Prosecuting Child Physical Cases: Lessons Learned From the San Diego Experience

There are many more incidences of child physical abuse and neglect than of sexual abuse. In fact, over 200,000 incidences of child physical abuse occur each year in this country. A national survey revealed that despite this number, district attorneys' offices prosecute far fewer cases of child physical abuse and neglect than cases of child sexual abuse. To discover what can be done about this situation, NIJ and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention sponsored a study of a prosecutor's office that aggressively pursues child physical abuse and neglect cases by coordinating with other agencies and using specialized staff. The results, reported in Prosecuting Child Physical Abuse Cases: Lessons Learned From the San Diego Experience, indicate that the San Diego's prosecutor's office multiagency approach has resulted in high felony conviction rates for child physical abuse cases.