Saint Leo University

Investigation of Child Abuse

Goldie Acosta
April 20, 2014

Abstract
Our law enforcement officer have many different task in their hands, but all of them are for the safety and protection of our community and our society. Officer often work really hard to promote a climate of security but we all have to help in the process of making a better world. One of the task that police officer have, in the prevention and intervention on child abuse and neglect cases. As wrong as it sounds there are plenty of people abusing of our kids in a day to day basis. This is been done by physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse and neglect, where in cases the child do not received the necessary help on time and we will encounter child death. Throughout our study we are going to see how our police enforcement received the required training to handle such cases, which differ from the traditional cases officer are used to work with.

Child abuse consist on the physical, psychological and/or sexual mistreatment of children that affect their physical or emotional health and development. This mistreatment in any intentional physical injury such as hitting, pushing, spanking, beating, burning, and so on. Child abuse a happen to any child and in some cases their parents are the ones responsible for it. In our country, the most predominant of the abuses is neglect, which makes 55 percent of all the cases. This is due to the lack of food, clothes, medical care and supervision of the child. There are two types of courts that deals with child abuse. The first one is the criminal court system that put in trial defendants charged with child abuse and sentences those who are guilty of the accusation. The second one is family and dependency courts, who are the ones that decide when, and with what guardian a parent who have been discovered it’s an abusive parent, can see his kids. In some cases family court can decide if parental rights are concluded due to the brutality of the case.

We count with specialist that can deal with child abuse such as Child Protective Services (CPS). CPS examine reports of child abuse and neglect to determine if the accusations are truth. CPS are the one who start the investigation of reports directed by law. Caseworkers are the ones who decide if there any danger to the safety of the kids at home. A case reported to the CPS should be completed within 30 days but an extension of the case can be approve by the supervisor. When a child is abuse or suspected to be, there are four types of professionals involved; CPS case workers, which we talk above, law enforcement officers, physicians and mental health professionals. In our study we are going to focus on the law enforcement professional and how they deal with child abuse cases.
Law enforcement officer view child abuse not as a social problem but in the framework of criminal law. Therefore they focus on the collection and protection of evidence for criminal prosecution. Officers believe that the parents who commit child abuse or neglect renounced to their parental responsibilities and they only deserve incarceration if they are the responsible of the child’s condition. Child abuse cases are different from traditional cases. For example, if a burglary have been reported, the police officer can enter the case with the assumption that an offense has occurred and leave to find the person accountable for. However, if is a child abuse case the police has to determined that a crime has actually occurred. The police cannot assume without any evidence to back up that the sexual assault reported has really happened. Sadly to say but 47 percent of the cases reported to the CPS does not contain sufficient evidence to prove the abuse. Both the police and the CPS caseworker’s job is to determine whether the abuse has occurred, who is accountable for, and then make a decision to protect the child. Once this requirements are meet is only when the police concentrate on collecting the vital evidence for a criminal prosecution.

When it comes to child abuse there are other issues we need to address. It is really difficult for the police to communicate with the victim due to the fact that usually the child is very young and it may not have a well understanding of his/ her cognitive and language development. Also, some forms of abuse seem like non abusive conditions such as the inflicted traumatic injuries which are in most cases described by defense attorneys as the consequence of an accident. Also some medical result may be wrong identify which put the officer in a hard situation, therefore they have to consider all the justification for the child conditions. But, what happen when the child died? Investigation a child death it’s a really sensitive case. The investigation get more complicated because usually occur in private places where is really difficult to determine whether the child died due to maltreatment.

