Sexual abuse - anatomically correct dolls

[christopher418]

Hi all,

This is my first post.

Without writing a novel, I have a question that I cannot seem to find an answer to. It falls along the lines of using an anatomically correct doll to determine if sexual abuse has occurred.

Now, we all know that someone who uses it has to be trained. My questions are, can someone with an MS/LCPC title use those dolls to determine if sexual abuse has occurred? Would you be able to diagnose this type of sexual abuse in one visit to make a CPS complaint?

Thanks

[SWM]

hello,

sorry, forensics is not my thing, i have not given much attention to the use of these before. i had a quick google around the term and found some info.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=anatomically+correct+doll+to+determine+sexual+abuse+prosecution&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB

http://www.allencowling.com/false15.htm
http://www.ipt-forensics.com/library/jmcraig2.htm

the articles that i found seem to suggest that the use of these dolls is unreliable for use in court and may prime the child to give unatural reponses. i can also see  how there may be other problems in using a doll to diagnose if a minor has been abused.
 

there use seems to be permitted in some law courts as an aid for a minor to describe or explain events.
http://www.ndaa.org/pdf/statutes_anatomical.pdf


to the op i realise i have not answered your question but i present this information here for anyone else that is not familiar with the subject.

[christopher418]

Yeah, thanks. All of the stuff you pointed to, I read as well.

I was looking for something more concrete, something credible I could cite (like APA stuff) for when I submit a comaint to the state board of counselors and therapists.

I hope someone on here can point me in the right direction. I've been searching for 6 hours now and I haven't found much.

[SWM]

sure,

do you have access to scholarly, academic and research articles?

i guess not, otherwise you would have gone that route first.

how about if you  try www.citeulike.org to search for journals that have related content, then you can go to a library and borrow or photocopy the relevant articles.

[christopher418]

That site costs money. I never thought it would be so hard to find an answer to a question like this one.

My daughter who is 6 was diagnosed as being sexually abused (not against me) but I know it didn't happen because I was there. The therapist that conducted the "investigation" is not qualified to do so, in my opinion. I was just looking for some case law that would validate my opinion.

[PsychVegas]

I need to find the study, but there was a specific study using a clown that touched children on the nose. It showed how children can be influenced to provide inaccurate statements.


Child Abuse & Neglect
Volume 23, Issue 11, November 1999, Pages 1127-1139 

This may be the article, not sure. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6V7N-3YS8MGC-8&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=37cda69da8e16b66236e1ca6f9f00ada

[PsychVegas]

And try this link...it is a free scholarly article.

http://www.cgu.edu/include/How_suggestible.pdf

If you use google scholar and search key words "clown experiment child abuse" the first roughly 6-7 links reference the experiment I am talking about.

[SWM]

That site costs money. I never thought it would be so hard to find an answer to a question like this one.

My daughter who is 6 was diagnosed as being sexually abused (not against me) but I know it didn't happen because I was there. The therapist that conducted the "investigation" is not qualified to do so, in my opinion. I was just looking for some case law that would validate my opinion.

most sites that host journals are not available free unless you work or study in a university or a major health or science corperation.

what you would need to do is use a site such as citeulike.org to search out the articles and then go to a library where you can borrow or photocopy the journals.

it is fairly common knowledge in psychotherapy that people, both adults and children, are sucseptible to false memories, there will definitely be a lot of research in this area.

[christopher418]

Thanks for the reply guys. I will research that stuff.

My thought was that people who use the doll would have to be "trained" to do so. According to the American Psychological Association, Council Policy Manual: N. Public Interest - Part 1 under sexual abuse, it states, in part:

"Therefore, In conformity with the Ethical Principle of Psychologists, psychologists who undertake the doll-centered assessment of sexual abuse should be competent to use these techniques. We recommend that psychologists document by videotape (whenever possible), audiotape, or in writing the procedures they use for each administration. Psychologists should be prepared to provide clinical and empirical rationale (I.e., published studies, clinical experience, etc.) for procedures employed and for Interpretation of results derived from using anatomically detailed dolls."

It refers to Psychologists here but I'm not sure if that's because they are saying Psychologists should do the testing or because the APA is only a guide for Psychologists. This woman that conducted the testing was an MS/LCPC. She is what I refer to as the "Jack of all trades" in the psychology field and nowhere in her website does it say she deals with sexual abuse. She's more of a "life coach" than anything else. She talks about her books that she's written more than anything else.

