Child Advocacy Center

The Child Advocacy Center is responsible for investigating and prosecuting cases involving interfamily and caretaker sexual abuse, cases involving severe physical abuse of children and other cases involving child sensitive circumstances. 

The Child Advocacy Center operates on a team approach with investigators from the Peoria Police  Department, DCFS, prosecutors from the State's Attorney's Office and a case coordinator who acts as a victim/witness advocate.

Child advocacy cases are heard in juvenile court in both abuse and neglect and delinquency proceedings and in adult criminal proceedings. The objective of the Child Advocacy Center is to provide a single set of persons to handle a case from start to finish.  This avoids the need for a child to endlessly repeat the telling of the event and allows for each involved agency (police, prosecutor, DCFS) to proceed through the case together rather than commence separate investigations and reviews of traumatic events involving children.