Chapter 3
How Is Child Abuse Investigated?

Mandated Reporters
Immediate Danger
Interviewing Children
Families who Need Help
Documenting Abuse and Neglect
Voluntary Services
Removing Children

In October 2007 a Mesa, Arizona, five-year-old told her teacher that her father and stepmother had been beating her. The teacher took the girl to the school nurse, who documented nearly one hundred bruises on the girl's back, legs, arms, buttocks, and chest. Teachers and school nurses are required to report cases of suspected child abuse, so they phoned the Mesa police.

Mesa police officers went to the girl's home and interviewed her parents. Her father, Ezra Hazell, explained that he customarily beat her if she was disobedient or if she did not do her homework. He told police that he and Kirstie Hazell, the girl's stepmother, would have their five-year-old hold a push-up position. He said they would put a book on the floor in front of her, and if she did not pay attention to the book or missed a word, they would beat her several times with a belt. Ezra Hazell also told investigators that he sometimes beat his daughter with a computer cord. The Mesa police investigators were appalled by Hazell's story. Later they told newspaper reporters that it was one of the worst cases of child abuse they had ever seen. Hazell and his wife were arrested. Their children were placed in the care of relatives. Eventually, Ezra Hazell was sentenced to eight months in jail and ten years of probation. Kirstie Hazell was sentenced to ten years of probation.

Mandated Reporters

In the Hazell case, the child herself reported her own abuse. But child welfare agencies accept reports of child abuse from anyone. A neighbor, a family member, or a child's friend can pick up the phone and call a child abuse hotline. An abused child can even

call on his or her own behalf. For example, anyone can phone the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline (800-422-4453). The hotline is staffed seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day. Or they could phone the local department of children and family services or the police.

However, although anyone may report abuse, people who work in certain jobs are required to report abuse. They do not

have to be certain that abuse occurred. They only have to suspect it. People who are required by law to report suspected abuse are called mandated reporters. The Hazell case was reported when the abused girl told her story to two mandated reporters—her teacher and the school nurse. Doctors, dentists, social workers, counselors, police officers, and day care providers are also mandated reporters. Mandated reporters must usually report suspected child abuse right away by making a phone call. Then they are required to follow up within a day or so with a written report.

When child welfare agencies receive a report of abuse, they must assess it. This means that they must decide whether the report is likely to concern a case of child abuse or not. It also means they must determine whether or not they have enough information to find out more. For example, a community member might phone to report abuse that was observed in the grocery store or on a bus or train. But child welfare investigators may not have enough information to follow up on this kind of report. They may not have names or addresses, for example. Investigators also must screen out calls that do not have anything to do with child abuse. For example, they may get phone calls from people who disagree with a parent's choices about how late to let a teenager stay out at night. Or they may get phone calls from people who are concerned about a drug-addicted child. In response to that kind of call, investigators would refer the caller to a community agency that offers substance abuse or rehabilitation programs.

Immediate Danger

In the end, investigators usually screen out about one-third of reports of child abuse. They follow up on the other two-thirds of abuse reports. Because child welfare agencies have limited staff, though, they cannot always follow up right away. Instead, they try to focus on the cases in which a child is thought to be in immediate danger. Of course, it is impossible for investigators to know, prior to conducting an investigation, which children are actually in immediate danger.

To help them assess the danger, investigators consider the elements of abuse mentioned by the original caller. If the caller said that the child had many injuries and that all of the injuries were different (for example, a burn, bruises, and a broken bone), or if the injuries were all to the face and head, investigators feel they should respond more quickly. Likewise, if a child is thought to be home alone or in need of immediate medical attention or is alleged to be badly malnourished, child protection workers try to go to the scene immediately. Investigators also respond immediately if they hear that a caregiver is behaving bizarrely or is under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

Interviewing Children

Once investigators determine that a report is real and should be investigated, they must interview the child who is alleged to have been abused. The investigators' first priority at this point is still to find out if the child is in any immediate danger. But they must also try to reassure the child. Counselor Connie Carnes

notes: “It is very important for the interviewer . . . to stay attuned to the child's psychological state during the interview. Because the last thing we would want to do is to retraumatize the child by the way that we interview them.”¹³

It is not always easy for investigators to convince children to talk to them. Children may love their parents and caregivers deeply even if they are being abused or neglected. They usually do not want to say anything critical about their parents, relatives, or other caregivers. Sometimes they are afraid that they will get in trouble if they say anything. David Pelzer told his teacher, Miss Moss, and his school principal, Mr. Hansen. He remembers being interviewed about his mother's abuse:

