Once child abuse is reported, law enforcement, the Department of Child Services (DCS), District Attorney General's Office, Kids First-Child Advocacy Center (CAC), juvenile court and others all play a role in taking action for that child.

These agencies team up to investigate and, when necessary, prosecute reports of abuse. Members of the agencies form a Child Protective Investigative Team (CPIT), which is provided for under the state child abuse laws, in each district, explained Russell Johnson, District Attorney General for the 9th Judicial District. 

"We have experienced an increase in our prosecution rates due to the alleged offender's own admittance of his/her guilt and the diligent investigative work completed by our Child Protective Investigative Team members (Department of Children's Services, law enforcement and the district attorney's office of the 9th Judicial District), said Chris Evans-Longmire, executive director of Kids First Child Advocacy Center (CAC). 

The CAC provides a child-friendly facility in which law enforcement, the DA's office, DCS and other CPIT team members can observe the forensic interview of a child by monitoring it from another room - making the experience less threatening to the child. 

The CPIT team meets each month to review all child abuse cases, Johnson said. 

"They review complaints of abuse and categorize them as follows: AUPU-allegations unfounded, perpetrator unfounded; AIPU-allegations indicated, perpetrator unfounded; AIPK-allegations indicated, perpetrator unknown; AISR-allegations indicated, sexually reactive child; AIPI-allegations indicated, perpetrator indicated, UABC-unable to complete."

He noted only cases the team classifies as AIPI are for prosecution.

"Generally speaking, the case has to have gone through the statutorily mandated CPIT process and been referred for prosecution," he said. "This assures us that our team that includes potential witnesses (investigators, forensic interviewers, caseworkers) has decided that the allegation is credible, is supported by any available evidence, corroborated by witness statements and that the perpetrator is readily identifiable," he said. 

"Unfortunately, in almost all of these cases (especially child sex abuse cases) there is hardly ever an eyewitness to the encounter who is neither the victim nor the perpetrator," Johnson said.

"Therefore, we need the victim to be mentally tough enough to recount his or her story on the witness stand in front of a jury and the perpetrator and to be able to withstand a vigorous cross-examination," Johnson said.

Punishments are different per case for a person prosecuted and found guilty of abuse, the district attorney general said. 

"The punishment varies from an A felony for child rape downward to an E felony for crimes, such as statutory rape and sexual battery," he explained.

"Most, but not all, sex crimes require some period of registration on the sexual offender registry," Johnson said. "The more serious crimes require at least 85 percent service of the sentence. The less serious (depending on a defendant's prior criminal history) only require 30 percent service.

Under Tennessee's more lenient sentencing laws, some crimes in the lower felony level, such as D and E felonies, may have the defendant serving the sentence on probation only, he said. Defendants with no prior criminal history are often eligible for a diversion (dismissal of their conviction) on lower-level felonies after they have served their sentence and paid all fines and court costs.

Among the members of he CPIT team are Patti Murphy, the lead child abuse investigator at the general sessions court level and former DCS attorney, and Frank Harvey, a 25-year veteran of the DAG's office. Johnson said Harvey handles most of these cases at the criminal court level. 

"The Department of Children's Services now requires that all reports of child abuse go through a process in Nashville, where the complaint is evaluated similar to a triage assessment at a hospital emergency room," Johnson said. "So even if you complain to a local DCS office or law enforcement officer, they still have to refer to Nashville first before a DCS caseworker becomes involved.

"However, if it is a situation of immediate abuse, such as a rape or serious physical abuse that has just occurred, certainly you should call 911 or the local law enforcement," he said.

According to Child Protective Services, when a person calls its hotline all the calls come into that central intake office.

"You have trained folks who guide the caller through a series of questions," explained Rob Johnson, communications director with Tennessee Department of Children Services in Nashville. 

He explained reported cases are categorized according to priority. Cases are listed as P1, the highest priority; P2 or P3.  

"The way Nashville determines the response: If it's something that's there's an injury or something life threatening, then we're going to go on out there. We are going drop our pencil and go," said Charlene Neidig, Child Protective Services team leader in Loudon County. Neidig has been with DCS for nine years. 

Priority 2 gives the team members up to 48 hours to respond, and includes cases where the injuries or risks of injuries are not necessarily life threatening and don't require immediate medical attention, she explained. The third response time, P3, allows three working days.

Rob Johnson said DCS has two approaches to child abuse investigation. 

In a severe abuse situation, he said the classic way of investigating an oppositional - or confrontational - approach is one in which workers come into a home.

"The biggest concern is child safety," Neidig said. 

However, many times there are cases in which the people involved simply need DCS's help, Rob Johnson said. In that case, DCS takes on another tact. 

