Police strapped in child abuse cases

The constitution gives children rights to protection, but lack of resources and ‘political will’ leaves them vulnerable, writes

THE Constitution confers on children the right to be protected from maltreatment, neglect, abuse or degradation.

However, often those charged with protecting children are the ones who commit heinous crimes against the most vulnerable in society.

According to the Children’s Act, abuse means any form of harm or ill-treatment deliberately inflicted on a child.

Dr Stefanie Röhrs, senior researcher at the Children’s Institute, said the main categories of abuse reported were physical, emotional and sexual, which research had shown were at alarming levels in South Africa.

The definition in the act also includes bullying by another child, labour practices which exploit a child, and exposing or subjecting a child to behaviour that may harm the child psychologically or emotionally.

Röhrs said that on paper, there was sufficient recognition of children’s rights, with South Africa having ratified both the UN Convention and African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child.

However, there were challenges in implementation due to factors including limited resources, lack of political will and corruption. “Another problem is that we live in a patriarchal and violent society. Children have a lower standing in society and are therefore exposed to human rights violations,” said Röhrs.

By the police’s own admission, in the latest annual report, detection of crimes against children were hindered by inadequate case docket administration and use of available investigative aids, such as forensic and fingerprint leads.

Some parents turned to private investigators like Marc Hardwick, founder of The Guardian, specialists in child abuse cases for 20 years. Each year, they investigate between 25 and 50 cases brought mostly by the parents and schools. A major part of their work is interviewing the survivors.

“We have adult victims who come forward because they have finally got to a stage where they can deal with the trauma; that’s how long-term the effect of abuse is.

“With teenagers, the challenge is that they are at a time of their lives when they are extremely embarrassed about things that happen to them. When you interview other witnesses, you realise the child hasn’t told you everything. It sometimes takes time to make them comfortable enough to really open up,” said Hardwick.

With younger children, one of the challenges was that they did not have the vocabulary or maturity to tell an investigator exactly what happened.

“With younger kids, the perpetrator is usually somebody they love and care about, and they’re put in a difficult emotional position,” he said

There were as many boy victims of physical abuse as girls, Hardwick added. This is also the case with sexual assault of children under the age of 10, but for older children, there were more cases involving girls.

Worryingly, more often than not, the perpetrator was someone known to the child.

The Guardian also assists survivors through the trial process. “Our courts are challenged,” Hardwick said.

“Often, there are relatively inexperienced prosecutors, but to their credit, it is exceptionally difficult to prosecute child abuse cases. The defence can hold that child in cross-examination for such a long time that the child might say they made it up just to get it over with. It is difficult to relive the abuse in testimony for a survivor at any age.”

If found guilty, a perpetrator is registered on the National Register for Sex Offenders and the Child Protection Register.

Röhrs was a co-author in the 2016 Alternate Report Coalition – Children’s Rights South Africa’s submissions to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child following the South African government’s written replies. In the submission, they credited the government for establishing the Child Protection Register (CPR).

“However, evidence from service providers 10 years into its implementation, is that there are very few names on the register, and there are questions in terms of both the reliability and accuracy of recorded information,” reads the report.

It states that many government institutions, including schools and hospitals, still do not screen their staff against the CPR, and when it is done, there are inefficiencies resulting in lost applications or excessive delays in response.

“The result is a profoundly compromised system which does not contribute to the care and protection of children.”

This, despite the constitution declaring that a child’s best interests are of paramount importance.