Officer involved in child abuse cases must have the knowledge and special abilities. It is important that the officer knows how to communicate and sympathize with the victim, the victim family and the perpetrator. If the investigator find a subtle way to communicate with the perpetrator it is possible to obtain from the perpetrator a confession or at least incriminating statements. As we specify early, some child maltreatment are confused or misdiagnose, so it’s imperative that the office involve in the case have knowledge of the patterns and types of child maltreatment. This officer will received special training to provide them with the skill requires, therefore we can eliminate or minimize the guesswork on the role of the officer. The training must concentrate also on special needs required by the victim. Physiological and psychological trauma are frequent traumas suffer by the victim and officer should realize that instant attention is required to assures greater possibilities of recover, successful treatment, and effective medical treatment (child welfare). Lastly, it’s important that police share authority with other authorities involved in the case, working as a team and communicate in order to achieve the result to solve the case.
Law enforcement officer are the main symbols of public safety, and help the community in many different ways. Some of this ways are; Prevention, reporting, support to child protective services, immediate response, investigative roles and victim support. Prevention is always the first step of a safe community but there is nothing that prevent us from getting harm. This is why police help communities to increase the awareness about child abuse and neglect. There is nothing better that people well inform, and with the police perspective will transmit significant weight with the media and also the public itself. Due to this officer involvement, some law enforcement agencies also participate in the community education, growing up the point that kids at school received a presentation with all the information available of the program targeting familiar sexual abuse. Another way of officer helping the community is by reporting. Officer have the obligation to report any suspected abuse and neglect. This can usually be perform by the calls received form domestic violence or any case of drug arrest. All around the nation, officer makes about 16 percent of the reports to the CSP. In some situations, were the CSP caseworkers have to visit bad neighborhoods, and deal with ill people, the use of police services is required. It is important that both officer and CPS work together for the benefit of the child and the protection of CPS caseworkers. Law enforcement also respond faster than CPS in emergency situations where the child is been abused. There is a correlation between law enforcement and the CPS, and that is that sometimes suspects need to be interview the same people for the same incident. In other cases of maltreatment, where include child homicide, out of home care abuse, pornography, and sexual exploitation of children law enforcement work alone. Lastly is the victim support provided by the law enforcement officers. Generally is used in communities where there is no victim services available and basically is the officer preparing the child to the prosecution, explaining each person position in the court room and where everyone sits. Helping the child to feel safe, and providing the support he/ she need. While writing the report its important to annotated information such as demographic information about the child and the family, information about the child, the parent, caretakers, and the suspected abused. The demographic information is really important because it can help locate the child and family by the use of this information and also help to evaluate the risk to the child. The risk to the child can also be evaluated by the child physical and emotional condition and behavior, which is information need it by the officer and should be provided from the reporter. Knowing the family and caretakers information will also help in the investigation of the alleged maltreatment and the risk for the child. Parent’s emotional and physical condition, if for example, they use drugs, if they have any problem with the justice, if they have high expectation of the child, and so on. The most sensitive piece of information is the alleged maltreatment. The investigators need to obtain information on the type of maltreatment, for example, emotional, physical or sexual abuse, and or neglect. The nature of the maltreatment is another detail to take in consideration, for example if it was physical abuse was it a burn or a beating? The extent of the physical abuse such as second degree burns, the time frame when the events took place, it there have been any previous incident, and the actual location were the incident occurred, such as house or even school. Child maltreatment is a serious offense that we all have to help prevent. According to some statistic for 2011, 1,750 children died because of the maltreatment experiencing neglect and a combination of physical abuse with 80 percent of the cases been abused by their own parents. This perpetrator were around the ages of 19-29. Our society need to create conscious of the wrongful things they are doing. Bringing kids to the world it’s a serious think and if females are not ready to be mothers or they only had unprotected sex, there is always a solution. Adoption is the best thing an irresponsible parent can do with their child, instead of neglect or even abuse from their child to death. It is really sad how some people in society have kids thinking that the relationship is going to work if they have kids together, or in some cases females think that’s the perfect way to have an income. Kids are bring to the world because of love, to be able to stop been us to be 100 percent from someone else. Kids need affection, shelter, and plenty of attention. It is sad how in a daily basis people make the wrong choices with some little angels.

Word cited: Child maltreatment (2012) Retrieved from: http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/cm-data-sheet--2013.pdf The Role of Law Enforcement in the Response to Child Abuse and Neglect (1992). Retrieved from: https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/usermanuals/law/lawd.cfm Swanson, C., Chamelin, N., Territo, L., & Taylor, R. (2012). Criminal investigation (11th ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.