Protecting children from child abuse and maltreatment requires that everyone understand how to recognize, respond and report any form of maltreatment a child may experience. FIRST response is often the single most important step in effectively responding and reporting maltreatment.

FIRST will give you and your community the tools necessary to better protect kids. The training combines both lecture and practicum, giving participants the tools and practical skills to better communicate with a child during the initial outcry of maltreatment.

The FIRST process teaches three critical components:
1. How to recognize signs and symptoms of abuse and maltreatment
2. How to listen and respond to a child’s needs
3. How to effectively and accurately report any form of maltreatment to authorities

Your FIRST Response to Child Maltreatment training teaches participants how to listen to children who have experienced maltreatment and gather the correct information needed in a way that puts the child’s needs FIRST.

This training is also available as a Train-the-Trainer model with a licensing agreement to teach the material in your own community. Offerred as a 90 minute overview or a 3-hour comprehensive basic course.

Despite what TV shows and true crime podcasts suggest, DNA evidence is not a “miracle solution” that can solve every crime or prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt on its own. It must be considered within the context of the entire case. In this presentation, we will explore how the defense may use DNA evidence to support its narrative, including strategies involving DNA transfer to explain away incriminating findings. Attendees will also have the opportunity to think through case-specific defenses and consider how other forms of evidence can help contextualize DNA results.

In the United States, hundreds of children have died and thousands more have endured pain or illness that could have been prevented with basic medical care. This workshop addresses instances in which medical care is withheld on the basis of religious belief. The workshop explores the basis for these beliefs and the possibility of working within myriad cultures to nonetheless treat the child. The workshop also explores when, over the objection of a parent, the government can intervene to provide necessary medical care to a child.

Although there is a large body of research finding medical and mental health risks associated with corporal punishment, most parents continue to hit their children as a means of discipline. In many instances, the practice is justified based on religious teachings. Using a case history, this presentation discusses the basis for these teaching and offers concrete, culturally sensitive approaches for moving parents away from corporal punishment and toward more effective means of discipline.

All alleged child victims should be entitled to a multidisciplinary (MDT) process and forensic interview that is aligned with best practice, research-based, and developmentally and culturally appropriate. Some youth served by the MDT may be currently or historically impacted by or involved in the criminal justice system, which will shape what they need from the process. This training will look at considerations for serving justice impacted youth, including currently or formerly incarcerated youth, and/or youth concurrently or previously accused of crimes or misconduct.

This course clarifies cross-agency roles, timelines, and information-sharing protocols during infant death cases, especially when maltreatment is suspected or ambiguous. Participants will be able to:

What every parent fears: an alert from their children’s school, notifying them of some event like an active shooter. Schools train, drill, and have alerts for active shooters, fires, and other disasters; however, when it comes to addressing in-school sexual assaults – particularly those committed by students – most schools find themselves with no plan. This leads to problems for investigators, prosecutors and school officials as they try to achieve justice for survivors and keep the school environment safe. This presentation will focus on building strong cases when a sexual assault occurs in a school environment, with a focus on evidence collection, obtaining digital evidence and navigating school policies. Attendees will be encouraged to think about specialized legal proceedings like waiver hearings (trying juveniles as adults). Finally, we will discuss unique trial issues, including witness intimidation, working with reluctant witnesses, and overcoming juror biases.

This training for prosecutors and law enforcement is based upon two actual cases of domestic violence involving the same perpetrator. It covers investigative techniques and trial strategy, including the use of hearsay exceptions, that could be applied to child abuse cases where the victim is unable or unwilling to testify.

Most sexually abused boys will never make an outcry during childhood and, even if abuse is discovered, investigators and prosecutors will face barriers that impede their ability to protect these children. This workshop explores the research on the sexual abuse of boys and offers concrete suggestions for conducting forensic interviews with these children, investigating crimes against boys, and presenting these cases to a jury.

Students will receive an overview of the literature concerning the emotional abuse of a child and will receive concrete suggestions for investigating these cases and for proving an allegation of emotional abuse in either a civil child protection or a criminal case.

When most people hear the word “rape”, they still think of the stranger rapist with the gun, despite the progress of the “Me Too” Movement and some highly publicized non-stranger sexual abuse cases.  Prosecutors, police, and advocates are far more likely to encounter cases in which the survivor and the offender have some pre-existing relationship. This presentation will focus attendees on how to build strong non-stranger sexual assault cases that have jury appeal, that offer victim protections and support, and that counter defenses commonly raised in non-stranger cases.

