First interview of sexually abused children

Proceedings of Neurology 2021&Cognitive Neuroscience 2021&Child Psychology 2021

February 22-23, 2021 | Webinar

Muna Said Alshekaili and Mohammed Ali Almarzoqi

Public Prosecution, Oman

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Neurol Disord

Abstract :

Child sexual abuse is one of the most painful event that can happen to a child and too difficult to talk about its details. in our country Sultanate of Oman (located in the middle east ) child law published in 2014 . Public prosecution reported 117 cases in 2016 ,this number gradually increased as they reported 198 cases in 2017, 284 cases in 2018 and until today they reported 329 cases. Many cases reported at first to the social worker at school, teachers, psychologist where they need to ask the child in proper way to avoid story contamination. Most of the cases ,the child is the only witness and no physical or forensic evidence of the alleged abuse , so mainly the whole cases depending on child story. The age range of sexually abused children 3-17 years and there is a huge differences in their mental, psychological and physical abilities where we have to put it in consideration while interviewing the abused children. One of the main ways to help those children is to avoid misleading claims and to provide justice for both sides (the child and the abuser ). Its very important to understand the legal and psychological background while interviewing the sexually abused child for the first time .
Objectives :
• Highlights the main psychological and legal aspects and techniques used during the first interview.
• Highlight on the main ways that should be avoided as it might contaminate the story of the child.
• Help professionals from different backgrounds (medical, legal, educational, rehabilitation ) to understand those areas and start practicing it. The trainers (consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist and prosecutor general assistant ) will train the audience by role play and many other methods .

Biography :

Muna said Alshekaili has completed her MD in 2005 from Arabian Gulf University ,finished residency prgram 2012. Finished fellowship in child and adolescent in 2014. Appointed as head of child and adolescent psychiatry department at almassarh hospital in 2017.