Top

Published in:

Open Access 12-10-2023 | Child Abuse | Original Article

Influence of various factors on the legal outcome of cases of child abuse—experiences gathered at an interdisciplinary forensic examination center in Vienna, Austria

Authors: Maria Kletečka-Pulker, Klara Doppler, Sabine Völkl-Kernstock, Laura Fischer, Magdalena Eitenberger, Mark Mussner, Sophie Klomfar, Eva Anna Mora-Theuer, Chryssa Grylli, Atanas G. Atanasov, Susanne Greber-Platzer

Published in: International Journal of Legal Medicine | Issue 1/2024

Abstract

Background and objective

To improve the currently low conviction rate in cases of child abuse a forensic examination center for children and adolescents (FOKUS) was established in Vienna, Austria. Besides a state of the art treatment combined with forensic documentation, one of FOKUS’ key goals is to identify potential areas for improvements within the process legal proceedings in cases of child abuse through constant scientific monitoring. The accompanying study at hand includes all patients referred to FOKUS within a two year timeframe (n = 233), monitoring their progression from first contact with the medical professionals from FOKUS to the end of criminal proceedings. A detailed analysis of case files was performed in those cases that were reported to the legal authorities by the clinicians of FOKUS (n = 87). Aim of the study is to investigate which factors contribute to the initiation of legal proceedings and a successful conviction.

Results

Multivariate logistic regression analyses showed that main proceedings were opened more often in cases where the offender was an adult (p < 0.001) or admitted his guilt (p < 0.001) and if digital traces were available (p = 0.001) or trial support (p = 0.024) present. Furthermore, the combined occurrence of medical documentation and victim disclosure was related to a higher probability of opening main trials.

Conclusion

These findings underline how challenging the successful persecution of an offender in cases of child abuse is.

Available only for authorised users

This is this is regulated in paragraph 37 of the Austrian Code of Criminal Procedure (§ 37 StPO).

For the few cases where evidence of neglect was encountered, the primary reason for referral to FOKUS was physical or sexual abuse.

Duron JF (2018) Legal decision–making in child sexual abuse investigations: a mixed–methods study of factors that influence prosecution. Child Abuse Negl 79:302–314. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2018.02.022CrossRefPubMed

Sedlak AJ, Schultz D, Wells SJ, Lyons P, Doueck HJ, Gragg F (2006) Child protection and justice systems processing of serious child abuse and neglect cases. Child Abuse Negl 30(6):657–677. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2005.11.010CrossRefPubMed

Walsh WA, Jones LM, Cross TP, Lippert T (2008) Prosecuting child sexual abuse: the importance of evidence type. Crime Delinq 56(3):436–454. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011128708320484CrossRef

Cross TP, Walsh WA, Simone M, Jones LM (2003) Prosecution of child abuse: a meta-analysis of rates of criminal justice decisions. Trauma Violence Abuse 4(4):323–340. https://doi.org/10.1177/1524838003256561CrossRefPubMed

Blackwell S, Seymour F (2014) Prediction of jury verdicts in child sexual assault trials. Psychiatry, Psychol Law 21(4):567–576. https://doi.org/10.1080/13218719.2013.856278CrossRef

Lueger-Schuster B, Knefel M, Glück TM, Jagsch R, Kantor V, Weindl D (2018) Child abuse and neglect in institutional settings, cumulative lifetime traumatization, and psychopathological long-term correlates in adult survivors: the vienna institutional abuse study. Child Abuse Negl 76:488–501. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2017.12.009CrossRefPubMed

Kogan SM (2004) Disclosing unwnated sexual experiences: results from a national sample of adolescent women. Child Abuse Negl 28(2):147–165. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2003.09.014CrossRefPubMed

Blakemore T, Herbert JL, Arney F, Parkinson S (2017) The impacts of institutional child sexual abuse: a rapid review of the evidence. Child Abuse Negl 74:35–48. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2017.08.006CrossRefPubMed

Berkowitz CD (2017) Physical abuse of children. N Engl J Med 376(17):1659–1666. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMcp1701446CrossRefPubMed

10.

Herrmann B (2002) Child physical abuse. Physical findings and medical diagnosis. Organ Dtsch Ges Kinderheilkunde Jugendmedizin 150:1338. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00112-002-0610-0CrossRef

11.

Herrmann B, Banaschak S, Csorba R, Navratil F, Dettmeyer R (2014) Physical Examination in child sexual abuse approaches and current evidence. Dtsch Arztebl Int 111. https://doi.org/10.3238/arztebl.2014.0692

12.

Sumalla JMT, Lago MJG, Padró-Solanet A, Hernández-Hidalgo P (2016) The judicial pursuit of the sexual victimization of children: how the criminal justice system processes cases. Int Rev Victimology 23(2):123–144. https://doi.org/10.1177/0269758016680867CrossRef

13.

London K, Bruck M, Ceci S, Shuman D (2005) Disclosure of child sexual abuse: what does the research tell us about the ways that children tell? Psychol Public Policy Law 11:194–226. https://doi.org/10.1037/1076-8971.11.1.194CrossRef

14.

