Understanding Child Sexual Abuse Investigations
Your child just told you something that changed everything.
You didn't know what to say. You don't know what happens next. You don't know who to call, what the investigation looks like, whether to trust the process, or how to hold yourself together long enough to hold your child together. This book was written for exactly that moment.
Child Sexual Abuse Investigations: A Complete Guide for Parents walks you through everything that follows a child's disclosure; from the first phone call to law enforcement, through the forensic interview, the courtroom, and the long road of healing that comes after. Written by a detective who spent 20 years investigating crimes against children; and who is himself a survivor of childhood sexual assault; this guide gives you something most books cannot: both the investigator's knowledge of how the system works, and a survivor's understanding of what your child is carrying.
What grooming is, how it works, and why you didn't see it coming.
What a forensic interview is and how to prepare your child and yourself.
What to say and what never to say after your child discloses.
How to navigate law enforcement, the courts, and the child advocacy center.
Why children delay disclosure, recant, or go silent; and why none of it means your child is lying.
What trauma does to a child's brain and body, and what healing actually looks like.
How to protect your child going forward without creating fear.
You did not cause this. Your child did not cause this. But what you do next matters enormously and you do not have to figure it out alone.
