David Corwin

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David L. Corwin is a board-certified psychiatrist, child and adolescent psychiatrist, and forensic psychiatrist. [1] Corwin has done extensive work into the long-term impact of child violence and abuse on health, and has promoted family support and treatment programs. [2] Corwin has worked as a consultant, a lecturer, a trainer, and an evaluator of suspected or known child sexual abuse cases throughout many countries, as well as serving as an expert witness of child sexual abuse cases. [1] [2] Corwin has founded, directed or chaired groups that serve to advance prevention and protection against child violence and abuse, as well as furthering the education and research of the impact of child abuse. [2] [3]

Contents

Biography

Education

Corwin received a B.S degree at the University of Michigan, followed by receiving an M.D. at the Michigan State College of Human Medicine. [2] Corwin completed an internship in psychiatry and internal medicine and then a psychiatry residency at UCLA-VA Medical Center. [2] Corwin completed a fellowship in child psychiatry at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute, and then certificates in executive leadership, advanced training in continuous quality improvement and conflict resolution at the University of Utah and Intermountain Healthcare. [2]

Career

Corwin inspired and chaired the National Summit Conference meeting in Los Angeles in 1985 about how to diagnose child sexual abuse. [3] A consequence of the conference was the formation of the group that founded the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children (APSAC) in 1986 which Corwin chaired and later served as a member of APSAC's BOD. [1] [3] In the same year that he chaired the organizing committee for APSAC, Corwin founded the California Professional Society on the Abuse of Children (CAPSAC). [1] The aim of APSAC is to promote the best possible professional response for children and families at risk of maltreatment [4] APSAC regularly publishes the newsletter APSAC Advisor and the journal Child Maltreatment which inform professionals in a range of disciplines about the latest policies, research findings, and up to date information on child maltreatment. [4] Corwin was awarded Outstanding Service in 1993 and Outstanding Professional of the Year in 2007 by APSAC. [1]

Corwin co-directed the UCLA Family Support Program for treatment of intra-familial child sexual abuse from 1980 to 1982. During his time at UCLA, he initiated and chaired the Los Angeles Task Force on interviewing sexually abused children which was the first to recommend nationally and internationally (Washington D.C. and Paris, 1982) the video recording of investigative and evaluative interviews with children in possible sexual abuse cases. Starting in 1999 he served as Medical Director of Primary Children's Medical Center's Safe and Healthy Families Department and later Chief of the Pediatrics Child Protection Division until August 1, 2012. [3] Corwin has served as an expert witness and evaluated, trained, consulted and lectured on suspected or known cases of child sexual abuse throughout many countries and regions over the last 30 years, including Thailand, Canada, the United States, Europe, Israel, South Korea, and Great Britain. [2] [3]

Corwin served as liaison for the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, [2] from 2001 to 2009 to [1] the AMA's National Advisory Council on Violence and Abuse of which he was its last Steering Committee Chair and oversaw its transformation, [3] into the National Health Collaborative on Violence and Abuse for which he served as the first chair. [1]

Corwin also helped found and serves as president for the Academy on Violence and Abuse from 2013 to 2015, [2] [5] which is an interprofessional international membership society that promotes research and education about the health effects of violence and abuse. [1] Corwin is also a founder of the Helfer Society, [2] which is named after one of his first faculty preceptors at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine, Ray E. Helfer, MD. [3] The Helfer Society is an honorary society for physicians who focus their work on child abuse. [1] Corwin was chosen as a national leading child abuse physician in 2006 and invited to join the Whitworth Seniors Forum, [1] a small group of physician leaders focusing on child abuse policy. The Child Abuse Research Education and Services (CARES) Network is a proposal to establish a nationwide network of consortia of excellence dedicated to training, research and improving the ability of the healthcare system to identify, treat and prevent child abuse. [5] The CARES Network, conceived and promoted by Drs. Randall Alexander, John Stirling and Corwin was endorsed by the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the National Association of Children's Hospitals and Related Institutions but to this dated never funded by Congress.

