Child Abuse Investigations

[clex_monkie89]

Out of class early.


CHILD ABUSE INVESTIGATION

ARS = Arizona Revised Statues 

• Child abuse likely to produce death or serious injury, intentionally or knowingly, is a class two felony (ARS) 13-1632
• Severe, intentional child abuse done from birth to the day before the 15th birthday is considered Dangerous Crimes Against Children (ARS) 13-401.01
• If likely to not produce death or serious injury, intentionally or knowingly, it is only a class 4 felony.
• Beatings used to be common and accepted; they were kept in the family with little to no police or social agency involvement.
• Now days some children may cry "abuse" from the slightest things, they threaten their parents with reports if they don't get their way and there is an assumption that any mark present is an abuse (such as a red mark from a spanking).
• Sexual Abuse includes; molestation, sexual conduct with a minor, sexual exploitation of a minor.
• Neglect is failing to provide the basic needs for a child (Food, shelter, proper clothing, etc) and/or contributing to the delinquency and dependency of a minor (drinking or smoking with a minor).
• Arizona has a mandated reporting law for child abuse (ARS) 13-3620
• Arizona cops are considered on-duty 24/7.
• Failure to report, except involving reportable offenses, makes you guilty of a class 1 misdemeanor (up to a year in jail and up to $2,500 fine).
• Reportable offenses include: Furnishing harmful items to minors (ARS) 13-3506.01, Surreptitious photographing, videotaping, filming or digitally recording or viewing (ARS) 13-3019, Child prostitution (ARS) 13-3212, Incest (ARS) 13-3608, and all of Chapter 35.1 Sexual Exploitation Of Children.
• In legal terms incest is about control. A prison guard having sex with an inmate is considered incest because the guard has complete and immediate control of the inmate. Workers at a group home and anyone in their charge is considered incest. And uncle and a niece is not considered incest unless the uncle is a legal guardian. Funnily enough? Two siblings of a similar age (two years or less) having sex is not considered incest. Because the slightness of the age gap prevents an overwhelming control. 24 months = Not incest, 25+ = incest.
• "So how did we get from that definition to the social definition of "family members having sex = incest"?" (Sara) Because the law came about relatively recently--"incest" used to be so taboo that there was no legal term for it because it was just considered plain old child abuse. Now that we have grandparents raising grandchildren and sexually molesting them and fathers taking pictures of their daughters we've had to come up with specific terms so that we can punish them different from some random stranger who hurts them. Because that's a large betrayal of some very fundamental and basic things.
• Nearly all (physical) child abuse laws are "new" because as little as forty years ago it was considered "just one of those things" and all families did it and no one talked about it.
• Sexual abuse has always been on of the lynching list but when it was incest it was still kept in the family a lot of times because of the shame that came with it for everyone involved.
• Arizona is actually really amazing with sexual abuse laws here; we have no statue of limitations on them.
• You should always repost both to CPS (Child Protective Services) and the police department because what might not be enough for CPS might be enough for the police and what might not be enough for the police might be enough for CPS.
• Maricopa County Protocol (Maricopa County, Arizona) is the most widely used child abuse reporting protocol in Arizona.
• Among the benefits of MCP are: the number of arrests is increased, the numbers of successful prosecutions increase and the trauma to the child victims decrease.
• Investigative Protocol is an agreement between the county's Attorney's Office and: law enforcement, in the county, CPS of the CPS equivalent, forensic pediatricians, forensic interviewers, and therapists.
• The old way child abuse was reported, pre Protocols was: children were taken to the police station (not a child friendly environment), suspects were taken to the same building (handcuffed, resisting kicking, cursing and/or screaming), and there was always the risk of the suspect and child being together in the same room at the same time.
• Child interviews were not recorded, were done by detectives with little/no training in children, other agencies did not observes, interview rooms were interrogation rooms that suspects were questioned in and it was not a child friendly environment at all.
• Police and CPS used to butt heads because they had separate investigations going on. It required numerous interviews of the child, gave the child the appearance of disbelief, extra stress on the child, the stress was increased and the information was not shared between the two groups.
• The old Medical Exams were done at local Medical Centers, were not child friendly, had long ER waits, included more interviews by the medical staff, no expert pediatric physicians and increased stress/trauma to the child.
• Maricopa County has Childhelp USA (http://www.childhelp.org/) which is a Child Advocacy Center and has: CPS on site, detectives on site, forensic interviews available, crisis intervention and counseling, forensic pediatricians on site and interview and exam rooms that are both on site and very child friendly.
• Child Advocacy Centers: Provide a child friendly environments, have playrooms for kids, do not allow suspects and have child friendly exam and interview rooms. The forensic interviews are conducted by well trained staff, audio and video recorded, monitoring is available from other rooms and children are often more at ease with the environment and surroundings.
• Police and CPS now conduct interviews together (which reduces repeat interviews and narrows the chance of a child victim and suspect to come face-to-face unnecessarily) and share information between each other.
• If sexual abuse is suspected the police do not need the parent's permission to give the child an exam.
• The investigation starts with the original report take either by the police officer or detective.
• Patrol officers are always the first responders to all calls for a report.
• The four questions always/only asked of the children (in non-sexual offenses) are: What happened? Is it a crime? Who did it? Is it an in home situation? Where did it happen? Establish jurisdiction. When did it happen? Is an exam required immediately?
• Exams need to be done within 72 hours (three days) for evidence on the body to be found.
• The reason the four questions are the only ones asked are: It provides the essential information, it's not meant to be an investigation yet and asking more risks contamination the investigation.
• Detective originals: any case involving serious burns, hospitalization, serious injuries, when the child is at risk in the home and/or there has been sexual abuse within the last 72 hours.
• Patrol initiated reports: are dictated onto a phone line in report form for later typing. They are hopefully typed in a few days, reports are assigned to the child crimes unit if they fit, separate among three squads, the appropriate sergeant assigns a case to a Detective and then the Detective begins the investigation.
• Police are now mandated to report to CPS.
• Detective originals: assume investigation from patrol, conduct victim interviews, conduct witness interviews, AND OTHER STUFF BUT HE MOVES THE SLIDES TO FUCKING QUICKLY.
• Flow of investigation: Victim interview should be first (you need to know what happened) any medical exams need to be done ASAP, all witnesses must be interviews, evidence must be obtained, suspect interview is last (you may only get one shot at it and you need to have all your ducks in a row for it).
• Child interviews: Introduction, names are given (not identified as police employees/CPS), job is stated ("It's my job to talk to boys and girls about things that...")
• THE RULES: "We only discuss things that really happened...", "If I say something you don't understand it's okay to correct me or ask something...", "I repeat things said to me to be sure I heard you right..."