Child Advocacy Center intervention with sibling sexual abuse cases: Cross-cultural comparison of professionals’ perspectives and experiences

BackgroundDespite being a complex phenomenon with potentially significant short- and long-term consequences for all involved including siblings, parents and the family as a whole, sibling sexual abuse (SSA) has not received sufficient empirical and clinical attention. Practitioners are often left to cope without appropriate guidance.ObjectiveThis study aimed to compare staff perspectives and experiences of working with sibling sexual abuse cases across two Child Advocacy Centers (CACs) within different countries and different cultural and legal contexts.Participants and settingParticipants were staff members from two Child Advocacy Centers: one in Jerusalem, Israel, and the other in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States of America.MethodsThis qualitative cross-cultural comparative study analyzes staff experiences of sibling sexual abuse cases based upon 14 focus groups, in Jerusalem (N = 7) and Montgomery County (N = 7).ResultsFindings reveal that both CACs focused on parents, the parents’ negative emotional responses to SSA, and the impossible nature of their predicament. The Montgomery County CAC tended to emphasize the needs of the victim while being attuned to the legal proceedings, whereas the Jerusalem CAC emphasized supportive therapeutic responses for the whole family.ConclusionsThe differences across the two Child Advocacy Centers are related to the different legal and cultural contexts of the two CACs and underscore the need to review what may be the most appropriate policy and practice response to SSA that does not itself cause further harm

Types of Administrative Burden Reduction Strategies: Who, What and How

This article contributes to the growing body of research on administrative burdens by providing a theoretically- and empirically-driven typology of governments’ burden reduction strategies. Despite the mounting interest in burden reduction, the literature still lacks a typology for systematically identifying and classifying such strategies. The article identifies three analytical dimensions of burden reduction: distributive (who bears the burden), intensiveness (what the level of burden is), and relational (how burden is experienced in bureaucratic encounters). Based on these dimensions, and drawing on a systematic analysis of the case of social security in Israel, we identify, define and characterize seven distinct strategies of burden reduction: shifting, sharing, discarding, simplifying, expediting, communicating, and respecting. The article concludes with a discussion of these strategies, their applicability, practical implications, and directions for the research agenda on burden reduction. Keywords: administrative burden, administrative burden reduction, social security, bureaucratic encounters, Take-up, Israe