Child Sexual Exploitation Quick Reference

Sharon Cooper is an adjunct professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill School of Medicine. Additionally, she is the executive director of Developmental Forensic Pediatrics, P. A., a consulting firm that provides clinical care for children with disabilities and victims of child maltreatment, and a forensic pediatrician at the Southern Regional Area Health Education Center, which provides forensic pediatric services for nine counties in North Carolina. Dr. Cooper is a registered and certified physician within the Child Medical Evaluation Program under the auspices of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Due to the scope of Dr. Cooper's practice, she is closely associated with the city, county, federal, and military court systems and functions as an expert witness in the areas of general, developmental, and forensic pediatrics. She also provides training for military and civilian physicians, law enforcement officers, social workers, psychologists, chaplains, attorneys, and judges who handle child maltreatment cases. She has been an annual presenter for the Children's Hospital Hackensack Medical Center and is an educator of Internet crimes against children for the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in Alexandria, Virginia.

Richard Estes is a professor of social work at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. He holds an AB degree from La Salle University in Philadelphia and graduate degrees in social work from the University of Pennsylvania (MSW) and the University of California at Berkeley (Doctor of Social Welfare). He also holds a post-masters certificate in Psychiatric Social Work from the Menninger Foundation in Topeka, Kansas. At the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Estes serves as chair of the graduate concentration in Social and Economic Development (SED). He is a former president of the Group for the Advancement of Doctoral Education (GADE), and in 2003 was elected president of the International Society For Quality of Life Studies for a two-year term. Currently, he is a member of the International Commission of the Council on Social Work Education. Dr. Estes has received numerous awards and grants for his research on international social work and comparative social development, including 2 Fulbright-Hays Senior Research Awards (Iran, 1978 and Norway, 1979) and a Distinguished Fulbright Scholar Award to Yonsei University in Seoul, Korea (1994).

Angelo Giardino is the medical director of Texas Children's Health Plan, a clinical associate professor of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine, and an attending physician for the Texas Children's Hospital's forensic pediatrics service at the Children's Assessment Center in Houston, Texas. Dr. Giardino completed his residency and fellowship training in pediatrics at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Immediately after his fellowship training, Dr. Giardino became the assistant, and then the associate, medical director at Health Partners of Philadelphia, where he had primary responsibility for utilization management, intensive case management, and health care data analysis. He also shared responsibility for the plan's quality improvement program. Additionally, Dr. Giardino began the Child Abuse and Neglect Team for Children with Special Health Care Needs, which was funded by a three-year grant from a local philanthropist. In 1998, he was appointed associate chair of clinical operations in the Department of Pediatrics at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), and in June of 1999, he was asked to chair the CHOP Quality Committee. These accomplishments are only a few of his career.

Nancy Kellogg completed her MD, pediatrics residency, and pediatrics internship at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, where she is now a tenured professor of pediatrics. She is the medical director of the Alamo Children's Advocacy Center and a consultant and trainer for the Texas Department of Protective and Regulatory Services and the San Antonio Police Department. Dr. Kellogg is also part of the medical staff at Christus Santa Rosa Medical Center and University Hospital. Dr. Kellogg is a 2003 recipient of the Presidential Award for Clinical Excellence from the University of Texas Health Science Center, a 2000 nominee for the governor's office "Texas Woman of the Year" in Health Services, and, since 1999, a member of the honorary Ray Helfer Society. Approximately 200 physicians and nurses have received intensive child abuse training under her direction, and she has developed a formal weeklong curriculum through the current Children's Justice Act Grant to Texas. She is also a prolific writer and developer of sexual abuse multimedia training materials. Dr. Kellogg has authored over 70 publications.

Currently director of the American Prosecutors Research Institute's (APRI) National Child Protection Training Center at Winona State University, Victor Vieth graduated magna cum laude from Winona State University and earned his Juris Doctor from Hamline University School of Law. He has been named to the President's Honor Roll of American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children. The Young Lawyers Division of the American Bar Association named him one of "21 Young Lawyers Leading Us Into the 21st Century." Vieth is the author of numerous articles pertaining to issues of child abuse and domestic violence. His article "Drying Their Tears" received the Associated Church Press' 1994 Award of Excellence. In 1997, Vieth joined the staff of the National Center for Prosecution of Child Abuse. From 1997 to 1999, he worked there as a senior attorney, providing technical assistance and training to prosecutors around the country. In 1999, he became director of the National Center for the Prosecution of Child Abuse. Among his accomplishments is the development of the project "Half a Nation by 2010." The goal of this program is to complete five-day forensic interview training programs in at least 25 states by the end of the decade. In 2003, the APRI appointed Vieth to direct the National Child Protection Training Center on the campus of Winona State University.

In my career as a prosecutor, and now as a congressman, I have seen tremendous improvements in our nation’s response to cases of child maltreatment. In most communities today, multidisciplinary teams work together for the best interests of children. Many elected district attorneys, sheriffs, and police chiefs have developed specialized units to respond to cases of child abuse.

Perhaps the most important development is the Children’s Advocacy Center program. Children’s Advocacy Centers (CACs) are childfriendly facilities where children can be interviewed sensitively and receive medical and psychological services. As a district attorney, I had the privilege of starting the nation’s first CAC. As a member of Congress, I championed support for my National Children’s Advocacy Center in Huntsville, Alabama, and also for the National Children’s Alliance, a coalition of CACs from across the nation that is headquartered in Washington, DC. Today there are hundreds of CACs in every part of our country.

Through the work of many organizations and training centers, thousands of frontline professionals are trained annually in the art and science of handling child protection cases. In the specific area of child sexual exploitation, this quick reference will provide them a wealth of information that can be accessed from any location.

We cannot, however, rest on our laurels. Commercial exploitation of children is a global problem that impacts every community in the United States, and there is some evidence to suggest that these children are just as likely to come from rural and suburban communities as urban centers. Additionally, modern technology poses a new threat to our children. It is increasingly easy for perpetrators to exploit children through the Internet, to create and disseminate child pornography, and to solicit children for illicit purposes.

I want to commend the frontline investigators, prosecutors, medical and mental health professionals, and other child advocates who are in the trenches daily trying to spare children from every form of exploitation. It is for them that this book is written. You labor long hours for little pay or honor on behalf of someone else’s children. Please know that your selfless dedication is not unnoticed. Indeed, your heroism is an inspiration to us all.

Congressman Robert E. “Bud” Cramer, Jr.
Member of the US House of Representatives (1999-2009)
Founder of the Children’s Advocacy Center movement

The 2-volume set from which this quick reference is derived is the most comprehensive text on this subject that I have seen, and it represents the efforts of an impressive collection of premier investigators, judicial participants, child protection agency personnel, and clinicians. This quick reference maintains the same quality of research and is invaluable for frontline professionals who deal with the victims and perpetrators of child sexual exploitation.

Robert M. Reece, MD
Clinical Professor of Pediatrics
Tufts University School of Medicine
Visiting Professor of Pediatrics
Dartmouth Medical School
Editor, The Quarterly Update