The tragedy of youth sexually abusing other children is frequently encountered by prosecutors and forensic interviewers, yet it poses significant and persistent challenges. This workshop provides pertinent strategies and research for the effective, appropriate intervention and prosecution of juvenile offenders.

Many defense attorneys attempt to deflect juror attention away from a child’s allegations of abuse by attacking the manner in which the child was interviewed. The implicit or explicit claim is that the interviewer purposefully or unwittingly planted the allegation of abuse in the child’s mind. Fearful of the anticipated attack on the investigative interview, some prosecutors decline to file charges in cases involving only eyewitness testimony of a young child. In this workshop students will learn how to successfully defend the investigative interview.

It is a powerful responsibility to ensure that children, youth, and vulnerable adults are able to thrive within a faith community. The importance of creating and maintaining safe places for ALL members, especially those unable to protect themselves, must be considered with great care. This session provides specific policies and practices to address while detailing why faith communities must be prepared to handle the problem of child sexual abuse.

Many maltreated children are spiritually impacted by abuse and require a coordination of medical, mental health, and spiritual care. This slightly shortened presentation suitable as a keynote examines this research and explores creative reforms for bringing faith and child protection communities together to protect children and address their needs. The workshop also explores how MDTs can recognize and respond to spiritual injuries before, during and after the forensic interview.

There is corroborating evidence in every case of child abuse, including cases of sexual abuse. Using actual vignettes, the presenter helps attendees see corroborating evidence that is almost always present but often missed. Working as team, students will learn to tear apart a child’s statement and find the corroborating physical evidence in cases of child sexual abuse.

In this workshop, students will learn the importance of effective strategies and themes for opening statements and closing arguments in child abuse cases. Students will learn a theme for presenting their case. They will learn specific arguments to persuade a jury that a child is telling the truth. They will learn to debunk common defenses in child abuse cases.

This training will give youth workers, faith leaders, teachers, and caregivers tools to support them in having conversations with young people about pornography.

The work we do matters. The way we treat our colleagues and clients matter. Using humor, story-telling, and anecdotes from the field, this session will remind listeners why self care is crucial and how we can learn and be inspired by others.

As the world becomes more digitally connected, offenders can now commit multiple, virtual sexual assaults without ever leaving their homes.  Sextortion – the use of coercion to compel a victim to engage in some form of sexual conduct – has been steadily increasing over the years, and now may involve international actors and financial components. This presentation will focus attendees on factors to consider when working with the victims traumatized by these offenses, including victim interviewing and evidence gathering, protecting victims during the court process, and addressing victim needs for physical safety and their mental health.

Self-care should be an individual priority, but it cannot be achieved without support from your professional and personal communities. True self-care requires support and resources from leadership. This workshop provides an overview of the research on the vicarious trauma of working with families impacted by trauma. There will be opportunities to self-assess how your professional community is helping in prevention of burnout and concrete opportunities for growth.

Corroborative evidence can often be the deciding factor on whether or not a case moves forward for charging.  Many cases of abuse and assault often appear to only have the victim and suspect as the “witnesses”.  This presentation will explore ways that police and prosecutors can look beyond those two witnesses and identify ways to present compelling, corroborating evidence.  Using traditional methods of physical evidence and advancing ideas in technology, attendees will be encouraged to think outside the box.

Domestic violence and stalking investigations can become a tedious task for any investigator. To conduct a successful investigation, digital evidence recovery is essential to aid in the corroboration of the victim’s statement. The offender may impose physical injury, but they will also routinely harass, threaten, and inflict psychological trauma upon their victims while committing crimes in person or during online interactions. Investigators must equip themselves with the latest tools and techniques available to obtain solid evidence for the prosecution’s case against these offenders. This course will provide examples of how to locate digital evidence through using search warrants to establish a pattern of behavior, which can corroborate the victim’s statement. An emphasis will also be placed on the best legal practices for digital evidence recovery, storage, and presentation for prosecution.

This course introduces investigators to the use of Alternative Light Sources (ALS) to identify evidence not visible under normal lighting—such as bruising, bite marks, bodily fluids, or patterned injuries—especially on delicate infant skin or in low-light scenes. Attendees will learn how ALS enhances both forensic photography and documentation of abuse indicators. Attendees will be able to:

In this moving and hopeful address, students will learn the five obstacles that prevent us from ending child abuse and will learn about sweeping changes now taking place in our child protection system that will enable us to significantly reduce and perhaps eliminate child abuse over the course of the next three generations. The keynote is based on a scholarly work that was published in the Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment and Trauma, and in the Hamline Journal of Public Law and Policy, Fall 2006.