REMARKS OF DISTRICT ATTORNEY DANIEL F. CONLEY 15th National COnference on Child Abuse and Neglect April 21, 2005 Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. On behalf of the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office, welcome to Boston, and thank you for taking part in this year's National Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect. Before this morning's speakers take the podium, I'd like to express my deep gratitude to the national sponsors of this year's conference, the Children's Bureau and its Office on Child Abuse and Neglect, for their unflagging dedication to the protection of children. I'd also like to thank the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children and our own Children's Advocacy Center - just two of more than forty other children's health and welfare agencies that have so generously lent their assistance, their staff, and their resources as local co-sponsors. And finally, I'd like to thank the panelists from our Suffolk County Family Justice Center for their tireless work on the project you're here to learn about. Each of them - and each one of us here today - knows of our shared responsibility to children and embraces it, and I am proud to stand beside you as we work together to meet it. If there is one lesson we've learned in our years of investigating and prosecuting child abuse and related crimes, it's that no single agency can address the problem alone - not the police, not prosecutors, not doctors or social workers or mental health professionals. We all know that the effects of abuse on a child last long after the bruises heal or the breaks mend. Abuse - whether it's physical, emotional, or sexual - has repercussions that can last a lifetime. Responding to it and preventing it is a multi-faceted problem that requires a multi-disciplinary approach, and that's the idea upon which the Children's Advocacy Center was founded. Thanks to the great people who work here, we have a number of innovative programs underway. Two years ago, we consolidated our Child Abuse, Domestic Violence, and Sexual Assault units into a single Family Protection and Sexual Assault Unit. We did so because we recognize that many instances of abuse in intimate and familial relationships do not occur in a vacuum. We recognize that there are many points where the spheres of victimization overlap: often when a victim in an abusive relationship needs help, there are other issues somewhere in that person's life, or in the lives of people close to that victim, that need to be addressed. If a woman is being abused by her husband or boyfriend, we need to determine if her children are being abused, neglected, or harmed in any way. We need to integrate our approach to protect her both as an individual and as a mother, but as we do so we must be mindful of the rights and safety of her children, and make sure we act in the children's best interests as well. If a child is sexually abused by a family member, we need to determine if there is anyone else that the abuser is victimizing. If a woman is raped, we need to ensure that she has the services she needs to continue caring for her children as she herself recovers physically and emotionally. The same theme - a coordinated response - is behind our work to establish the first-ever Family Justice Center here in Suffolk County. At its core, the Family Justice Center is driven by the same idea that drives all of you who commit your lives to this important work: the idea that a home should be a safe, happy place for children and families. Right now, despite our best efforts, the system often forces victims to tell their stories over and over and go from place to place in search of needed services. Victims often get worn down, they give up, and the offender escapes accountability. The goal of the Family Justice Center is to ensure that every mother, every child, every survivor and every family in crisis has a safe place to go, where they will be given the most compassionate, competent, and complete service possible. Victims and families in crisis will find under one roof police and prosecutors, forensic medical services, clinicians, school assignment personnel, indoor play space for children, a dining room, counseling, and an array of state and local services. We're also taking a new approach at looking at teenage prostitutes. I'm proud to say that the district attorney's office is a lead partner in a new initiative that seeks to understand why teenagers fall into lives of prostitution, and how we can best help them escape that life. One major focus of this effort is to view teenage prostitutes as victims rather than defendants, and while the program is still in a very early stage, we are learning a lot about the lives of these young women, and how we can best get them out of those lives into healthier, safer environments. Thanks to this partnership, we now - when a case of a teenage prostitute is referred to us, either through DYS or the police department or some other source - have a better idea of what needs to be done to ensure that the child is getting the services she needs. Rather than prosecute her, we and our partners make sure she has safe and suitable housing, that she is enrolled in some sort of educational program, that any mental or physical health issues she may have are being addressed. Our goal, as it is with any other victim, is to protect her and put her on a safe and healthy track. In closing, let me say we are proud, in all the work we do. We are proud of our efforts in the cases we handle every day, in the work of our Children's Advocacy Center, in the work in progress of our Family Justice Center and Teen Prostitution Prevention Project. The work ennobles us. We are never as tall as when we stoop, all of you and us here, to help a child. I think it was Emerson who said: "To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded." Well, how many children are healthy because of your work? How many lives have breathed easier? More, I dare say, than we could list if this conference met for a thousand days. To say thank you hardly seems enough, though it will have to do - that, and my unyielding support and the support of the Suffolk District Attorney's Office for the momentous and important work that you do.