Herrmann B, Dettmeyer R, Banaschak S, Thyen U (2016) Kindesmisshandlung Medizinische Diagnostik, Intervention und rechtliche Grundlagen, 3rd edition, Springer Medizin, Heidelberg. Intervention bei Kindesmisshandlung und Kindesvernachlässigung, Chapter, pp 349–59

15.

Adams JA, Kellogg ND, Farst KJ, Harper NS, Palusci VJ, Frasier LD et al (2016) Updated guidelines for the medical assessment and care of children who may have been sexually abused. J Pediatr Adolesc Gynecol 29(2):81–87. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpag.2015.01.007CrossRefPubMed

16.

Adams JA, Starling SP, Frasier LD, Palusci VJ, Shapiro RA, Finkel MA et al (2012) Diagnostic accuracy in child sexual abuse medical evaluation: role of experience, training, and expert case review. Child Abuse Negl 36(5):383–392. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2012.01.004CrossRefPubMed

17.

Herrmann B, Banaschak S, Csorba R, Navratil F, Dettmeyer R (2014) Physical examination in child sexual abuse approaches and current evidence. Deutsches Ärzteblatt Int 111:692. https://doi.org/10.3238/arztebl.2014.0692CrossRef

18.

Lazenbatt A, Freeman R (2006) Recognizing and reporting child physical abuse: a survey of primary healthcare professionals. J Adv Nurs 56(3):227–236. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2648.2006.04030.xCrossRefPubMed

19.

Cashmore J, Taylor A, Parkinson P (2019) Fourteen-year trends in the criminal justice response to child sexual abuse reports in New South Wales. Child Maltreat 25(1):85–95. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077559519853042CrossRefPubMed

20.

Myers JEB (2005) Myers on evidence in child, domestic, and elder abuse cases. Aspen Publishers, New York

21.

Ernberg E, Magnusson M, Landström S (2018) Prosecution of child sexual abuse cases involving preschool-aged children: a study of Swedish cases from 2010 to 2014. J Child Sex Abus 27(7):832–851. https://doi.org/10.1080/10538712.2018.1501786CrossRefPubMed

22.

Bradshaw TL, Marks AE (1990) Beyond a reasonable doubt: factors that influence the legal disposition of child sexual abuse cases. Crime Delinq 36(2):276–285. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011128790036002006CrossRef

23.

Golding J, Stewart T, Yozwiak J, Djadali Y, Sanchez R (2000) The impact of DNA evidence in a child sexual assault trial. Child Maltreat 5:373–383. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077559500005004009CrossRefPubMed

24.

Lewis T, Klettke B (2012) Medical evidence in child sexual assault cases. J Crim Psychol 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/20093821211264450

25.

Brewer KD, Rowe DM, Brewer DD (1997) Factors related to prosecution of child sexual abuse cases. J Child Sex Abuse: Res, Treat, Program Innov Vict, Survivors, Offender 6(1):91–111. https://doi.org/10.1300/J070v06n01_07CrossRef

26.

Cao Z, An ZY, Zhao Y, Zhao D (2019) Forensic identification of child sexual abuse. Fa Yi Xue Za Zhi 35(6):733–6. https://doi.org/10.12116/j.issn.1004-5619.2019.06.016CrossRefPubMed

27.

Laraque D, DeMattia A, Low C (2006) Forensic child abuse evaluation: a review. Mount Sinai J Med, New York 73(8):1138–1147

28.

Jackson AM, Deye KP, Halley T, Hinds T, Rosenthal E, Shalaby-Rana E et al (2015) Curiosity and critical thinking: identifying child abuse before it is too late. Clin Pediatr 54(1):54–61. https://doi.org/10.1177/0009922814549314CrossRef

29.

Palusci VJ, Cox EO, Shatz EM, Schultze JM (2006) Urgent medical assessment after child sexual abuse. Child Abuse Negl 30(4):367–380. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2005.11.002CrossRefPubMed

30.

Hosmer DW Jr (2013) Lemeshow S, Sturdivant RX. John Wiley & Sons, Applied logistic regression

31.

Rao JN, Scott AJ (1992) A simple method for the analysis of clustered binary data. Biometrics 48(2):577–585. https://doi.org/10.2307/2532311CrossRefPubMed

32.

Berger JB, Wadley HNG, McMeeking RM (2017) Mechanical metamaterials at the theoretical limit of isotropic elastic stiffness. Nature 543(7646):533–537. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature21075CrossRefPubMed

33.

Zeileis A. (2004) Econometric Computing with HC and HAC Covariance Matrix Estimators. J Stat Softw 1(10). https://doi.org/10.18637/jss.v011.i10

34.

Zeileis A, Hothorn T (2002) Diagnostic checking in regression relationships. R News 2:7–10

35.

Signorell A, Aho K, Alfons A, Anderegg N, Aragon T, Arppe A (2021) DescTools: Tools for descriptive statistics [Computer software]. Version 0.99.50 Depends base, stats, R (≥ 4.0.0) published 2023-09-06 Maintainer Andri Signorell link: https://cran.r-project.org/package=DescTools

36.

