A national survey of the investigation of child sexual abuse

The article reports a national survey of social services and police arrangements for investigating child sexual abuse (CSA). It is now officially accepted as good practice for police and social workers to jointly investigate such allegations. To evaluate investigative practice, the survey aimed to (i) document existing arrangements for police/social services investigation and management of CSA cases; (ii) identify the main organizational models informing such work, and (iii) explore the perceptions of police and social services managers of the key policy and practice issues posed by such work. The criteria for judging the benefits of joint work were: reduction in the number of occasions children were interviewed, clarification of the role of professionals involved, increased coordination of service delivery, and establishment of group support for difficult decisions. While there were signs that some benefit was being achieved, there were also indications of the endurance of problems long associated with multiagency work.