Assembly within the statement and investigators room on the North Star Baby Advocacy Middle are Detective Nathan Forshey of the Wooden County Sheriff’s Workplace, Abby Pifer and Julie Nutter of North Star, Kim White of the Division of Well being and Human Sources and Alexa Barker of North Star. The middle reported a slight drop in forensic interviews for the primary half of the 12 months in comparison with 2023. (Picture offered)
Recreating an interview on the North Star Baby Advocacy Middle are, from left, Candice Gabriel of North Star and baby actor Jake Johnson. (Picture offered)
Assembly within the statement and investigators room on the North Star Baby Advocacy Middle are Detective Nathan Forshey of the Wooden County Sheriff’s Workplace, Abby Pifer and Julie Nutter of North Star, Kim White of the Division of Well being and Human Sources and Alexa Barker of North Star. The middle reported a slight drop in forensic interviews for the primary half of the 12 months in comparison with 2023. (Picture offered)
PARKERSBURG — The North Star Baby Advocacy Middle, among the many busiest in West Virginia, has carried out 38 fewer forensic interviews for the primary half of 2024 than within the first half of 2023, the manager director mentioned.
With Ritchie, Pleasants, Wirt and Calhoun counties showing to be comparatively the identical as final 12 months, Wooden County has carried out 215 interviews this 12 months in comparison with 255 by this time in 2023, Govt Director Greg Collins mentioned.
The discount is affected by quite a few issues, he mentioned.
“Holding in thoughts we solely do interviews for legislation enforcement or Baby Protecting Companies, the variety of interviews coming by our doorways is set by the variety of investigations which can be initiated by legislation enforcement or the variety of referrals that CPS receives,” Collins mentioned. “I’d actually wish to suppose there was a discount in baby abuse in our 5 counties.”
Baby Protecting Companies in Wooden County are down 16 and legislation enforcements are down six, Collins mentioned.
Recreating an interview on the North Star Baby Advocacy Middle are, from left, Candice Gabriel of North Star and baby actor Jake Johnson. (Picture offered)
“We’re positively doing a superb job within the prosecutors’ area getting extra instances plead or put in entrance of a jury,” he mentioned. “We’re additionally seeing slight will increase in interviews this 12 months in a few of our outlying counties, Calhoun and Ritchie particularly.”
The rise and fall in baby abuse numbers is difficult to evaluate, Collins mentioned.
“Is it as a result of baby abuse has really declined? Is it as a result of manpower has been a problem for the previous few years for each legislation enforcement and CPS? Is it as a result of the psychological well being of anybody investigating these instances takes a beating?” he mentioned.
“On the finish of the day, who actually is aware of?” Collins mentioned.
“While you’re on this work, you hope the numbers decline as a result of there are fewer baby abuse incidents and you’re doing a superb job on all fronts to make this occur.”
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