The police officer explains why Mr. Hansen called him. I can feel myself shrink into the chair. The officer asks that I tell him about Mother. I shake my head no. Too many people already know the secret, and I know she'll find

Due Process of Law

Some critics of the child welfare system argue that oftentimes children are removed without due process of law. Due process is a legal term. It means that an accused person is not assumed to be guilty but instead must have the opportunity to defend himself or herself by presenting evidence and witnesses in court. Some parents argue that they have been subjected to a full-scale children's services investigation just on the basis of a phone call from a neighbor. These parents argue that even if children are not removed from the home, parents are still exposed to the embarrassment of having investigators ask family members, friends, neighbors, and teachers about the possibility of abuse.

Virginia mother Cari Clark says that her name was listed on the Virginia state registry of child abusers/neglectors simply because her neighbor called the state to report that one of Clark's children was walking unsupervised in the neighborhood. “It's not like calling a cop when there's a noisy party,” Clark explains. “They don't just send someone around to say hey, cool it. It's a full-scale investigation that can turn a family's life inside out.”

Quoted in David Wagner, “Child Removal Lacks Due Process,” Insight on the News, November 24, 1997, p. 22.

out. A soft voice calms me. I think it's Miss Moss. She tells me it's all right. I take a deep breath, wring my hands and reluctantly tell them about Mother and me. Then the nurse has me stand up and show the policeman the scar on my chest. Without hesitation, I tell them it was an accident; which it was—Mother never meant to stab me.¹⁴

Investigators also interview the child's parents or guardians, as well as the person or persons who are thought to have committed the abuse. Sometimes parents who have physically abused their kids understand that what they did was wrong and illegal. They try to cover it up by lying about how the child received the injuries. They may say that the child fell or that the injuries came from playing sports. Other parents do not understand the difference between corporal punishment and abuse. These parents may be very honest with investigators, as Ezra Hazell was. They may tell investigators exactly what they did and come up with a reason why they thought their actions were justified by the child's behavior.

Living in Foster Care

“Children need the grounding of a permanent home. You don't get that in foster care. You get it in a family. In the last year we met a lot of kids of foster care, and they broke our hearts. One young man said that the thing—the first thing that he did every day when he got home from school was to check whether his belongings had been packed. We met a young woman who learned from an early age to carry her school records with her so that every time she moved to a new foster home in a new school district she could show the principal what grades she should be in. We met twin sisters who spent their whole childhood apart from each other because they were put in different foster homes. They used to run away just to see each other and spend time together. No child should have to do that.” —William Gray, vice chairman, Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care.

Quoted in Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care, “Fostering the Future: Safety, Permanence and Well-Being for Children in Foster Care,” May 18, 2004. http://pewfostercare.org/press/files/transcript051804.pdf.

While investigators interview the parents or caregivers and the children, they also assess the condition of the family home. They try to determine whether the home is a safe environment and take time to interview friends and neighbors who know the family. Investigators also review any paperwork that is connected with the family. They find out if there have been allegations of child abuse or neglect before. They review each child's medical history and any criminal history that the parents or caregivers may have. They also review school files for each child in the family.

In the end, investigators will classify each case of potential child abuse as substantiated or unsubstantiated. A substantiated case is one in which most of the evidence suggests that abuse probably did occur. Investigators can classify a case as substantiated even if they do not have enough evidence to convict an abuser in court. If they classify the case as unsubstantiated, it means that they could not find enough evidence to convince themselves that abuse really occurred. In 2006 about 18 percent of child abuse reports in the United States were found to be substantiated.

Families who Need Help

In many cases investigators find families who may not have abused or neglected their children but whom the investigators think are at risk for abuse or neglect. For example, sometimes a doctor thinks, but is not certain, that a child is being neglected. The child might not be as tall or weigh as much as the norm for his or her age, but that alone would not prove neglect. Some children are naturally small or thin. Also, some parents feed a child less because of poverty but provide as much food as they can with the financial resources that they have. If parents are trying their best to take care of their children but fail to do so only because of poverty, many states will grant them an exception to charges of neglect. In about one-third of states, if a family does not feed its children, it is only considered neglect if the parents knew about food assistance programs and deliberately chose not to use them. In cases where families simply need financial help to provide for children, investigators would put the family in touch with resources in the community. For example, mothers

of children under age five can get food checks from the WIC program.

