I'm Michelle Booth, Cole and I serve
as executive director of Safe Shores.
The DC Children's Advocacy Center.
Advocate in the bathroom, children and
families that experienced abuse correct.
Well, we actually do direct
services for these families,
so we conduct forensic interviews.
We have therapists, we have advocates.
It's a comprehensive response
to allegations of child sexual
abuse and physical abuse.
Things I was telling you,
the phone we were looking into sex
offender registries and how they work.
A lot of people use those as a crutch
to say you know all the people on them.
This is my neighborhood,
but what you were saying is that there
may be people in your neighborhood
that you don't know about due to just
how the justice system works. Yeah
yeah, so the sex abuse or sex
offender registry certainly
is an important tool to have.
But when I talk to my colleagues,
we've rarely talk about it
in the work that we do,
because we know that the majority of
cases don't go forward for prosecution,
so even where their allegations of abuse,
even where there may be substantiated,
which means they found evidence
that they happened those cases.
Don't go forward.
And so you're only going to end up
with a limited number of actual
child abusers on the sex offender
registry because it's they're not
going through the courts and there
are a number of reasons for that.
And that was going to be my fault question.
I mean why is it is it just
naturally harder to convict them?
Does does data and evidence not exist?
Is it intimidation what
your reporter said?
Instincts are spot on.
So, yeah, one of the one I mean there.
There are several reasons,
and actually I I pulled up.
I mean, I know anecdotally
from talking to my colleagues,
we know that it's hard to prove because
it's the word of a child against an adult.
Often often it's an adult that they have
a trusting relationship with, right?
That's one of the insidious
things about child sexual abuse.
It's someone who's in a position of trust,
so either they don't want to hurt that person
they want to get that person in trouble,
or that person is threatening them,
or threaten their caregivers,
their mom, their family.
So one. It's the.
Word of a child against an adult.
Two sometimes most of the time.
Actually, there's not evidence right?
There's not physical evidence.
I think it's as small as in 5% of the cases,
and the same is true for
adult sexual assault.
They're often isn't evidence, right?
So that makes it hard to prove as well.
And then.
If you don't have those pieces,
then the reliance often is
on the child's word.
Their forensic interview right?
And even though that is a
great tool of law enforcement.
It's not necessarily an easily
predictable tool, right?
So they're their children who
something has happened to,
who may not be ready to disclose that day.
Right, so they're not going to
tell what happened to them,
so it's very uneven, so they're all these.
There are all these reasons why
these cases aren't prosecuted,
and then of course, like most things,
people don't want to take,
even if they have these elements,
you have the forensic interview.
You have a disclosure.
Maybe you have evidence?
Wow, for all those things to align.
That is kind of a big deal,
but then of course, if it's you know,
prosecutors don't want to
take course cases to court,
they're going to lose, right?
Because that's hard.
The victim's right.
And then, of course,
you just don't want to go through
that exercise with the courts.
When we talked,
I actually did a quick amount
of just quick research,
and there's actually a really
great research study.
It's from 2019,
and it's literally about the
prosecution of child sexual abuse.
And it's by two professors,
one from Wellesley,
one from UMass doctor Stephanie
Block doctor Linda Williams.
And they looked at 500 cases, right.
And out of those 500 cases,
only 20% would forward prosecution
and then all those a high percentage,
but not all of those did they
get convictions on right?
So if you're looking at
those kinds of numbers,
you know it's not that we discount
the value of a sex offender region.
Of course it has value,
but we know that if one in 10 children are
being sexually abused in the United States,
by the time they turn 18,
right?
And we know that those cases aren't
going forward for prosecution.
There's much more risk to children.
In their everyday lives, right?
Rather than necessarily somebody who's
identified by a system as a pedophile.
Just because the numbers are smaller,
that doesn't mean that
person doesn't pose a risk.
The numbers just aren't identifying
as many of those offenders or
perpetrators as actually exist. One
more quick question here, because I I
told you I'd keep I keep it quick here.
You worry that creates a chilling effect
for people to come forward if they see.
You know, other people across
the country haven't been able
to get a conviction or haven't.
Does that worry you?
Some people may not come
forward with stories.
While we know that child sexual
abuse is an underreported crime,
we know because adults tell us
who were victimized as children,
that they didn't tell when they were
children because they weren't safe, right?
So in terms of a chilling effect,
what I do know is that survivors
should be believed at whatever age.
Survivors are incredibly strong, right,
stronger than they should have to be often,
particularly if they were harmed as children.
But you know, there is an effect if
people know they're not going to be
believed that they know the system
is not going to work with them.
That's why we have children's advocacy
centers like Safe Shores, right?
Because we center our work around
the needs of the child around the
needs of that child survivor, right?
And all the agencies that we work with
are sensitive to that child in the
context of the investigation, right?
It's also why the CAC movement has moved,
is moving away from prosecution.
Because it's standard for effectiveness.
And really,
shifting toward mental health
and healing and therapy right?
Because a lot of victims,
the majority will never have
their day in court.
Right, they're not going to be
USA Gymnastics and Larry Nassar.
But what they can do is if they get
appropriate support and intervention,
they can get access to great trauma,
supported mental health.
They can get access to people who are
going to support their caregiver,
whether that's mom, grandma,
aunt, dad, whomever, and them,
and give them tools to move
on the path to healing.
Because that's what we want.
We want healthy, whole,
productive,
functioning adults.
And sadly the criminal legal
system doesn't ensure that.
Anything else you want to add
that I didn't ask you?
Here's what we know can make a
difference to protect children,
it's having policies and protocols and
practices and trainings in the places
that serve children that work with children.
So schools, sports programs,
after school programs,
of course all those adults should
be carefully vetted,
background checks, all that.
But that's just step one.
The real thing is making sure that
that's a safe environment for
children and the way you do that.
Is you teach adults how to make it safe?
You do stewards of children training,
which is a evidence informed training
that teaches adults how to recognize,
respond to and prevent child sexual.
You have codes of conduct in every
school that students understand that
their parents and caregivers understand that.
Tell children,
here's what adults in this building owe you.
And if you don't get it right,
you have a right to tell somebody,
right?
So we really need to cover the landscape.
With the places that children recreate,
learn,
worship all those pieces because those are
the environments that predators seek out.
Right.
Those are where that's where the
abuse is happening in many instances,
right?
And what they learn in those environments,
they can take to their play groups,
to hanging out with friends.
All those pieces go to creating
a community where we actually
elevate the safety of children.
And that is ultimately what's
going to get us there.