Corwin currently works as a professor and director of forensic services for the Pediatrics Department at the University of Utah. He has a continuing interest in improving services and awareness about the adverse health impacts of violence and abuse across the lifespan. Corwin also continues to serve as an expert witness, consultant and forensic evaluator. [2] [3] He has produced three DVDs including the 2012 Academy on Violence and Abuse DVD featuring Drs. Felitti, Anda and Putnam. [6]

The Jane Doe case

In 1997 Corwin published an article in the journal Child Maltreatment about "Jane Doe"; a young girl who in 1984 along with her parents were referred to Corwin for a court-appointed forensic evaluation, as mutually agreed by all parties involved in family court litigation regarding custody and visitation, after she disclosed that she had been sexually abused by her mother after the parents separated. [7] Corwin videotaped his interviews with Jane, then five and six years old, the third and last interview of which a verbatim transcript, history, and discussion of the case are documented in the 1997 publication. [7] Corwin had previously concluded that Jane had been sexually abused by her mother, and her father was granted custody rights while the mother eventually lost even the right to visitation. [8] Ten years after the court-appointed and video recorded evaluation, Jane was contacted again by Corwin to reaffirm her assent for his use of the earlier video recorded interview for professional education and she requested to view her forensic evaluation interviews to help her remember what she had told Corwin, since she could not remember the experiences she earlier described. [7] A year later, after her father's death, Corwin met with Jane and videotaped the informed consent with Jane prior to showing her the earlier video recorded interviews. Jane was 17 years old at that time. [7] During the videotaped informed consent, Jane appears to recall the memory of sexual abuse, but also described events for which there was no previous documentation. [7] Five commentaries [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] follow Corwin's 1997 article, [7] which discuss various aspects of the Jane Doe case such as Jane's expressive behaviour during her interviews [9] and implications of the recollection of the abuse that Jane previously hadn't remembered. [10] Although some researchers hailed Jane's recollection as an example of "repressed memory", [12] [13] Elizabeth Loftus was sceptical about the truth surrounding the alleged abuse and investigated Jane Doe's case, concluding that Jane had never been abused by the mother. [14] Jane Doe, who then revealed herself as Nicole Taus, sued Loftus and lengthy litigation took place. [8]

Related Research Articles

Repressed memory is an inability to recall autobiographical information, usually of a traumatic or stressful nature. The concept originated in psychoanalytic theory where repression is defined as a protective mechanism that excludes memory of painful experiences from consciousness. Repressed memory is a controversial concept, particularly in legal contexts where it has been used to impugn individuals unfairly and inaccurately, leading to substantial harm. At the same time, an American Psychological Association working group indicated that while "most people who were sexually abused as children remember all or part of what happened to them, it is possible for memories of abuse that have been forgotten for a long time to be remembered". Although Sigmund Freud later revised his theory, he initially held that memories of childhood sexual trauma were often repressed yet the traumas unconsciously influenced behavior and emotional responding.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Physical abuse</span> Medical condition

Physical abuse is any intentional act causing injury, trauma, bodily harm or other physical suffering to another person or animal by way of bodily contact. In most cases, children are the victims of physical abuse, but adults can also be victims, as in cases of domestic violence or workplace aggression. Alternative terms sometimes used include physical assault or physical violence, and may also include sexual abuse. Physical abuse may involve more than one abuser, and more than one victim.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elizabeth Loftus</span> American cognitive psychologist

Elizabeth F. Loftus is an American psychologist who is best known in relation to the misinformation effect, false memory and criticism of recovered memory therapies.

Elissa Panush Benedek is an American psychiatrist specializing in child and adolescent psychiatry and forensic psychiatry. She is an adjunct clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Michigan Medical Center. She served as director of research and training at the Center for Forensic Psychiatry in Ann Arbor for 25 years and was president of the American Psychiatric Association from 1990 to 1991. She is regarded as an expert on child abuse and trauma, and has testified in high-profile court cases. She also focuses on ethics, psychiatric aspects of disasters and terrorism, and domestic violence. In addition to her own books, book chapters, and articles, she has collaborated with her husband, attorney Richard S. Benedek, on studies of divorce, child custody, and child abuse.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Child abuse</span> Maltreatment or neglect of a child

Child abuse is physical, sexual, and/or psychological maltreatment or neglect of a child or children, especially by a parent or a caregiver. Child abuse may include any act or failure to act by a parent or a caregiver that results in actual or potential harm to a child and can occur in a child's home, or in the organizations, schools, or communities the child interacts with.

