LAWTON, Okla_Getting a
victim of sexual abuse to talk about it is difficult, but dealing with children
who have been abused is even tougher. That's why local law enforcement and
child advocates are trying to learn new ways to handle these types of
situations. They are taking part in a two-week training program focusing on
skills to be used when questioning sexually-abused children. The program
trainer said these skills are vital to getting justice for the child and
protect their fragile well-being.
When dealing
with adults the interviews are strictly verbal, but getting this kind of
information out of children has to be handled differently. Children seem to be
more comfortable opening up about sexual abuse through methods such as drawing
a picture when telling the interviewer what happened.
Detective Brian
Shotts has been interrogating both criminals and victims for 16 years. Even he
admits that interviewing children can be difficult, so he's here to learn more.
"Because
of their age and what they know, they want to keep it bottled up inside. Being
the victim, they feel that connection with their abuser. This helps us help
them get past that and let them know its okay to let us know."
Ann Ahlquist
has been training law enforcement and child advocates on cognitive graphic
interviewing methods since 1984.
"We use
maps, we put lines on papers that let children externalize their experience and
put it on a board. That helps diminish some of the shame and blame. That they
can see a bad thing happened and it wasn't their fault."
Because of the
trauma that these children experienced, the interviewer needs to be mindful of
their reactions to the child's story.
"If your
response to them telling them about an experience is oh that is so awful, then
they will think they are awful. So how you word it, try to normalize and not
become sensational but calm."
The people in
the room work for all aspects of legal system when it comes to children that
have been sexually abused. A connection Detective Shotts said gives them one
common goal.
"The
children are our future and we work hand and hand on those cases, so its good
for us to do all that training so we can do that better for the kids."
Ahlquist said the most important change is dealing with young abuse
victims that the children now get counseling to deal with the trauma. She said
it's not just about putting the bad guy in jail, its about the welfare of the
children.
