Summary: April is Child Abuse Awareness Month. Police are among the people who are “mandatory reporters” of suspected abuse or neglect. Abuse can take many forms — from physical harm to emotional damage. One relatively unknown form of child abuse is Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) — the practice of the removal of a female’s clitoris and labia. Women in places like Dijibouti, Egypt, Guinea, Mali, Northern Sudan, Sierra Leone, and Somalia have undergone this brutal “procedure.” Astonishingly, this brutal form of child abuse is becoming prevalent in the United States. In this podcast segment, Jim and Doug discuss how police should respond to reports of FGM.
