This award will support collaborative research in sociology on the topic of comparative U.S. and British civic response to child sexual abuse. The investigators are Dr. Thomas Frothingham, Duke University Medical Center and Dr. C.J. Hobb, St. James University Hospital, Leeds, England. In the county of Cleveland, England in 1987, diagnoses of child sexual abuse increased suddenly, and within a few months, more than 100 children were removed from their homes. Public outcry and Parliamentary inquiry resulted in an extensive national examination of all the arrangements for dealing with child abuse in England. There are striking parallels between what has happened suddenly in England and more gradually in Durham, North Carolina and other areas in the U.S. Change in civic response in the U.S. is urgently needed but is proceeding slowly at best. In this project, Dr. Frothingham proposes to study in collaboration with Dr. Hobb the changes now occurring in England in the aftermath of the Cleveland experience. Specifically, the following will be examined: 1) arrangements for the detection and management of sexually abused children and their families 2) intra- agency structure and function, i.e. medical organizations, social services, police, judiciary and private agencies. 3) inter-agency collaboration and 3) the effect of the Cleveland experience on current practices and recent changes. The proposed research project is a significant opportunity to gather data on a critical social problem in the U.S. Since England provides wide range of social supports not available to any but the poorest sector in the U.S., the cross-cultural data will be especially valuable.The results of this research will provide a greater understanding of the linkages between the detection and handling of child abuse and the promotion of family stability.
