Working for the children

Last month my office held the third annual Southwest Crimes Against Children Conference in Bernalillo at the Santa Ana Star Casino and Hotel.

When I was elected to the position of district attorney, creating a conference such as this was one of my goals and key initiatives. A major portion of my career as a lawyer has been specializing in crimes against children.

Throughout these years, I have seen the many ways in which the process of the criminal justice system re-victimizes the children and their families. I saw the creation of the conference as one way to minimize the added trauma of the court system.

About 300 people came together at the conference from across the state of New Mexico (a state with some of the highest rates of child abuse in the nation) from law enforcement, various aspects of victim advocacy, prosecutors, forensic interviewers and organizations, such as the New Mexico Coalition Against Domestic Violence, the New Mexico Crime Victim Reparation Commission, the Trauma Treatment Center, New Mexico Child First Network and representatives from the New Mexico Children Youth and Families Department.

The point of bringing all of these people together is to create opportunities for learning new skills, for example in interviewing both victims and suspects, to collaborate on cases from investigation to prosecution with the intention of achieving better outcomes, and to improve understanding and awareness in the handling of criminal child abuse cases all with the intention of reducing the additional trauma of a court case on an already traumatized child and to achieve better outcomes.

The conference began with a general session in which all of the attendees had the opportunity to hear the story from a young woman who as a child sexual assault survivor, had to endure the judicial process, which involved numerous case continuances, having to recount her story over and over in multiple pre-trial interviews, being cross-examined multiple times and being made to feel she wasn’t being believed, and going through one criminal trial, which resulted in a hung jury.

The second trial meant that she had to go through everything and relive the trauma all over again. Though the perpetrator was ultimately found guilty and sentenced to many years in prison, there were many times when the young woman and her family questioned whether the emotional costs of the process were worth it.

Through telling her story, everybody in the room got a renewed understanding of the ways in which they might work together to mitigate the re-traumatization of child victims. To further this understanding the keynote was followed by a multi-disciplinary team panel comprised of a prosecutor, a victim advocate, a forensic interviewer and investigator and a director from CYFD, to discuss protocols and how each of them can meet the requirements of their specific positions while collaborating with the other stakeholders in ways to achieve the best outcomes in a case while at the same time working to support the victims and their families in the best way possible.

The next two days included sessions including case studies in which prosecutors shared the process of complicated cases, how they approached the cases, pitfalls, problems and successes. These sessions were so popular that people were overflowing into the hallway.

Additional sessions included legal updates, evidence-based domestic violence prosecution, working with child victims of crime and tools for managing the hidden impacts of secondary trauma. A couple of notable sessions included a National Child Welfare Youth and Tribal Advocate addressing the ways in which cultural differences need be understood and addressed.

Additionally, an expert in the ways in which artificial intelligence has introduced a new frontier in the fight against child sexual abuse material and the legal and investigative challenges posed by AI-generated and digitally-manipulated material.

Each year, the conference has grown in attendance and reputation, which gives me a great deal of satisfaction. We could not put on this conference without the generosity of all our presenters who donate their time, wisdom, and expertise because of their dedication to keeping children safe and protected.

We also continue to receive financial support from community partners without whom the conference would not be possible.

In closing, I want to acknowledge one of our heroes, Dr. Karen T Campbell, MD – a forensic pediatrician who passed away earlier this year. Dr. Campbell was a fierce and resolute advocate for children’s health and safety, working tirelessly to make a difference in their lives for her entire career.

The Southwest Crimes Against Children Conference was a beneficiary of her generosity and wisdom for the first two years of its existence and would have been with us this year had she not been ill. She left a lasting impact, and we remain committed to continuing the work in her honor.

(Barbara Romo is district attorney for the 13th Judicial District, which includes Valencia, Sandoval and Cibola counties.)