Child Sexual Abuse: Entry-Level Training for the Mandated Reporter

Child Sexual Abuse: Entry-Level Training for the Mandated Reporter is an excellent resource for anyone who is a mandated reporter as well as anyone who views themselves as an advocate for children. “Sexual abuse thrives in secrecy and silence. Effectively protecting children and ensuring community justice requires that responsible people speak up and be a voice for vulnerable children.” This text requires the reader to research vital information regarding legal definitions of and laws pertaining to child sexual abuse, statistical data, laws pertaining to mandated reporters, and how to access the child advocacy center within the reader’s own geographical location. Mandated reporters have a responsibility to children and it is important they understand, “people who report abuse are not asked to prove or verify that the information given by the victim is true.” The responsibility of a mandated reporter is to report identified concerns. This text is informative, easy to read, and should be a required educational piece for all mandated reporters.

Child Sexual Abuse: Entry-Level Training for the Mandated Reporter is a clearly written, easy-to-understand curriculum. The organization is intuitive and follows a pathway consistent with how a clinician would think about sexual abuse, starting with definition, moving toward epidemiology, and then looking specifically at concerning behaviors and warning signs. This text presents a well-thought-out, understandable approach to the response when a concern of sexual abuse arises. Dr. Atzemis demonstrates a sound, clinically appropriate approach that uses good judgment and balances legal requirements with professional behaviors towards the child who may be in crisis. Child Sexual Abuse for the Mandated Reporter does a good job at framing out the issues around sexual abuse prevention. This remains an evolving field and Dr. Atzemis correctly reflects that evolutionary approach. Dr. Atzemis has crafted an excellent scholarly work that will be useful to the readers and has distilled down a great deal of complicated material to something manageable and informative.

Child Sexual Abuse: Entry-Level Training for the Mandated Reporter is a well-organized and easy-to-read guide to understanding, responding to, and preventing child sexual abuse. The personalized learning activities are very helpful by actively engaging the reader and re-enforcing important learning points. As a general pediatrician and mandated reporter, I found this curriculum very easy to use and understand. It does a great job defining what child sexual abuse is and describing the best way to deal with it and prevent it.