This essay explores how interviews are conducted, how courtrooms treat child witnesses, and how legal professionals learn about trauma. This blog takes each of those in turn, what the research says works, where it has been tried, and what still stands in the way.
When I first started law school in 2023, taking a bankruptcy course was at the top of my list. But it wasn’t because I wanted to be a bankruptcy lawyer; instead, knowing that I wanted to represent survivors, many mentors said that they did not know the first thing about bankruptcy, but that if they could do law school over again, they would have taken that doctrinal class. The trend was clear: so many defendants were trying to file for bankruptcy to escape accountability.
In part two of this series, we examined what happens to children who testify about sexual abuse, including nightmares, behavioral changes, and long-lasting harm. Now, we must ask why. Why does a process designed to deliver justice often cause more harm? The answer lies in two places: inside the child’s brain and within the structure of the legal system. When these two areas interact, the damage is not accidental; it’s built in.
What really happens to children who testify about sexual abuse?
and what the research says we must do differently
This piece examines that evidence in three parts: what retraumatization in the courtroom looks like and what it costs; why it happens, from the neuroscience of traumatic memory to the structural features of adversarial legal proceedings; and what we already know how to do differently because the research that documents the problem also clearly points toward solutions.
The evidence is clear, but the real question is whether we are willing to act on it.
Grooming can be defined by examining it through three social-ecological levels: micro, meso, and macro. Each level can either make grooming easier or much more difficult.
Our Social Science Director, Dr. Suruchi Sood, Outlines the Facts of CSAM
By Brian O’Leary “Ex-Saugerties High wrestling coach charged with 18 counts of rape.” I woke up the other day with a text from a friend who highlighted an article in the local newspaper which had the above headline. The school had hired a 30-year-old man to teach...
Marci A. Hamilton, Founder & CVO, CHILD USARobert K. Jenner, Jenner Law, P.C. On July 21, 2025, a Maryland court ruled that an adult survivor of horrific childhood sexual abuse at the hands of a Catholic priest could not sue the Archdiocese of Washington, DC. The...
By Tim Stier The Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco is in the midst of federal bankruptcy negotiations with over five hundred alleged sexual abuse victims. A primary motivation of Archbishop Cordileone for choosing bankruptcy over civil trials is to hide the...
In 2021, the Maine State Legislature passed a landmark law creating a permanent revival window for previously expired child sex abuse (CSA), child sexual abuse material (CSAM), and trafficking claims. This law removed procedural barriers that had long prevented...
