Info & Resources - Briefings
The Need to Reform the Child Protection System
Anyone who has been involved with child protection agencies in the aftermath of damaging investigations resulting from unfounded historic or contemporaneous child abuse allegations, will know the extent to which the system is unaccountable and impenetrable. Far from protecting the innocent, the child protection system, as it stands, colludes in false allegations and facilitates life-destroying outcomes. It needs root and branch reform.
Recent research by Prosser and Lewis showed the major faults in child abuse investigations to be;
- A perception by social workers that abuse had occurred and the accused was guilty from the beginning of the investigation
- investigators only sought confirmatory evidence of their assumptions and disregarded evidence which would cast doubt on the allegations
- Investigators focusing on a single piece of evidence and ignoring contrasting sets of evidence;
- poor recording of evidence
- inappropriate interpretations by investigators of statements or actions
- idiosyncratic behaviour and interpretation of policies by investigators
- confusion over what constitutes a medical indicator of abuse and "natural" conditions
- the high status of doctors having substantial influence over other investigators; and
- experts deviating from their areas of expertise.
They identified three areas of particular concern;
- an imbalance of power within the investigating agencies;
- an abandonment of professional codes of conduct and practice by some investigators; and
- failure of the system to adequately acknowledge or compensate the wrongly accused family for the suffering caused.
Reforming the Child Protection System
Inquisitorial.
Child Protection investigations and civil proceedings should be inquisitorial and not adversarial. The adversarial system puts the parents and family in an accused role and in conflict with the system, when all parties should be working together in a spirit of cooperation as far as is possible.
New Theories of Child Abuse.
Serious harm is caused to innocent people by allegations of abuse based on unproven theories such as the Anal Dilatation Test, Repressed Memory Syndrome, Satanic Ritual Abuse and Munchausen Syndrome By Proxy and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
There should be an independent national body with the responsibility to thoroughly research any new theory which may be proposed and to verify and validate such theories before they are introduced into child protection processes.
Destruction of Records
In situations where no substantive evidence is found after investigation of an allegation of child abuse, the accused should be provided with a documentary statement stating that there is ‘No Foundation’ to the allegation. The accused should then have the right to have all records regarding the event destroyed;
Improved Training
There needs to be an intensive form of training introduced to train child abuse investigators in investigatory skills and in particular, to ensure that child abuse investigations are approached in an objective, impartial, and even-handed manner
False Allegations – A Criminal and Civil Offence.
It should be made a criminal offence to make a false accusation of child abuse and there should also be the right of individuals to take action in civil courts for damages where such false accusations have caused them harm.
Note: This item is based on a paper given by Charles Pragnel here