One in Ten

We’re always very careful to say that poverty doesn’t cause child neglect and abuse. And we don’t want to conflate these things or have people think that we’re blaming people for being poor. Yet we do know that poverty—particularly chronic and extreme poverty—can create an environment in which neglect and child maltreatment can thrive. Given that connection, could investments in anti-poverty progr...

In today’s episode, we speak with Dr. James Herbert, senior research fellow at the Australian Center for Child Protection, the first Children’s Advocacy Center (CAC) in Australia. Now, for those of us in the CAC movement or on multidisciplinary teams (MDTs), we sometimes take our work together for granted. The teamwork, the support—the conflict!—and the difficult decisions we make together to prot...

When we first met Dr. Jane Silovsky years ago, talking about youth with problematic sexual behaviors, it was a pervasive myth in the Children’s Advocacy Center world that CACs could not serve these kids. Somehow they weren’t our kids, somehow they weren’t deserving of help, or somehow they just weren’t ours to serve. But 25% to 30% of our cases each year involve sexually abusing or acting out on o...

Our guest today is Dr. Maegan Rides At The Door, the director of the National Native Children’s Trauma Center at the University of Montana. Now, many of us know at least some of the historical trauma faced by Native Americans and Alaska Native families, not just the genocide of the past, but also the boarding school abuses of the very recent past. How does this impact children today? And how does...

When we think of military families, we rightly think of sacrifice and duty. But do we also think about resiliency, perseverance, and a sense of community? The unique sense of identity that comes with military service comes with a complex set of supports and struggles for service members. Dr. Stephen Cozza, a researcher and professor at the Uniformed Services University, joins us to explore the uni...

Nearly a decade ago, a coalition of national organizations including NCA began strategizing about how to end child abuse fatalities. We passed a bill that established a congressional commission, which issued a report in 2016. Now we're looking at the successes and challenges of that work. What's changed, or not, in five years? What about state reforms? Join us with Amy Harfeld from the N...

Are we solving the wrong problem in child welfare?  When you think of federal child welfare policy, maybe you expect a discussion of foster care and other post-abuse interventions. If so, this conversation with Jerry Milner, former head of the Children’s Bureau at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is going to blow your mind. Because after more than 40 years in child welfare, Milner...

Years ago, few Americans—even in the field of child abuse—knew or understood child sex trafficking. The media portrayed it as a problem “over there” someplace, far from our shores. Now we know that child sex trafficking is both a global problem and a local one, one that affects children and youth who come across our borders, and youth in schools right down the street.  What makes children vulnerab...

If you’ve worked any time at all, then you’ve worked in some place that was unhealthy. Maybe it was full of gossip and backstabbing. Or perhaps there was one disgruntled employee who just made the whole place miserable. Or perhaps you or one of your colleagues was bullied. Toxic workplaces take an emotional toll. They’re exhausting. Draining. Demoralizing. What can we do as leaders to create a hea...

When the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study came out and proved the link between traumas such as child abuse and long-term negative health and mental health impacts, why did the public latch onto some results but not others? Why are people less convinced about the physical health impacts of ACEs than others? What role does political leaning play? And are we messaging some things that are ha...

Jenna Quinn was one of the first survivors to translate their experience of abuse into child abuse prevention public policy. Jenna was abused by a close friend of the family, someone known through the Christian school she attended. Her mom was a teacher, and her family very supportive, and yet Jenna, like so many others, became vulnerable to ongoing abuse because she didn’t know who, or how, to te...

When we think about Alaska, we think of Denali, pictures we’ve seen, movies we’ve watched, the wonderful wildlife, and people still living on the cusp of the frontier. But what films don’t always show, and what books don’t always cover, is the incredible challenges of this environment: the high rates of trauma, the high rates of addiction, the high rates of suicide, and the high rates of child abu...

Sometimes we forget that the medical response to child abuse as a discipline developed over our lifetime, and what was nascent 30 years ago is now a board specialty, like cardiology or oncology. For all the gains we’ve made in research and practice, though, there are still tremendous challenges in ensuring that all children who’ve been abused have access to medical care. Things like: Why is there...

