News Release

Police, not social workers, should protect children from criminal abuse

Personal view: The police should take the lead on protecting children from criminal abuse BMJ Volume 326, pp 343

Peer-Reviewed Publication

BMJ

Following Lord Laming's report on the life and death of Victoria Climbie, paediatricians experienced in managing life threatening abuse suggest in this week's BMJ that police, rather than social workers, should take responsibility for protecting children from criminal abuse.

Professor David Southall and colleagues believe that most perpetrators, knowing they are committing crimes, deceive and intimidate social and health workers. If criminal abuse is likely, then the police must lead and be responsible for the child protection process, they say.

They draw on recent papers they have written concerning a new way of looking at child ill-treatment, including a suggestion that special inter-agency task forces on criminal abuse are established and run by experienced and adequately resourced police units. They will best ensure that, as Lord Laming expects "the standard of investigation into criminal offences against children" will be "as rigorous as the investigation of similar crimes against adults."

There is already a major shortage of social workers in poor areas, and paediatricians, who are often the first to identify a potentially abuse child, are becoming less willing to initiate proceedings. Failure to protect professionals in order to appease parents and the public will continue to deter frontline workers from speaking out, they warn.

In addition, Lord Laming's report does not address the way in which abusers are increasingly adept at using complaints procedures and the media to attack professionals.

Addressing the criminal abuse of children must be a priority, not only in England, but in the majority of countries that do not have any child protection systems and where many thousands of children like Victoria are cruelly enslaved and exploited every day. We need an international response to criminal abuse – namely, an effective police led protection force, they conclude.

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