[SWM]

i would have thought they would have to be trained too, you may want to contact the licensing board and check with them if they have training requirements, and check with apa, if there requirements for psychologists applies to counselors as well.

both organistions should have a means to contact them for enquiries such as this.

you may also want to call the counselor (anonymously if necessary) and check if she has the required training.

[SWM]

... According to the American Psychological Association, Council Policy Manual: N. Public Interest - Part 1 under sexual abuse, it states, in part:

"Therefore, In conformity with the Ethical Principle of Psychologists, psychologists who undertake the doll-centered assessment of sexual abuse should be competent to use these techniques. We recommend that psychologists document by videotape (whenever possible), audiotape, or in writing the procedures they use for each administration. Psychologists should be prepared to provide clinical and empirical rationale (I.e., published studies, clinical experience, etc.) for procedures employed and for Interpretation of results derived from using anatomically detailed dolls."

psychologists have a rigourous procedure for documenting and recording the assessment process. you may want to find out if a counselor also has to follow this procedure. then did your counselor follow that procedure and does she have information regarding your daughter (in the form of the documentation of the interview procedure that you are entitled to access. again you may have to investigate what rights you have about accessing information that pertains to yourself or your dependents.

[christopher418]

The point isn't about if the counselor is REQUIRED to follow the procedure, the point is, is the counselor qualified to conduct such an investigation? According to the state mental health board of counselors, it states (under professional competence):

(1) Practice only within the boundaries of a counselor's competence, based on education, training, supervised experience, and professional credentials;

This could be my silver bullet. If she wasn't properly trained, she has violated the code of ethics because she is practicing outside of her competence.

So, was she trained? Does she have experience to conduct such an investigation? For the hell of it, I randomly E-mailed 10 MS/LCPC's and 100% said that I should contact a forensic psychologist to answer such a question. If I am understanding that statement, it seems like someone who is a forensic psychologist is trained to conduct these types of investigations.

Granted, the E-mails weren't of a scientific nature but my thoughts are starting to become facts now.

[SWM]

bingo! that would make sense to me too, the first thing i said to you in this thread was, "forensics is not my field".

so you are getting some evidence together now, keep at it.

whats next?

[christopher418]

Without making a long story longer, this was the result of a custody dispute between me and my ex-wife. Without any evidence (not even this CPS report), the judge took my ex's allegations as fact and I was ordered to seek education for pedophilia. Not because I am prone to it, because the judge thought I was in denial about my daughter being abused.

As chance would have it, (I didn't realize this until yesterday) the therapist I picked out of the yellow pages just happens to do forensic work for psychology. I need to ask him exactly what his back round is but it seems like a really good person to ask.

I am currently writing a complaint to the state board (5 pages so far) because this "therapist" is a wackjob. I wish I could post her website here but I'm not going to. She is just a "life coach," not an expert in anything.

[christopher418]

I E-mailed the therapist to ask how many times (my ex-wife hid this from me) my daughter has seen her. This is the exact reply I got from the therapist:

"To the best of my recollection there's been four or five visits, with the last one in late spring (April I believe). "

That's horsepoop. She couldn't even pull the file to see? But, lets look at the finer details. By way, I work in electronics, not psychology. I've never even studied it so this is why I'm trying to figure things out.

This therapist said that my daughter was molested. I would think that's a pretty traumatic event for a child to go through. The therapist said that my daughter was depressed about it and my ex-wife said the same thing.

Now, my question is:

If a child has been through a traumatic event like that (being sexually molested), would you think that 4 or 5 visits (2 of them to just make the CPS complaint) to a therapist would cure them? (That's a rhetorical question by the way)

[Kallisti]

Do you know if any hypnosis was involved?  Do you have any reason to believe your daughter might be easily suggestible?

[christopher418]

It's a long story but my daughter was coached by my ex-wife. I won't go into details that because I would write forever but as one example, I asked my daughter (in a non-confrontational way) why she told the therapist that she was touched "down there." Her reply to me was, "because I didn't want to upset mommy." I have a lot more examples that don't include my talking to my daughter about it but just the fact that the previous CPS investigation revealed nothing and took three months has at least some merit. This therapist concluded that my daughter was molested after one visit? That seems preposterous to me.

I doubt hypnosis was involved but for sure I know my daughter was coached to say the things she did. I mean, my ex-wife claims that all of this happened while I was there so that's two times in eight months!!! If you were the parent of that child, wouldn't you want supervised visitation? During an interview with the psychologist, she said that I'm a great father.

On one hand she says that I'm a great father but on the other hand I let my daughter get molested twice. Does that make any sense?

There's a lot more to the story and I know you have to take my word on things but I assure you, this is the unbiased truth.