Collaboration between Criminal Justice and Child Protection in Cases of Child Sexual Abuse: Unveiling Inhibiting and Facilitating Factors
Date
2024
Journal Title
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Volume Title
Publisher
Child Abuse Review
Abstract
Victims of child sexual abuse (CSA) in criminal proceedings face a range of
stress factors. In response to this, collaboration between criminal justice and
child protection professionals has been established both legally and informally,
such as in the newly established Childhood Houses in Germany, which follow
the model of the Scandinavian Barnahus to reduce stress and prevent revictimisation. This study intends to identify facilitating and inhibiting factors in
the collaboration between the child protection and criminal justice systems in
cases of CSA in Germany. Twenty-eight qualitative interviews with experts
from child protection, like counselling centre employees (n = 5), psychosocial
court supporters (n = 5) and youth welfare office workers (n = 5), and the
criminal justice system, like prosecutors (n = 5), police officers (n = 5) and
attorneys (n = 3). The interviews are structured by a questionnaire and analysed using Kuckartz’s method of qualitative content analysis (QCA). Findings
show that key factors like information flow, assessments of collaboration
partners, uncertainties about laws and actors’ perspectives on reporting and
networking determine the success or failure of interagency collaboration.
Description
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Article
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Keywords
child protection, child sexual abuse, criminal justice, interview, collaboration, Germany, International publications
Citation
Eilfgang, J., Bayer, L., Cigelski, M., Mensing, F., von Seeler, I., Sewald, H., & Pülschen, S. (2024). Collaboration between Criminal Justice and Child Protection in Cases of Child Sexual Abuse: Unveiling Inhibiting and Facilitating Factors. Child Abuse Review, 33(2), e2868.