witnesses

handles

No, unfortunately we do not.  We do have a Victim's Advocate, but the
brass has done such a good job of hiding her that most officers a)
don't know she exists or b) have no idea how to get ahold of her.  I
have never seen her actually doing any work :-\ but I believe she
liases with the State's Attorney's Office and makes sure the victims
get to court, understand the process, that sort of thing.  She doesn't
do any counseling that I'm aware of.  In serious cases that I've had, I
usually encouraged the family to seek counseling on their own, and gave
them numbers of area clinics that work on a sliding scale, such as
Catholic or Lutheran Social Services, Human Service Center, etc.  We
also have a Child Advocacy Center that handled cases of severe child
abuse or serious sexual abuse.  They had their own doctors specially
trained to recognize signs of child abuse, small scale instruments (eg
speculums), and counselors present through the entire process to put
the child at ease as best they could.  They were extremely beneficial
at trials as they had a lot of credibility as expert witnesses, as
opposed to the ER doctor I had words with who neglected to do a rape
kit on an 8 year old boy who had been anally penetrated by an 18 year
old neighbor.  I called and told them to do the kit, the suspect
confessed to the penetration, the boy said he had been penetrated....
the doctor said it looked like pinworm and sent him home.  The suspect
was still convicted, no thanks to doc, and admitted to sexually abusing
five other children in the neighborhood (and a cat?!).  He is still in
prison, I believe he got 12 years.  

Kerrie