To Hire Forensice Interviewer to Serve Needs of Physically, Sexually Abused Children and Their Families

Our goal is to hire a third forensic interviewer to lighten the caseload of our two, existing forensic interviewers. This will be a full-time position with a total compensation of $51,860(annual salary, payroll taxes, and benefits). The forensic interviewer will interview children and adolescents from toddlers to 17 years of age who are alleged to be victims of physical and/or sexual abuse; they will testify in court whenever a case is prosecuted; will assist victims’ families; and will participate in multi-disciplinary team meetings. The Children’s Advocacy Center of the Coastal Bend has one of the largest caseloads in the state but also has one of the smallest staffs and budgets. The following table demonstrates the problem using 2010 statistics:

CAC Location Interviews/Month Staff Staff-to- Interview Ratio Annual Budget
Houston 304 54 6-to-1 $6,900,000
Fort Worth 211 16 13-to-1 $1,500,000
Coastal Bend 182 6 30-to-1 $ 300,000
Dallas 122 45 3-to-1 $3,000,000
San Antonio 110 29 4-to-1 $1,700,000

Without an increase in staff size – beginning with the addition of a third forensic interviewer – we will continue to be overwhelmed by our caseload, leading to staff burnout and a diminished ability to protect the children of the Coastal Bend.

We serve children and non-abusing family members from 12 counties. These counties cover a 11,186 square miles. Of the 2,142 people served in 2010, 70 percent were classified as low- to moderate-income.
Hiring a third forensic interviewer will allow us to reduce the caseloads being handled by our two existing forensic interviewers by one third. This will give interviewers more time to provide services to the victims and non-abusing family members, to better prepare for cases in which they must testify, to participate more often and more effectively in multidisciplinary team meetings in the 12 counties we serve, to aid in the prosecution of cases that go to trial, and to better ensure that cases that do not warrant prosecution are not pursued.

The forensic interviewer will be evaluated on the following: (1) ability to schedule and coordinate joint forensic interviews of alleged child/adolescent abuse victims with multidisciplinary team members (2) number of forensic interviews of alleged child/adolescent victims of abuse on behalf of multidisciplinary team members (3) ability to maintain and update case files, case lists, and statistical tracking (4) ability to provide brief, written documentation pertaining to interviews conducted for case review purposes (5) ability to organize, coordinate and conduct weekly case reviews and coordinate case review information with multi-disciplinary team members (6) ability to testify in civil and criminal court proceedings on the interview process and techniques as well as on specific interviews in individual cases (7) coordinate and participate in quarterly Interview Program Peer Review sessions and provide training regarding interview protocols and child development levels and (8) consult with multi-disciplinary team members as requested.