Social Science

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.

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