Canine Companions help the Interview Process with Child Crime Victims

​Any crime involving a victim is never easy especially if that victim is a child. In San Bernardino, California, DA offices have employed a special victim’s canine unit to help venerable children open up and tell their stories.  

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These “super dogs” job is to help crime victims through the investigation process by providing comfort and reducing anxiety to those being questioned. Child Advocate, Yescia Cioli, believes it assists children in overcoming their ordeal, “Whenever a victim gives their testimony, they feel empowered. So I think the girls getting up there, and telling their story, and telling what happened is the first step in them being able to overcome the situation and become survivors.”
Jill Felice, the founder of Assistance Dogs of the West, explains why the dogs offer an exceptional coping mechanism, “Dogs actually help us release oxytocin, which is the calming hormone and the bonding hormone, and when you are able to have that hormone going through your body, as opposed to the stress hormone, cortisol, it’s much easier to tell your story.”

 
Click here to read the full story on PBS News Hour
Learn more at http://www.courthousedogs.com/
(Photo: www.courthousedogs.org)

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