If investigators suspect that children are in danger because of neglect and not just poverty, they can arrange to have the family visited at home by a doctor, nurse, or social worker. They can also have doctors schedule frequent follow-up appointments for children or arrange for the family to have a consultation with a social worker.

A Chance for Something More

“Having my own place is like breaking a chain. I am the first one in my family to own a house. . . . Without DCFS, I wouldn't have this job, I wouldn't be able to save all that money. If it wasn't for the foster care system, I don't know where I would have been. I could have been living on the streets. Being in the system gave me all these opportunities. I just did what I could with those opportunities.” —David Torrez, former foster child.

Quoted in Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services, “Our Stories.” http://dcfs.co.la.us/aboutus/brochure_our_stories.pdf.

Investigators also see cases of physical abuse that may fall into a gray area. In some cases, parents who mean to discipline their children have used corporal punishment that became too extreme. Sometimes investigators believe that parents are trying their best and that the abuse was an isolated incident. They may feel that the child is not in any immediate danger. In cases like this, they may arrange for the family to receive some support from community resources. For example, they might arrange for parents to take parenting classes to help them learn other ways to discipline children that do not involve corporal punishment. Or they might arrange for regular home visits from a nurse or social worker.

Documenting Abuse and Neglect

If investigators can substantiate that abuse or neglect definitely occurred, the next step is to preserve the evidence. This usually

means taking the child to see a doctor or nurse for a physical exam. The evidence of child abuse and neglect is usually best documented by a doctor or nurse. In cases where neglect is suspected, doctors can evaluate whether a child is developing normally for his or her age. Blood tests can show whether a child is getting enough of certain nutrients, such as iron.

In cases where investigators suspect physical abuse, doctors can evaluate whether a child's physical injuries seem to be normal for the child's age and typical activities. For example, babies who have not learned to walk rarely bruise themselves. Older children who do run around and fall frequently are still unlikely to bruise themselves in well-protected parts of the body. For example, children do not usually bruise their upper arms, upper legs, neck, or buttocks in an accidental fall. If children have been burned, doctors suspect that the burn happened deliberately if it is very symmetrical.

When doctors find injuries that are suspicious, doctors or investigators need to take photographs. Photographs are important because later, lawyers representing the child can include the photos as exhibits in their legal documents. The photos may be important if the state asks a judge to issue a restraining order preventing an abusive caregiver from having contact with a child.

Medical guidelines for documenting child abuse say that doctors should take color pictures of each injury from at least two angles, including a ruler or coin in the picture so that it is clear how large or small the injury is. Although it is important legally to have this proof of a child's injuries, the process of taking photographs can be very hard on children. Social worker Marc Parent remembers watching two detectives take photos of a child's bruises. He writes:

Two oddball-looking detectives were working Davey over with the largest, most awkward-looking camera I'd ever seen. It was a tangled monstrosity in three huge pieces that looked more suited for 1930s medical procedures than for taking pictures. It took the two of them to operate it—poorly. They stretched the reluctant Davey prostrate on a white table to photograph close-ups of his ripening bruises. . . . They'd have Davey freeze in the most impossible display of his injuries as they moved in close with the camera only to find the flash units hadn't charged. Davey would strain to hold his position as the men waited for what seemed like an eternity, through the whine of the recharging dinosaurs. The child winced

and whimpered as they began, but by the time they'd finished, he had closed his eyes and let them have their way, assuming the wayward positions they put him in like he'd done it a thousand times.¹⁵

Voluntary Services

Child welfare investigators are required by law to avoid removing children from their families if they possibly can. Most states require investigators to make what are called “reasonable efforts” to keep families together. There are two reasons for this. First, states recognize that parents have a right to raise their own children without interference from the government unless something unusual, such as an extreme case of abuse or neglect, has occurred. Second, research shows that children are better off with their families unless they are in immediate danger. It used to be more common for investigators to remove children from families, especially if parents were addicted to drugs or alcohol. But recent studies have shown that even babies who are born to drug-addicted mothers fare better if they remain with their mothers while the mothers go through a substance abuse rehabilitation program. Not only are the babies better off staying with their mothers, but the mothers are more likely to complete a rehab program when they have their babies with them.

