[The contribution of legal medicine in child protection: Presentation of a multidisciplinary approach].

INTRODUCTION: Maltreatment is a complex issue and therefore, requires a multidisciplinary approach, which has been commonly used in North America since the 1980s but remains unsystematic in France. Since 1999, the Centre d'Accueil en Urgence des Victimes d'Agression (emergency unit for victims of assault) of the Bordeaux University Hospital has brought together various medical, paramedical, and social actors on this issue. A standardized psychosocial assessment procedure has been introduced and is detailed in this paper, and was consistently conducted in all cases of suspicion of abuse on a minor.

METHOD: The authors studied 74 cases of minors having undergone a psychosocial assessment following suspicions of maltreatment between 1 July 2014 and 30 June 2015 that were not referred to the courts.

RESULTS: Forty-five girls and 29 boys, mean age 7 years, claiming mainly (75 %) to have been subjected to sexual violence, were addressed to us by internal partners (n=15) and external partners (n=37) and 22 who came to our unit by self-referral. Following our assessment, 35 returned to their home and 36 went to court following a police complaint (n=17) and a report filed to the public prosecutor of the Republic (n=19). Three of these cases were subjected to a report on matters of concern sent to the departmental council.

CONCLUSION: Given the absence of a national consensus on the methodology used for assessing suspicions of maltreatment on minors, our psychosocial assessment can facilitate the task with its peer review as well as the detection and judicialization of the maltreatment. The authors also highlight the recent modification of article 226-14 of the Penal Code, which aims at protecting professionals reporting matters to legal authorities from any legal proceeding, except if it is established that the individual did not act in good faith.