About the Child Abuse Video Training
Recognizing and Reporting Child Abuse


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These six, studio-quality, three-hour video programs, moderated by child abuse expert and University of Maryland professor Douglas J. Besharov, provide expert training on recognizing and reporting child abuse and neglect. The informative materials tools are suitable for professionals experienced in making reports on suspected child abuse, child protective and child welfare workers, and those without any previous training on the subject. CEU credits are available.

The six videoconferences on recognizing and reporting child abuse were broadcast in 2001, sponsored by the Welfare Reform Academy of the University of Maryland’s School of Public Affairs and the American Enterprise Institute. Cosponsoring organizations included Parents Anonymous, Inc., Prevent Child Abuse America, Childhelp USA, and the Child Welfare League of America.

Recognizing and Reporting Child Abuse: Video Training Topics

  • Video 1: Reporting obligations. This program describes who is legally required to report, who is permitted to report, and the forms of reportable child abuse and neglect (including child endangerment). It examines the criminal and civil penalties for failing to report and describes the legal protections for those who report.

    The three-hour videoconference was aired January 18, 2001, with Douglas J. Besharov as lecturer and moderator. Expert panelists include: Mireille Kanda, M.D., a pediatrician, acting director of the Office of Population Affairs, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Caren Kaplan, project manager of Protecting America’s Children at the Child Welfare League of America; and David Lloyd, director of advocacy programs, U.S. Department of Defense.

  • Video 2: Is it physical abuse? This program defines physical abuse, explain how to distinguish "reasonable" corporal punishment from physical abuse, provides guidelines for identifying "suspicious" injuries (and the battered child syndrome), and provides guidelines for using behavioral indicators.

    The three-hour videoconference aired February 15, 2001, with Douglas J. Besharov as lecturer and moderator. Expert panelists include: Donald Bross, a lawyer, professor of pediatrics, University of Colorado School of Medicine and director of education and legal counsel for the Kempe Children’s Center; Wade Horn, the assistant secretary for children and families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; and Jacqueline Lee, M.D., deputy chief medical examiner for the District of Columbia.

  • Video 3: Is it sexual abuse? This program defines sexual abuse and sexual exploitation, sensitizes participants to the special problems that arise in such cases, and provides guidelines for assessing the statements of children and for using the physical and behavioral indicators for sexual abuse.

    The three-hour videoconference aired March 15, 2001, with Douglas J. Besharov as lecturer and moderator. Expert panelists include: James Egan, M.D., former chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at the Children’s Hospital National Medical Center; Anne Hoffman, acting supervisor of the Sexual Abuse Unit of the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services; and Jacqueline Lee, M.D., deputy chief medical examiner of the District of Columbia.

  • Video 4: Is it physical neglect? This program defines physical neglect and medical neglect, sensitizes participants to the need to distinguish physical neglect from poverty, and describes the indicators of physical neglect (including physical deprivation and dirty and disordered households).

    The three-hour videoconference aired April 19, 2001, with Douglas J. Besharov as lecturer and moderator. Expert panelists include: Marilyn Benoit, M.D., president of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry; Judith Flores, M.D., associate medical director of the Sunset Park Family Health Center and site director of the Park Slope Family Health Center; and Janet Motz, child protection specialist and the child protection grant program administrator for the Colorado Department of Human Services.

  • Video 5: Is it psychological maltreatment? This program defines psychological maltreatment and provides guidelines for reporting emotional abuse and neglect (including the two?level approach to reporting emotional maltreatment and the diagnostic significance of the failure to treat a child's psychological problems), improper ethical guidance, and educational neglect.

    The three-hour videoconference aired May 17, 2001, with Douglas J. Besharov as lecturer and moderator. Expert panelists include: Mary Allman, a social worker and special education specialist in the Montgomery County, Maryland, public school system; Gustavo Goldstein, M.D., a psychiatrist in Rockville, Maryland; and Jerry Wiener, M.D., emeritus professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at the George Washington University School of Medicine.

  • Video 6: Is it a reportable parental disability? This program defines the severe mental disabilities of parents that are reportable, including severe mental illness, severe mental retardation, and alcohol and drug abuse; and sensitizes participants to the diagnostic significance of a parent's inability to care for a newborn.

    The three-hour videoconference aired June 21, 2001, with Douglas J. Besharov as lecturer and moderator. Expert panelists include: Anne Hoffman, a social worker and acting supervisor of the Sexual Abuse Unit of the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services; Judy Howard, professor of clinical pediatrics at the University of California Los Angeles and chair of the UCLA Child Abuse Policy Committee; and Sally Satel, M.D., W. H. Brady Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and staff psychiatrist at the Oasis Clinic in Washington, D.C.

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The video training originated in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area as a series of live videoconferences, which were broadcast live via C-band satellite signal to downlink sites across the country. The programs typically ran for three hours (with a fifteen-minute break at about the program's midpoint). Each child abuse videoconference had about 1,000 downlink sites with somewhere over 20,000 viewers. Later each month, Primedia, Inc., rebroadcast the conference on its satellite to another 2,000-5,000 sites.

    ALSO AVAILABLE:
    Single Videotape:
    Introduction to Child Abuse Identification and Reporting

    First broadcast on October 6, 1999, this stand-alone, three-hour program provides a useful overview of recognizing and reporting child abuse for students and mandated professionals. The professionally produced video program can stand on its own or serve as an introduction to the Welfare Reform Academy’s 2001 six-video program series. Working in lecture format, supplemented with overheads designed for distance learning (but with no expert panel), Professor Besharov covers the legal framework and the essentials of reporting in different categories.

    The program includes the following topics: Trainer's Preview, Making a Difference, Reporting Obligations, Liability for Failing to Report, Protection for Those Who Report, Sources of Suspicion, Key Concepts, Physical Abuse, Sexual Abuse, Physical Neglect, and Being Prepared. Conference cosponsors included Parents Anonymous, Inc. and Prevent Child Abuse America.

Cost: $40 for one videotape; $30 per video if ordering four videos; $25 per video if ordering more than four videos. Click here to order.


"Quite simply, your presentation was outstanding. Apart from the valuable information you provided, your 'TV persona' was both relaxed and immediate. The camera work was excellent because the viewers felt you were speaking directly to us (speaking for my wife and myself). You approached the material with a remarkably appropriate blend of seriousness required of the material and with good humor and telling examples. Where someone else might have overpowered viewers with legal jargon, you kept the material lucid and down to earth. Kudos! And thanks!"