Quick Reference to Child and Adolescent Forensics A Guide for Nurses and Other Health Care Professionals

Quick Reference to Child and Adolescent Forensics most assuredly needs to have a prominent place in the library of any forensic nurse or health professional and have very worn pages from its frequent use."

--On the Edge, Newsletter of the International Association of Forensic Nurses

Muscari and Brown have written a great reference work for anyone who works with either child or teen victims or perpetrators of violent crime...Highly recommended."

--Choice

This is a comprehensive guide to all forensic aspects of the treatment of children and teens, important to all health care providers who will encounter young patients...Highly recommended."

--Choice

Drs. Muscari and Brown have synthesized the key information on forensics pediatrics and produced a 'must read' text that needs to be on every person's bookshelf.

--Ann Wolbert Burgess, DNSc, APRN, BC
Professor of Psychiatric Nursing, Boston College

Health care practitioners frequently work with victims of child abuse, sexual assault, and juvenile offenders, but often lack the education and resources they need to deal with the everyday forensic issues of pediatric practice. This quick guide provides current information that assists pediatric practitioners with the prevention, identification, and management of pediatric victims and offenders.

The book describes the general principles of forensics and its implications in pediatric practice, including the cycle, continuum, and cultural aspects of violence. It also serves as a guide to conducting the forensic assessment and recording the legal documentation, collecting evidence, navigating the criminal and family justice systems, and producing expert witness testimony. The authors clearly define the role of the pediatric provider working with children who witness violence at home, in the community, and in the media.

Key topics:

• How to detect abusive parents as well as abused children
• The effects of victimization of children by abusive, absent, or incarcerated parents
• Delinquency and juvenile justice systems-with insight into bullying, school violence, arson, gang membership, juvenile sex offending, and dating violence
• Unnatural pediatric deaths, such as sudden unexpected infant and child death, accidents, homicides, and suicides

Practicing emergency room nurses, pediatric critical care nurses, nurse practitioners, and student practitioners will find this book to be an essential reference guide for managing and understanding pediatric forensics.

Mary Muscari, PhD, MSCr, CPNP, PMHCNS-BC, AFN-BC, is a pediatric nurse practitioner (NP), psychiatric clinical specialist, forensic nursing clinical specialist, and a criminologist, who combines her unique educational background with over 40 years of experience working with a wide variety of children and adolescents.

Kathleen M. Brown, PhD, APRN-BC,is Assistant Professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing as well as a practicing Women's Health NP and a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner for the Northampton County, PA, Sexual Assault Response Team.