In this update:
SURVEY | Review 2024
REGISTER | Youth Led Conversation on Consent Messaging
LEARN | Facilitating Multidisciplinary Team Functioning in Child and Youth Advocacy Centres Using Shared Mental
SPOTLIGHT | Department of Justice
help shape what’s next
Review of 2024
Over the last year we have been working to establish the Research and Knowledge Centre. The purpose and strategies of the Research and Knowledge Centre were shaped collaboratively with many of you! We have tried a few different activities to operationalize those strategies and now, would like to know, are they working.
Thank you to everyone who completed the short survey to help us improve and shape the future direction and opportunities of the Research and Knowledge Centre.
Survey is closed
Research to Practice Panel
Youth led conversation on consent messaging
This youth led virtual panel will explore trends, responses, and messaging related to consent across Canada. Youth panelists Noah Harris, Charley McNeil and Myah Anderson will share insights and highlight challenges surrounding consent messaging in their communities. The discussion will spotlight current research on consent messaging, and provide insights into how Child and Youth Advocacy Centres can strengthen their response and support for consent-focused initiatives.
Recording herePractice Brief
Facilitating multidisciplinary team functioning in Child and Youth Advocacy Centres using shared mental models
Facilitating a coordinated and collaborative response to child abuse can be challenging. This practice brief highlights how a shared mental model framework could enhance multidisciplinary team effectiveness among CYACs.
ReadNoteworthy Publications
Research spotlight
Review of forensic interviewing methods for vulnerable victims
L.Ha and H. Eckert
The goal of forensic interviewing is to balance gathering sufficient information for a successful prosecution while protecting the victim’s psychological and emotional safety by avoiding re-traumatization. After experiencing a traumatic event, victims may suffer neurological changes that affect memory, recall, and behaviour. Therefore, interviewers must take extra care when working with children and consider their age and developmental capabilities. Although no national standards exist for forensic interviewing victims, available evidence suggests using rapport-building, free-narrative techniques, asking open-ended, non-leading questions, and allowing sensory-based, non-chronological answers.
ReadVirtual testimony from CYACs
S. McDonald, B. Stumpf and L. Gallant
Virtual testimony has the potential to reduce re-traumatization of young victims and witnesses in criminal court. Although virtual testimony has been available for several decades, its use remains limited. While more data is needed, key challenges include securing funding, ensuring equitable access to technology, and waiting for a case that strongly justifies the implementation of virtual testimony. Some Crown prosecutors want to wait for the “ideal” case, fearing that judges may deny permission for virtual testimony. This could set a legal precedent, making it more difficult to use in future cases within their jurisdiction. CACs/CYACs emphasize the importance of continuing to educate all criminal justice professionals on the benefits of virtual testimony.
ReadNoteworthy publications
Children exposed to sibling sexual abuse: Sociodemographic and trauma symptom differences