<i>The Courage to Heal</i> 1988 book by Ellen Bass and Laura Davis

The Courage to Heal: A Guide for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse is a self-help book by poet Ellen Bass and Laura Davis that focuses on recovery from child sexual abuse and has been called "controversial and polarizing".

Recovered-memory therapy (RMT) is a catch-all term for a controversial and scientifically discredited form of psychotherapy that critics say utilizes one or more unproven therapeutic techniques to purportedly help patients recall previously forgotten memories. Proponents of recovered memory therapy claim, contrary to evidence that traumatic memories can be buried in the subconscious and thereby affect current behavior, and that these memories can be recovered through the use of RMT techniques. RMT is not recommended by mainstream ethical and professional mental health associations.

Dyadic developmental psychotherapy is a psychotherapeutic treatment method for families that have children with symptoms of emotional disorders, including complex trauma and disorders of attachment. It was originally developed by Daniel Hughes as an intervention for children whose emotional distress resulted from earlier separation from familiar caregivers. Hughes cites attachment theory and particularly the work of John Bowlby as theoretical motivations for dyadic developmental psychotherapy.

Sibling abuse includes the physical, psychological, or sexual abuse of one sibling by another. More often than not, the younger sibling is abused by the older sibling, however this is not always the case. Sibling abuse is the most common of family violence in the US, but the least reported. As opposed to sibling rivalry, sibling abuse is characterized by the one-sided treatment of one sibling to another.

Charles H. Zeanah Jr. is a child and adolescent psychiatrist who is a member of the council (Board) of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP).

Victimisation is the process of being victimised or becoming a victim. The field that studies the process, rates, incidence, effects, and prevalence of victimisation is called victimology.

Child sexual abuse (CSA), also called child molestation, is a form of child abuse in which an adult or older adolescent uses a child for sexual stimulation. Forms of child sexual abuse include engaging in sexual activities with a child, indecent exposure, child grooming, and child sexual exploitation, such as using a child to produce child pornography.

Linda Meyer Williams is an American sociologist and criminologist. She is Senior Research Scientist at Wellesley Centers for Women and Director of the Justice and Gender-Based Violence Research Initiative. She is also Professor Emerita of Criminal Justice and Criminology at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, where she teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on child maltreatment, research methods, and gender, race and crime. Williams has researched in the field of psychology on topics including child abuse, family violence and violence against women, and trauma and memory.

The Jane Doe case is an influential childhood sexual abuse and recovered memory case study published by psychiatrist David Corwin and Erna Olafson (1997). The case was important in regards to repressed and recovered traumatic memories because, being a well-documented study, it had the potential to provide evidence for the existence of the phenomena. The case served as an educational example of childhood sexual abuse and recovered traumatic memory until further investigation by Elizabeth Loftus and Melvin J. Guyer revealed serious concerns about its background and validity. The original article appeared in Child Maltreatment in 1997, accompanied by a series of articles by five additional psychologists and memory experts: Paul Ekman, Stephen Lindsay, Ulrich Neisser, Frank W. Putnam, and Jonathan W. Schooler, giving their own comments and interpretations about the case.

Taus v. Loftus, 151 P.3d 1185 was a Supreme Court of California case in which the court held that academic researchers' publication of information relating to a study by another researcher was newsworthy and subject to protection under the state's anti-SLAPP act. The court noted that the defendants had not disclosed the plaintiff's name and that Nicole Taus had disclosed it herself when she filed the case under her own name. The court did find that Taus had alleged a prima facie case that Loftus had misrepresented herself during the investigation and that this one count may proceed to trial.