Firth D (1993) Bias reduction of maximum likelihood estimates. Biometrika 80(1):27–38. https://doi.org/10.1093/biomet/80.1.27CrossRef

37.

Heinze G, Schemper M (2002) A solution to the problem of separation in logistic regression. Stat Med 21(16):2409–2419. https://doi.org/10.1002/sim.1047CrossRefPubMed

38.

Šinkovec H, Geroldinger A, Heinze G (2019) Bring more data!—a good advice? Removing Separation in Logistic Regression by Increasing Sample Size. Int J Environ Res Public Health 16(23):4658. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16234658CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

39.

Kosmidis I, Kenne Pagui EC, Sartori N (2020) Mean and median bias reduction in generalized linear models. Statistics and Computing 30:43–59CrossRef

40.

Baron RM, Kenny DA (1986) The moderator–mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. J Pers Soc Psychol 51(6):1173–1182. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.51.6.1173CrossRefPubMed

41.

Tingley D, Teppei H, Mit Y, Keele L, State P, Imai K (2014) Mediation: R Package for causal mediation analysis. J Stat Softw 59. https://doi.org/10.18637/jss.v059.i05

42.

Schnell M, Schulz C, Kolbe H, Dunger C (2013) Der Patient am Lebensende: Eine Qualitative Inhaltsanalyse. Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden. Chapter: Ramsenthaler C. Was ist „Qualitative Inhaltsanalyse?“ pp 23–42. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-531-19660-2_2

43.

Mayring, P. (2015) Qualitative content analysis: Theoretical background and procedures. In: Bikner-Ahsbahs A, Knipping C, Presmeg N (eds) Approaches to qualitative research in mathematics education. Examples of methodology and methods. Springer Fachmedien. pp 365–380. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9181-6_13

44.

Horsman G (2016) The challenges surrounding the regulation of anonymous communication provision in the United Kingdom. Comput Secur 56:151–162. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cose.2015.06.005CrossRef

45.

Katz C (2013) Internet-related child sexual abuse: what children tell us in their testimonies. Children and Youth Services Review 35. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2013.06.006

46.

Vulliamy AP, Sullivan R (2000) Reporting child abuse: pediatricians’ experiences with the child protection system. Child Abuse Negl 24(11):1461–1470. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0145-2134(00)00199-xCrossRefPubMed

47.

Tiyyagura G, Gawel M, Koziel J, Asnes A, Bechtel K (2015) Barriers and facilitators to detecting child abuse and neglect in general emergency departments. Ann Emerg Med 66. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annemergmed.2015.06.020

48.

Hansen LA, Mikkelsen SJ, Sabroe S, Charles AV (2010) Medical findings and legal outcomes in sexually abused children. J Forensic Sci 55(1):104–109. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1556-4029.2009.01230.xCrossRefPubMed

49.

Joki-Erkkilä M, Niemi J, Ellonen N (2018) Child sexual abuse — initial suspicion and legal outcome. Forensic Sci Int 291:39–43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2018.06.032CrossRefPubMed

50.

Herbert JL, Bromfield L (2017) Better together? A review of evidence for multi-disciplinary teams responding to physical and sexual child abuse. Trauma Violence Abuse 20(2):214–228. https://doi.org/10.1177/1524838017697268CrossRefPubMed

51.

Finkel MA, Alexander RA (2011) Conducting the medical history. J Child Sex Abus 20(5):486–504. https://doi.org/10.1080/10538712.2011.607406CrossRefPubMed

Title: Influence of various factors on the legal outcome of cases of child abuse—experiences gathered at an interdisciplinary forensic examination center in Vienna, Austria
Authors: Maria Kletečka-Pulker
Klara Doppler
Sabine Völkl-Kernstock
Laura Fischer
Magdalena Eitenberger
Mark Mussner
Sophie Klomfar
Eva Anna Mora-Theuer
Chryssa Grylli
Atanas G. Atanasov
Susanne Greber-Platzer
Publication date: 12-10-2023
Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Keywords: Child Abuse
Child Abuse
Published in: International Journal of Legal Medicine / Issue 1/2024
Print ISSN: 0937-9827
Electronic ISSN: 1437-1596
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-023-03094-y

Keynote webinar | Spotlight on medication adherence

Springer Medicine

Influence of various factors on the legal outcome of cases of child abuse—experiences gathered at an interdisciplinary forensic examination center in Vienna, Austria

Abstract

Background and objective

Results

Conclusion

Keynote webinar | Spotlight on medication adherence

Springer Medicine

Abstract

Background and objective

Results

Conclusion

Please log in to get access to this content

Other articles of this Issue 1/2024

Diet and rate of decomposition of the corpse in a human surrogate

Esophageal rupture through extreme sadomasochistic practice

Microcracking pattern in fractured bones: new approach for distinguishing between peri- and postmortem fractures

Candidate biomarkers in brown adipose tissue for post-mortem diagnosis of fatal hypothermia

Seasonal variation in medico-legal autopsies in Finland—a nationwide analysis of the period 2016–2021

Proteomic analysis discovers potential biomarkers of early traumatic axonal injury in the brainstem