Donald Hayden, the author of the comprehensive Child Abuse Investigations: From Dispatch to Disposition, has had 35 years of experience in law enforcement. He has a master's degree in forensic science and attended a one-year fellowship in forensic medicine at the U.S. Armed Forces Medical Examiner's Office. He is a well trained and experienced child forensic interviewer, something that is clearly evident in this text. He has been active in teaching methods for objective child abuse investigation for many years. He is recognized as an expert in military and civilian courts in child abuse investigation and crime scene examination. He was also the recipient of the State of Missouri Governor's Medal of Valor for public safety in 2008.
This book focuses on multidisciplinary team investigations of child abuse and neglect. It describes in great detail a team approach to the interaction between law enforcement, prosecutors, defense attorneys, forensic interviewers, child advocates, child protection workers, and the medical/psychiatric community. Hayden is a supporter of the team concept in child abuse investigations.
The text is divided into five sections. The first section defines the roles of each member of a multidisciplinary team. The next section, and the most informative, deals with psychological aspects of the parties involved, including victim, the victimizer, and nonoffending parents. In this section, aspects of physical abuse, including shaken baby syndrome, battered child syndrome, and behavioral indicators of physical abuse, are extensively described, as are child physical and emotional neglect. Additionally, this section focuses extensively on child sexual abuse. The most interesting and important portion of this section was dedicated to child victim interviews, including a detailed description of how children can best be questioned and important details of sexual abuse that must be investigated without compromising the objectivity of the investigation. Hayden repeatedly emphasizes the need for specialized training in conducting these delicate interviews that balances the needs of the child victim and the investigators, including child psychiatrists, law enforcement, prosecutors, and defense attorneys. The third section of the book concentrates on the investigation and addresses recent court rulings and significant cases. The fourth section reviews the actual court process and proceedings. The final section addresses the trauma and impact of long-term exposure to child abuse on multidisciplinary team members. The book is replete with clinical examples drawn from Hayden's extensive experience in leading team investigations and working in a multidisciplinary team. His case examples elucidate the principles that he advances in each section of the book.
This text is of value to novice and advanced team members participating in child abuse investigations. It serves as a review course to those of us who have been involved extensively in interviewing children and families where there are suspicions and allegations of child abuse, neglect, and, most especially, allegations of child sexual abuse.
Footnotes
Disclosures of financial or other potential conflicts of interest: None.
- © 2020 American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law
