Helping Child Victims of Crime Through a New Approach

By Zach Friend

In the last year a significant step was taken to protect our most vulnerable victims of crime: children. The Board of Supervisors supported the District Attorney Jeff Rosell’s efforts to create a Multi-Disciplinary Interview Team, or MDIT, and recently these efforts have culminated in a new home for this team in mid-county.

Why is an MDIT needed?

After allegations of child abuse, there are typically multiple agencies that need to hear the child’s perspective, including law enforcement, the District Attorney’s Office and Child Protective Services among others. While each agency is very effective at interviewing to obtain the information they need, having a vulnerable child endure many interviews in separate locations adds unnecessary trauma. This process protracts the ordeal and more deeply ingrains any abuses suffered, as child victims are forced to relive the experience each time in law enforcement locations not designed to be sensitive to the needs of children.

The MDIT model utilizes specially trained child interviewers and a comforting, family-friendly environment in which children can be interviewed. In a single interview, detectives, interview specialists and others can effectively obtain the information necessary to ensure a child’s safety and ensure that the people who victimize children are held accountable. All the relevant agencies are able to observe the interview and provide real-time input to the interviewer.

The interview center itself is designed to be as neutral and child-friendly as possible. Recently, the Board of Supervisors approved a lease for a new interview center centrally located in the mid-county area. The new center focuses on removing the stressful environment often found in standard situations. Decorations are comforting and will include scaled down furniture and artistic murals on the walls.

Most importantly, this new center will allow for agencies to collaborate and conduct sensitive, child-centric casework while obtaining the best quality forensic interview in order to ensure that justice is done. As opposed to traveling to multiple locations to do an interview, a young victim will be interviewed in one specially designed location, with a focus on their needs and efforts to heal.

The District Attorney’s Office is in the process of hiring a full-time coordinator for the new center and has already worked with local agencies on training using best practices from state and national child organizations. The goal is to have a full-time coordinator this summer.

The MDIT model is used by most counties in California, and the District Attorney’s Office has consulted with many of these counties and is bringing what they have learned back to our community. While there are real budgetary costs associated with the new center and team, there are unquestionably higher social costs to not doing it. District Attorney Jeff Rosell and I strongly believe that reducing any additional trauma to child survivors of physical and sexual abuse is worthy of our investment.

We believe using the MDIT approach will allow child victims in this community to be treated with the sensitivity they deserve, while ensuring that the perpetrators of these crimes are swiftly and effectively brought to justice. Opening this center and creating the MDIT has been a critical step to protecting the safety and welfare of children in Santa Cruz County.

•••

As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Please feel free to reach out to me at 454-2200 with any questions or comments.