Barbara L. Bonner is a clinical psychologist and expert on juvenile sex offenders. She is known for her research on the assessment and treatment of abused children, prevention of child fatalities due to neglect, and treatment of children and adolescents with problematic sexual behavior. Bonner is the CMRI/Jean Gumerson Endowed Chair and Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine. She serves as the Director of the Child Abuse and Neglect at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karen Saywitz</span> American psychologist

Karen Jill Saywitz was an American psychologist, author, and educator. She worked as a developmental and clinical psychologist and professor at the UCLA School of Medicine and Department of Psychiatry and Development. For more than 20 years Saywitz taught child development and was director of several mental health programs for families. She also developed "non-leading" techniques for interviewing child witnesses and victims, based on cognitive and developmental psychology principles. She died of cancer in 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apryl A. Alexander</span> American clinical and forensic psychologist (born 1983)

Apryl A. Alexander is an American clinical and forensic psychologist who is an associate professor at the University of Denver. Alexander directs students at the Denver Forensic Institute for Research, Service and Training, and engages in clinical psychology practice. She is co-founder of the University of Denver's Prison Arts Initiative where incarcerated individuals engage in a therapeutic, educational arts curricula.

Margaret-Ellen (Mel) Pipe is a developmental psychologist known for her research on memory development and its application to legal contexts involving eye-witness testimony of children in cases of child abuse. Prior to her retirement, she held the position of Associate Provost for Graduate Studies, Research, and Institutional Effectiveness at the College of Staten Island.

The dynamic-maturational model of attachment and adaptation (DMM) is a biopsychosocial model describing the effect attachment relationships can have on human development and functioning. It is especially focused on the effects of relationships between children and parents and between reproductive couples. It developed initially from attachment theory as developed by John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth, and incorporated many other theories into a comprehensive model of adaptation to life's many dangers. The DMM was initially created by developmental psychologist Patricia McKinsey Crittenden and her colleagues including David DiLalla, Angelika Claussen, Andrea Landini, Steve Farnfield, and Susan Spieker.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "San Diego International Conference".
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 "Find a Physician". University of Utah Health Care.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Corwin, David (January 5, 2012). "Who I am and who's that cute little girl on my arm?" . Retrieved January 9, 2014.
  4. 1 2 "American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children". APSAC publications.
  5. 1 2 "Advancing Health Education and Research". AVA Academy on Violence and Abuse.[ permanent dead link ]
  6. ↑ Krugman, Richard D. (15 August 2012). "The ACE Study". JAMA. 308 (7): 718. doi:10.1001/jama.308.7.718.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Olafson, E.; Corwin, D. L. (1997). "Videotaped discovery of a reportedly unrecallable memory of child sexual abuse: Comparison with a childhood interview videotaped 11 years before". Child Maltreatment . 2 (2): 91–112. doi:10.1177/1077559597002002001. S2CID   143444117.
  8. 1 2 Loftus, E. F.; Guyer, M. J. (2002). "Who abused jane doe? The hazards of the single case history, part one". Skeptical Inquirer.
  9. 1 2 Ekman, P. (1997). "Expressive behaviour and the recovery of a traumatic memory: Comments on the videotapes of jane doe". Child Maltreatment . 2 (2): 91–112. doi:10.1177/1077559597002002002. S2CID   144434188.
  10. 1 2 Neisser, U. (1997). "Jane doe's memories: Changing the past to serve the present". Child Maltreatment . 2 (2): 91–112. doi:10.1177/1077559597002002005. S2CID   144924153.
  11. ↑ Lindsay, D. S. (1997). "Jane doe in context: Sex abuse, lives and videotapes". Child Maltreatment . 2 (3): 91–112. doi:10.1177/1077559597002003001. S2CID   145227558.
  12. 1 2 Putnam, F. W. (1997). "Commentary". Child Maltreatment . 2 (2): 91–112. doi:10.1177/1077559597002002003. S2CID   220341426.
  13. 1 2 Schooler, J. W. (1997). "Reflections on a memory discovery". Child Maltreatment . 2 (2): 91–112. doi:10.1177/1077559597002002006. S2CID   145694407.
  14. ↑ Loftus, E. F.; Guyer, M. J. (2002). "Who abused jane doe? The hazards of the single case history, part two". Skeptical Inquirer.
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