read one of six…

Despite a rapid growth in research interest and treatment facilities for adolescent sex offenders, understanding of how these adolescents differ from non-offending adolescents remains incomplete. This study contributes to knowledge of the distinguishing characteristics of offenders and focuses on levels of sexual knowledge and empathy that…

Recent concerns regarding permanence for foster children have inspired child welfare agencies to re-focus more of their efforts on biological parents as permanent resources for children in care. The social work field has responded to this situation with family-focused training for frontline staff; one such curriculum is the Family Development…