Child sexual abuse evaluations: the scientist–practitioner model

✍ Scribed by Kathryn Kuehnle

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 202 KB
• Volume: 16
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0735-3936
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-0798(199824)16:1<5::aid-bsl290>3.0.co;2-3

✦ Synopsis

The scientist-practitioner model is presented as a format for conducting child sexual abuse evaluations. This model bases conclusions on empirically established relationships between data and the behavior of interest, rather than on subjective opinions. Using empirically derived evidence, the scientist-practitioner de®nes child sexual abuse as a life event rather than a clinical syndrome, relies on base rates of behavior for distinguishing and understanding dierences between nonsexually abused and sexually abused children, and considers issues of instrument sensitivity and speci®city when utilizing assessment tools in child sexual abuse evaluations. This model enlists safeguards to keep the evaluator from inappropriately forming cause and eect associations between a child's single response (e.g., behavioral and emotional symptoms, interactions with anatomically detailed dolls, drawing genitalia) and the occurrence of an event (e.g., sexual abuse).