Abuse and disclosure - a balancing act

Lee Moore offers constructive advice to solicitors for taking statements from child clients in sexual abuse cases

Child sexual abuse is endemic throughout society, and will remain so until the issue becomes a political priority and funds are provided to deal more effectively with the problem.

It has been reported that an investigation into a child pornography Web site in Texas resulted in more than 7,000 names being given to British police forces.

Guidelines recently drawn up by Scotland Yard and Crown Prosecution Service lawyers suggest that cautions and formal warnings be issued to suspected offenders, as a means of speeding up the process and because there are insufficient resources for investigation.

The Association of Child Abuse Lawyers (ACAL) receives about 30 referrals a month from adults, claiming to have been sexually abused as children.

It is vital that lawyers who work with such individuals are conversant with the nature and impact of abuse to ensure that the best evidence is obtained with the minimum of trauma to client and professional.

A conceptual framework of what constitutes child sexual abuse is essential.

Child sexual abuse cannot be adequately defined because of the numerous factors which are part of abuse.

It can be intra familial, commonly described as incest, and/or extra familial, which can be one abuser outside of the family constellation, or it can be organised.

This is an umbrella term for institutional abuse, such as the recent care home cases, network abuse, syndicated abuse and ritual abuse.

Abuse can include both intra and extra-familial aspects.

There can be a single male or female perpetrator or multi-perpetrators and multiple victims.

The abuse can be between adult family members and children or children with children.

The range of abusive behaviour can be from non-contact such as voyeurism, photography and exhibitionism to contact activity.

And sexual abuse is usually accompanied with emotional and physical abuse.

Abuse can be recognised by five key elements - abuse of power, betrayal of trust, lack of informed consent, a wide range of abusive activities, and grooming coercion and entrapment.

These form the kernel of major triggers, which are reminders of abuse.

It is crucial for solicitors to know these main cues, for if activated, a client's confidence can disappear in minutes and can lead, on occasion, to a client self-harming or in some cases, committing suicide.

Children are usually abused by people who care for them, and as they are unable to escape physically the only way they can escape is psychologically.

Defences such as dissociation, the detachment of one part of the mind from another, and/or the accommodation syndrome, the inability to speak out or take action and/or complex post-traumatic stress disorder may result.

The more severe the abuse, the longer the duration, the more severe is the impact.

Abuse interferes with a child's development over a wide range of symptom domains such as cognitive distortions, negative emotional states, post-traumatic effects, relationships, sexuality, physical complaints and negative behavioural responses such as criminal conduct.

The Traumagenic Model on the Impact of Child Sexual Abuse (Finkelhor and Browne, 1985) identified four traumagenic dynamics of abuse.

These dynamics are powerlessness, betrayal, stigmatisation and traumatic sexualisation, which give rise to several behavioural and emotional responses.

These factors, when activated, are also triggers, which can be conscious and sub-conscious.

The legal process mirrors these dynamics, for example, when clients enter the legal system they are powerless over the process.

This is a major sub-conscious trigger and can result in a client withdrawing instructions, isolating from or changing solicitors.

It is common for clients to attempt to sabotage their own cases to avoid feelings of discomfort.

Disclosure is still not the 'norm'; silence is, and for a client to instruct a solicitor is in fact a great act of courage.

It is important to note that disclosure is a process not an event and taking a statement involves dismantling a client's psychological defences.

It is the nature of traumatic memory that information is given in a piecemeal fashion and often the professional is faced with a jigsaw of information to interpret.

A clients will seek to protect the listener and test him to ensure that the professional is capable of holding the information without appearing shocked or revolted in any way.

Inevitably, the lesser abuse is disclosed first and the worst last.

It is imperative for the solicitor to ascertain prior to taking the statement what support the client has, whether the client has disclosed before, to whom, and what the response to that disclosure was.

Frequently, responses have been negative, which exacerbates a client's trauma.

It is also essential to learn whether the disclosure is purposeful or accidental.

Some clients have been compelled to disclose before they were willing.

Disclosure by siblings and police enquiries have propelled many clients into a state of crisis as they were not psychologically ready, and nor did they have the support to process reliving the trauma.

The solicitor needs to ascertain the context of a disclosure to be able to work with the client more effectively.

It is also vital to know about boundaries.

These regulate the relationship between two people and determine the degree of intimacy between them.

Clients who have been abused have had all their boundaries breached.

Therefore, modelling good boundaries is essential; it is also an art.

If the boundaries are too rigid then they can lead to a loss of information.

They need to be sufficiently fluid to ensure the client's comfort and to facilitate the flow of information required.

Taking statements about sexual abuse can be an intimate process and can lead to a bonding and loss of role if the boundaries are permitted to become blurred.

It is not advisable.

It is also crucial for solicitors who are acting for people who have been abused to have a self-care plan in place to mitigate the effects of secondary trauma.

It has been recognised that hearing details of a traumatic event can be as harmful to the listener as to the direct witness of an event.

Some symptoms of secondary stress, which are nearly identical to post-traumatic stress disorder can be overworking, isolating from colleagues, drinking and eating too much, sleep problems and intrusive imagery.

Working with and for clients who have been sexually abused in childhood is a challenging and rewarding area of work, but it requires highly specialist training, knowledge and skills if clients and practitioners are to remain healthy and cases are to be skilfully, appropriately and effectively dealt with.

Lee Moore is president of the Association of Child Abuse Lawyers and director of Chorleywood-based firm Lee Moore & Co.

For more details, visit: www.childabuselawyers.com