On today’s episode, “Engaging the Hope Within Us,” our guests are award-winning classical pianists and siblings Gregory and Deondra Brown of The 5 Browns. When we think of classical music, we often think only of the beauty of it, not also of the pain and vulnerability that it can express and evoke. The 5 Browns shook perceptions of the classical music world when they revealed that all three sister...

In today’s episode, we talk with Paul DiLorenzo, who’s worked in every aspect of the child welfare system over the past 40 years—as a writer, as a consultant, and as a case worker. This varied experience gives him a wealth of knowledge and information and truly unique insight into our field. One of his key insights has been around the relationship between chronic neglect and child sexual abuse. No...

On today’s episode, we talk with Sasha Neulinger, director and producer of the award-winning documentary, Rewind , a film about his survival of abuse. Now for those listeners who attended our conference and watch party, you already know his powerful film. But for those who might be new to Sasha and his work, run, don’t walk, to your Amazon Prime account and queue up this great film.  Now, some of...

Years ago, Elizabeth Letourneau had a key insight: What if instead of focusing exclusively on victims and parents for child sexual abuse prevention, we really turned to the source of the problem: the person at risk of sexually abusing a child? Now, we really don’t like to talk about, or even think about, the fact that some youth and some adults are sexually attracted to children. But what if we co...

In our season-ending episode, we look at the wave of statute of limitation (SOL) reform that has swept our country, giving survivors of child sexual abuse—who may take years to fully process and disclose what happened to them—more time to seek justice. But the reform also poses challenges for prosecutors, law enforcement officers, and professionals who work with victims of child abuse. How do we p...

It was after midnight one night in 1983 when young police detective Brad Russ heard the knock on his front door that would transform his career. A 16-year-old girl named Kathy had run through a driving rainstorm to reach the one person in her neighborhood she thought might help her. Russ had never investigated child abuse before, and overnight he got a crash-course in the disjointed way the system...

In the midst of a national debate about criminal justice reform, what’s the role of the prosecutor? And how do we transform the system while still centering victims? We spoke to Nelson Bunn, executive director of the National District Attorneys Association (NDAA), about the unique role of prosecutors in leading systemic change. In a time of anxiety in the community about the relationship with law...

In “Is Abuse Contagious?” we sit down for a conversation with a guest who does fascinating work—Dyann Daley of Predict Align Prevent. As a pediatric anesthesiologist, Dr. Daley was driven by the sight of little kids fighting for their lives in the emergency room because they had been abused. She started a nonprofit that uses existing data to find neighborhoods that are hot spots for abuse—includin...

In “ Can a Pandemic Have a Silver Lining? ”, we invite Dr. Danielle Roubinov of the University of California to discuss a “research manifesto” letter she and her colleagues published in JAMA Pediatrics in August. Even as a novel coronavirus has upended our world, leading to new public health and safety guidelines that are playing hob with many research projects, it is also fostering innovation. Th...

We're back from our Best of the Best series to talk with Dr. Isha Metzger , a clinical psychologist, a University of Georgia researcher, and head of The EMPOWER Lab . But her real claim to fame: she noticed that the gold-standard treatment for children delivered at CACs wasn't working for her Black clients, dug into it, and came up with a brand-new adaptation to serve Black children and...

Greater Than the Sum—Multiple Adversities in Children’s Lives (originally "Mending the Tears of Violence") is the third in a three-part series of best-of-the-best episodes. Adversity and violence are common in kid's lives. The cumulative burden creates a lifelong vulnerability to physical and psychological issues. So how do we help kids thrive? What strengths are most important? She...

We're taking a short summer break and re-airing several of our most popular episodes that are especially relevant in light of current events. This week, we'll explore how kids fare after abuse: The Hidden Cost of Resilience. Earlier this year, we spoke to Dr. Ernestine Briggs-King from Duke University School of Medicine and the National Child Traumatic Stress Network about resilience in...