To keep families together, investigators will make a safety plan. They give the family the option to accept voluntary services. (Voluntary services are those that a family is not required by law or by a court order to participate in.) They try to identify resources that will help the family with its unique set of stresses. For example, if parents have a substance abuse problem, investigators can arrange for them to go through rehab or to go to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. If parents need help learning parenting skills, they can attend parenting classes. Investigators also often arrange for families to receive regular home visits from social workers or visiting nurses. They may arrange free child care for the family. They may also arrange for members of the family to receive health care for mental or physical illnesses. Visits from social workers often help to

motivate parents and caregivers to be more aware of how they treat their children.

Removing Children

In some cases, though, investigators feel they must remove children from their homes for the children's own safety. Even if an investigation does not substantiate a charge of child abuse, children may be removed from their homes if conditions in the home are unsafe. In the best of cases, children are placed with family members, such as grandparents, aunts, uncles, and adult siblings. This kind of foster care is called kinship care. If no family member is willing or able to take the children, however, they

must be placed with a foster family they are not related to or in a group home.

For example, April Smith was the thirty-two-year-old mother of three children: a sixteen-month-old, a four-year-old, and a twelve-year-old. Investigators visiting her home found it littered with broken glass, animal and human feces, moldy food, and

hazardous electrical fixtures. Smith and her boyfriend were addicted to drugs. They sometimes left home for days, leaving the twelve-year-old to babysit both her younger siblings and a pair of unrelated seven-year-olds. When they were home, Smith's boyfriend abused her in front of the children. (Many states have laws stating that forcing children to watch their mother being abused is a form of emotional abuse.) The twelve-year-old had tried to commit suicide and was doing badly in school. In this case, child welfare investigators removed the children from the home.

It seemed obvious to social workers that Smith's home was not a suitable environment for children. But investigators also realized that removing the children and placing them in foster care was not ideal either. They were not able to place all three children in the same foster home.

There are also times when children are removed from their families even though authorities know that the parent has not done anything wrong. In these cases, investigators believe that the parents, while not abusive, may not be able to protect children from the abuse of someone else in the family or neighborhood. Marc Parent, reflecting on his experience as a social worker in New York City, recalled a case in which doctors at an emergency room determined that an eight-year-old girl was being raped regularly. She lived with her mother and younger siblings, and investigators were able to determine that her mother had done nothing wrong. Social workers spent hours trying to determine who the rapist was, keeping the family safe at the hospital in the meantime. But they could not find out who was abusing the girl, and they believed that if they sent her home, the rapes would continue. They did not believe that the girl's mother, even though she had done nothing wrong, would be able to protect her, or any of her siblings, from being abused again. Finally, they decided to take the children into temporary custody. Parent describes what happened next:

Security closed in on the family, and as they did, Lucia [the children's mother] screamed something in Spanish and the four of them bolted to the far wall, knocking

through trays, stretchers, and equipment. Alex and I followed them quickly along with security and cornered them together where the children crouched down to the floor, rolling themselves into a tight ball around their mother. . . . The ball grew tighter as we closed in; each of the kids wrapping their fists around whatever clothing on their mother they could find. . . .

It took every single guard to split it apart. . . . Many of the nurses looked away. You know it's bad when the ER staff looks away. One by one the screaming children were birthed from the rumbling pile, each one emerging with a burly-armed escort.¹⁶

Fortunately, when children are removed from their home, the removal is not necessarily permanent. The goal of almost every caseworker who removes a child from the family is someday to bring the child back to that family. The process of bringing the child back is called reunification. According to Judge Mary Triggiano of Milwaukee County Children's Court, the process of reunification should begin as soon as a child

Becoming a Foster Parent

Any responsible adult can apply to be a foster parent. Foster parents do not have to be married and do not have to own their own homes. Some work outside the home, others do not. Some already have their own children, while others do not.

People who want to become foster parents must first fill out an application with their local department of children and family services. They must go through a criminal background check to make sure that they have never been convicted of a crime or investigated for child abuse. They must also show that they can afford to meet the expenses of a family. The state reimburses foster families for some expenses, such as meals. But foster families must still be responsible for paying their own rent and for occasional expenses such as buying clothes and paying school fees.

is removed from a home. Social workers should immediately begin arranging visits between a child's foster family and birth family. It is important for the process to begin quickly, because most reunifications take place in the first four months after a child is placed in foster care. Most children who are placed in foster care will eventually be reunited with their families. Before reunification happens, investigators will have worked with the family to try to prevent any future acts of neglect or abuse.