Working Together to "See" the Child: Multidisciplinary Responses to Sociopathic Deception in Child Protection Home Visits

Objectives In the current vein of interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary collaboration to address and/or prevent child maltreatment, perhaps the least studied and understood phenomenon is that of caregivers who engage in... [ view full abstract ]

Objectives
In the current vein of interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary collaboration to address and/or prevent child maltreatment, perhaps the least studied and understood phenomenon is that of caregivers who engage in Sociopathic Deception. The term Sociopathic Deception removes the label of caregiver-as-sociopath and instead places the focus on this underlying behavior as a nexus of child fatalities and as a unit of analysis and assessment.

This pilot study continues the theme On crossing Sacred and Profane Boundaries in Time-space and Place, and observes the fatalities of Victoria Climbié, Peter Connelly, Eli Creekmore, and Gabriel Fernandez. Each had in common caregivers who utilized sociopathic deception to manipulate their presentation of self to Law Enforcement, Medical Professionals, and Child Protection Practitioners. In each case, sociopathic deception further transgressed and encumbered the liminal space by creating distractions and detachment—i.e. fear, disgust, and discomfort—between the practitioners and child engagement. This phenomenon, that appears to occlude certain signs and presentations of child abuse and hinder multidisciplinary practitioner action, shall hereafter be called “invisible child syndrome.”

Method
Utilizing the Time-Space Intelligent Assessment System for Child Protective Services, this pilot study adds Ethnographic Content Analysis by observing available court documents, articles, and official records. The objective of the analysis is to determine if and/or when a kairotic moment in the form of meta-theory emerged as a result of inter-agency collaboration, and to learn from the records how the caregiver(s) attempted to propagate invisible child syndrome among practitioners.

Results
As research is ongoing, this presentation will discuss current findings. In the advent of interagency/multidisciplinary collaboration with families, this is the opportunity to bring to light evidence of sociopathic deception types among caregivers, and the types of invisible child syndrome among practitioners from the aforementioned accounts.

Conclusions
Final results will be presented in a subsequent venue at a later date.