"Maybe they're not treating their kids the way they should and maybe their kids are not as safe as they could be," he said. In cases like this, instead of the investigative way, DCS can also come in and asses the situation. 

"We come in and try to be helpful and less aggressively confrontational with the family," he said. "You (the parents) are having a hard time knowing how to raise your children. You are having a hard time learning how to discipline or feed them. Maybe there's some things going on with your house with your roof, maybe you need childcare," he said. "There's some things we can help you with to get your kids to a safe situation."

Neidig agreed. "We can cut that risk; and if we can keep those relationships intact with their family and family members, then absolutely we want to do that and offer services. 

"Under that assessment, we call for those child and family team meetings, and that's a really big thing DCS is doing that is working well," she said. "We are calling in the families. We have facilitators and they bring in maybe therapists or the family member, pastors, people from school, people who can support the family. 

"We get the facilitators to come in and tell us what's going on and try to come up with solutions, and the family participates in that process of developing ways that we can build up resources around them and help them so it's not necessary to take the child out of their home," Neidig said.

"Its a common sense way to do it to find a way to involve everybody, particularly a child who comes into custody," Rob Johnson added.

"We do have child and family team meetings on all of our cases," Neidig said. "If they are more serious and we have to intervene immediately, then we will conduct those meetings within 24 to 48 hours and still do this process of trying to help that family; but sometimes if there is imminent threat of harm, we really have to set that meeting at a later date."

An investigation by DCS involves interviews of and observing children and talking to the parents.

"If a parent wasn't the person who supposedly abused the child, then we're going to be talking to that alleged perpetrator," Neidig said. "Sometimes we will do medical exams if those are necessary. 

"We'll do home visits," she said. "We're going to talk to other people who might have witnessed it or who might know how they take care of their children. We are going to do background checks with local law enforcement and some times we will do mental health evaluations only if they are necessary or relevant to the case."

DCS also looks at the injuries, interview parents and the person alleged to have harmed the child.

"We're going to be looking at everything. We're going to be talking to people who may know the child and try to gather as much information. We may look at psychological reports, medical and dental records, anything that can help us determine whether there's abuse and neglect. The whole goal is to determine what the risk is to the child and what intervention may or may not be needed by DCS," she said.

"If it becomes necessary, we are going to contact the DA or law enforcement in situations," she said. "We're constantly assessing the child's safety because a situation can change from day to day. 

"If it does become necessary then we are going to remove a child from a home and doing everything we can to preserve their relationships with their parents, their grandparents and people they've known to lessen that trauma to the child," Neidig said.

Sometimes the team is just assessing for potential risk in the future.

"When a state does take custody it is overseen by the courts," Rob Johnson said. "The judge is the one who ultimately decides whether a child comes up to state custody. The judge is going to take DCS point of view into account, but it's judge's decision."

As part of the CPIT team, the CAC helps serve children who are victims of abuse and their non-offending families as it helps investigators.

"The CAC's role is to provide a neutral, child-friendly environment in which a child will receive services as related to the alleged abuse," Evans-Longmire said. "We provide the forensic interview in which a trained forensic interviewer meets with the child to gather facts regarding the allegations of child abuse."

The CAC provides services to the non-offending caregivers, court prep to the victim and victim's family; services to the drug-endangered child and his/her family; therapy to the child and the child's family; education to pregnant teens; Stop Child Abuse and Neglect, the program's school-based curriculum, which is both an intervention and prevention tool; resource libraries to the schools, which are made possible by the United Way of Loudon County and the United Way of Roane County; community education and support groups for the adult survivor of child abuse - all of which are free of charge to the victim.

"We are a member of the Child Protective Investigative Team, which is a multi-disciplinary group of professionals responsible for providing services to the victim and the victim's family, as well as investigating the allegations of child abuse and working with the District Attorney to determine the next step in the judiciary process," Evans-Longmire said.

The CAC is funded primarily through state, federal and local grants. Also, Evans-Longmire said CAC receives a smaller portion of its funding from donations and fund-raising.

To become a team leader, Neidig was required to complete a minimum of 40 hours training. 

"DCS is really good about keeping us trained," Neidig said. "We go to with CAC and do training with law enforcement about severe abuse cases and how to testify in court and how prosecution works. "

"They (CAC) have helped to train our staff," Neidig said. "We work really well. They provide services to families: counseling, parenting classes and non-offender parenting classes."

"Our office has a good working relationship with the CAC, DCS and law enforcement," District Attorney General Russell Johnson said. "We all have representatives on the CPIT and maintain a good communication outside of the CPIT meetings. 

"Each of us plays an important role in the process," Russell Johnson said.