The Impact of Child Advocacy Centers in South Dakota
Abstract
A thesis presented on the impact of Child Advocacy Centers in South Dakota, beginning with the history of child advocacy centers, and covering the definition, accreditation, funding, controversy, and outcomes of child advocacy centers in the state of South Dakota. This paper will analyze statistics from child advocacy centers in South Dakota to determine if there is a noticeable correlation between the establishment of child advocacy centers and the number of prosecutions of sexual offenders. This will be done by examining the rates of prosecutions at three child advocacy centers in South Dakota. The conclusion was that the number of successful prosecutions with crimes dealing with sexual assault have increased since the creation of child advocacy centers in South Dakota.