34 U.S.C. § 20301 — Findings

Congress made nine findings: (1) more than 3,400,000 reports of suspected child abuse and neglect happen every year; (2) investigating and prosecuting child abuse cases is very complicated, involving many agencies and staff; (3) a child victim's healing depends partly on having supportive, healthy families and communities; (4) different community agencies and professionals traditionally play separate roles in preventing, investigating, and responding to abuse; (5) in these cases, the system too often does not pay enough attention to the child victim's needs and welfare, adding to the child's trauma; (6) there is a national need for better coordination among the agencies and professionals who respond to abuse; (7) multidisciplinary child abuse investigation and prosecution programs have grown reporting of abuse, reduced trauma to child victims, improved outcomes, and increased successful prosecutions; (8) with focused federal help, these programs have proven effective and expanded a great deal across the country; and (9) State chapters of children's advocacy center networks are needed to help local communities coordinate their multidisciplinary abuse response, and to oversee, train, and support the effective delivery of evidence-informed programs and center operations.