Local News

New team launches new resources against child sex abuse in MT

Posted: Jul 24, 2012 7:16 AM by Drew Trafton - Q2 News
Updated: Jul 24, 2012 7:16 AM

BILLINGS - A team of 8 individuals with different backgrounds (law enforcement, medical professionals, county attorney representatives) have formed the multi-disciplinary team for the new Child Advocacy Center located at the Center for Children and Families in downtown Billings.

The goal of the advocacy center is to strengthen cases against child abusers while minimizing the amount of times their victims would have to retell of the abuse by using technology (discretely placed camera and audio recorders) to only interview victims once -which compares to a normal court process, where victims could potentially be interviewed 5 to 7 times.

"Hopefully we (the multi-disciplinary team) could cover every question that would possibly be asked and answered, in one interview."

During an interview, the child victim would only have to speak with one interviewer, who would receive questions from the other team members through an ear piece or through consulting the other team members outside of the interview room.

The team has yet to take on a case, but hopes to be able to by the end of the year.

Team coordinator Lynelle Amen says she has heard the team could possibly be charged with conducting 250 to 300 interviews a year stemming from cases in the Billings area and surrounding counties.

To learn more about how multi-disciplinary teams work to fight sex abuse in Montana, watch the video link above.