When the Empirical Base Crumbles: The Myth That Open Dependency Proceedings Do Not Psychologically Damage Abused Children‪.‬

I. INTRODUCTION In two previous articles, I chronicled the vast pediatric-psychiatric empirical evidence regarding the fragile psychological state of abused and/or neglected children and the evidence that forcing abused children to testify before the press and strangers in open dependency court proceedings exacerbates their psychopathology, thereby making therapeutic assistance more difficult and time consuming. (1) Those articles provided dozens of examples of media stories regarding abused children that included identifying data, such as the child's name, address, relatives, and school. (2) Pediatric-psychiatric literature clearly states that such public exposure of child abuse victims could cause them incalculable additional emotional trauma. (3)