FBI official says victim specialists are crucial to child-abuse investigations

An FBI official told a meeting that victim specialists and child forensic interviewers are essential to investigations of crimes against children, saying "so we could not do these cases without our child forensic interviewers."

The official said the victim specialist role in the FBI has "grown exponentially" since their "days in the Bureau after 9/11," describing the program as professionalized and focused on the victim component of cases. The official said that growth reflects a need to manage many victims across multiple, lengthy investigations.

Why it matters: In violent-child-crime and sex-trafficking cases, interviews with young victims must be done forensically to support prosecution. The official stressed that many agents are not trained forensic interviewers and that dedicated child forensic interviewers and victim specialists provide that expertise and continuity.

The speaker said victim specialists now operate alongside investigative teams across divisions, noting each division "has numerous victim specialists, which we need because we have so many victims in cases." They added that the victim relationship is "paramount to the success of the case," and that cases "sometimes take months, if not years, to be fully adjudicated."

The official described how victim specialists are integrated into the bureau's operations: "The victim specialist is kept up-to-speed on all of our cases as part of Operation Pursuit. When needed, they accompany us on victim interviews." They also said victim specialists coordinate with the child forensic interviewers "in coordinating those interviews and guiding the family," and that specialists "go over with the families and the victim the next steps in the case and keeps them updated as the case moves forward."

The transcript did not record any formal votes or policy decisions tied to these remarks.