A National Survey of the Investigation of Child Sexual Abuse

Correspondence to Department of Sociology, University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey GU2 5XH, UK Summary The article reports a national survey of social services andpolice arrangements for investigating child sexual abuse (CSA).It is now officially accepted as good practice for police andsocial workers to jointly investigate such allegations. To evaluateinvestigative practice, the survey aimed to (i) document existingarrangements for police/social services investigation and managementof CSA cases; (ii) identify the main organizational models informingsuch work, and (iii) explore the perceptions of police and socialservices managers of the key policy and practice issues posedby such work. The criteria for judging the benefits of jointwork were: reduction in the number of occasions children wereinterviewed, clarification of the role of professionals involved,increased coordination of service delivery, and establishmentof group support for difficult decisions. While there were signsthat some benefit was being achieved, there were also indicationsof the endurance of problems long associated with multiagencywork.