Session Content Details

In this powerful keynote address, Jenna Quinn, a survivor of child sexual abuse, shares her transformative journey from a place of deep pain to a life of purpose and strength. Jenna courageously recounts her personal experiences, detailing the challenges she faced and the emotional toll of victimization. Through Jenna’s story she highlights the critical importance of honesty and acknowledging the impact of trauma in the life of the survivor and the community. A key message of Jenna’s personal story is the importance of healing, hope, and advocacy. Jenna shares that despite the darkness of life’s experiences, each person has the capacity to be brave, to love deeply, and to act courageously.

This session provides a rich description of the prevalence, characteristics, and challenges of domestic minor familial sex trafficking. The data was derived from a national survey and in-depth interviews of justice professionals representing over 3,500 cases of child exploitation across 24 states during the period of 2018-2021. Major findings call for increased training of frontline professionals and modified tools to improve victim identification, and a better understanding of the unique relational dynamics between the child victim and related perpetrator that can corrupt the justice process and challenge our assumptions about the efficacy of family reunification in cases of familial exploitation.

Learn about hope, healing, and the power of prevention through research findings and a very personal survivor story that serves as a true testament to the power of MDT collaboration, advocacy, and legislative action. As a survivor who benefited from the services of an Advocacy Center, Jenna depicts how the field of child & youth protection saved her life. State laws, such as Jenna’s Law, were enacted to raise awareness, and foster dialogue about the importance of prevention education, intervention, accountability, and reporting of sexual abuse. In many cases of sexual abuse, the perpetrator strategically grooms the victim and those around the victim. Participants will learn about the stages of grooming, delayed disclosure, and how prevention policies such as Jenna’s Law result in a safer, compassionate, and more just society.

This session examines the complex dynamics of recantation and false reporting in cases of sexual violence. Participants will explore the reasons behind recantations, including social pressures, psychological factors, and legal implications. The course will also analyze the impact of recantations on legal proceedings, victim support, and public perception. In contrast, false reporting will be examined addressing its prevalence, motivations, and consequences. Through critical analysis and discussion, Participants will gain insights into the ethical, legal, and social challenges surrounding these issues, fostering a nuanced understanding essential for professionals in the criminal justice system.

In the 1910's the Multidisciplinary Team approach was developed by the Mayo Clinic to lay out how their organization would deliver patient care.  This was adapted into child abuse investigations in the mid 1980's.  These approaches have a proven history of success, as the implementation brings together every discipline needed to combat a given problem, and find a solution.  Human Trafficking is a complex problem, with many different disciplines remaining siloed in their approach to a solution.  History has shown us that this is ineffective, and requires change. In this presentation we will talk about the various disciplines needed to combat human trafficking, what their role is, and how to effectively communicate those roles.

Strangulation is one the most lethal forms of domestic violence or intimate partner violence (IPV) today. Strangulation often mischaracterized as "choking" is viewed by professionals as one step away from homicide and has reported that a suspect who strangles a victim is 750% more likely to kill that victim later on. What this module of instruction is focused on is first defining what strangulation is according to the Texas Penal Code, identifying the signs and symptoms associated with strangulation, what experts are missing when interviewing or interacting with a victim of strangulation, understanding why details matter, in strangulation cases, and how to properly document using a risk assessment type of tool during a strangulation investigation for first responders, advocates, and prosecutors.

A course designed specifically for law enforcement officers and other first responder professionals to understand the impacts of trauma. From varying behaviors to memory recall, this course aims to equip service professionals with the knowledge to recognize trauma responses, understand their underlying mechanisms, and apply this understanding to improve interactions with victims and witnesses of crime, strengthening the investigative and healing processes.