Child Justice And Criminal Evidence Act

Recent news stories, such as, ‘Operation Yewtree’, the police investigation into historic child sexual abuse allegations made against the British media personality, Jimmy Savile and others have highlighted the debate about eye witness testimony. The historic nature of these cases is only now being looked into due to the incidents taking place over four decades ago, which means the most of the witnesses where recalling memories from when they were children. However, this does raise the issue as to why these cases were not looked at when they occurred. Since 1980’s-1990’s it has been more common for children to testify in court; this is particularly important in abuse cases.

The vulnerability requires special protection and care of children primarily from the state because of the failure of the parents or guardian in doing so. The transition of a child from the care of the parents/ guardian to the care of civil society/ government may turn out to be a time consuming ordeal accompanied with harsh experiences during this journey. The Juvenile Justice Act clearly specifies that the proceedings regarding the child in need of care and protection has ro take place in the child welfare committee, but nevertheless, during the pendency of the case, a child may have to face very many ranging from difficulties in being able to put across in words his atrocities and developing understanding about the new experiences of being

This is demonstrated in the case of ___ where his Lordships, __ held that “When there is a requirement of corroborated evidence, there is a tendency of male judges treating sexual assault complainants such as women and children as prone to be unreliable.” The abolishment of the requirement of corroborated evidence, has indirectly forced the judges to consider the children’s testimony, the fact of the case, but not solely to rely on such requirement, dismiss the victim’s claim and cause detriment or injustice to

Every Child Matters 2003 and Children Act 2004 updated in 2010 to Help Children Achieve More

The Children Act 2004 has information about the different services that children and young people are entitled to. Local authorities and other bodies and requires that they work together in improving the well-being of children in the local area (Childrensrightswales.org.uk, 2015). This legislation came into place after the incident with involved Victoria Climbie who was abused by an older man. Her non-accidental injuries were reported to child protection authorizes, however an investigation was not fully carried out. There were many occasions that show the failings of the system, different people let her down. As a result of this case, The Children Act 2004 came about. The GPs had a responsibility to keep in contact with the social services

In recent times safeguarding of children has once again come under spotlight with cases such as Madline McKan and the horrific murders of Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells. Prior to this the Children’s act of 1984 and updated 2004 version highlighted that all professionals have an obligation to report suspected abuse. There was a public inquiry in 2000 to address the failure of the law which was not upholding the protection of vulnerable children. There was changes to the legislation and the government set up The Every Child Maters (ECM) initiative. This works in line with current legislation Working Together to Safeguard Children 2006 Act. This Act authorised guidance on how organisations and individuals should work together to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people in accordance with the Children Act 1989 and the Children Act 2004. All organisations must have the succeeding policies and procedures:

Child abuse is when a parent or caregiver, through action or failure to act, causes injury, death, emotional harm or risk of serious harm to a child. According to The Federal Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, as amended by the CAPTA Reauthorization Act of 2010, at a minimum, child abuse and neglect is defined as, "Any recent act or failure to act on the part of a parent or caretaker which results in death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse or exploitation"; or "An act or failure to act which presents an imminent risk of serious harm (Children 's Bureau, 2010)." The law recognizes a child as being any person who is under the age of 18. The law is broken into 2 sections, and each section treats the idea of child maltreatment in different ways. Criminally, those who abuse children are able to be arrested and prosecuted in court. Civil statutes say that people who suspect a child of being abused are mandated to identify and report it.

What is child abuse? From the word “abuse” we can understand that it is some sort of a maltreatment of a child, causing harm and damage both to his physical and psychological well-being. At the Federal level, the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) describes child abuse and neglect as: “any recent act or failure to act on the part of a parent or caretaker, which results in death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse, or exploitation, or an act or failure to act which presents an imminent risk of serious harm.” Child abuse is a very substantial and widely spread problem in U.S. affecting children of any age, gender, race, background or income, with more than 1.8 million investigations done every year and on average, killing more than 5 children every day. The main issue of child abuse is that the abuser is usually someone a child loves or depends on (a parent, sibling, coach, neighbor, etc.), who violates child’s trust putting personal interests first, therefore official numbers of how many children suffer maltreatment might be not accurate enough as remarkable amount of these cases go unreported. Each case of child abuse is unique, with a lot of individual factors involved, nevertheless, we can distinguish some of the common causes, such as poverty, lack of education, depression, mental or physical health

In Spring 2009, three offenders, all in grade eleven , set two houses is Sherwood park on fire. The youth criminal justice Act (YCJA) provided opportunities for them to reintegrate and rehabilitate, instead of throwing them in jail. YCJA covers kids between the ages twelve to seventeen years old. It 's purpose is to handle youth offenders more differently than adults because of their undeveloped minds. The YCJA was released back in 2003. By protecting the rights and providing Youth Canadians the support they need, the YCJA benefits the offenders in a positive way. The act gentrust the youth a second chance to make sure they don 't reoffend by rehabilitating and reintegrating them. Also youth over the age 14 years can get an adult sentence if necessary. Therefore, the YCJA is an effective law because it supports everyone; youth will acquire the help they need and Public Safety is insured.

The Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA) is the principal federal program through which the federal government sets standards for juvenile justice systems at the state and local levels. It provides direct funding for states, research, training, and technical assistance, and evaluation. The JJDPA was originally enacted in 1974 and even though the JJDPA has been revised several times over the past 30 years, its basic composition has remained the same. Since the act was passed in 1974, the JJDPA focused solitary on preventing juvenile delinquency and on rehabilitating juvenile offenders.

The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act of 1974 was originally created to protect a target population of children, under the age of 18, from child abuse and neglect; however, over the years this act has been amended and improved to protect a wider population, with many specific subpopulations, over the past 42 years. In the original text of the act, two specific populations are addressed with different goals: reducing the rate of child abuse in children under the age of eighteen, and improving the treatment of children who had been maltreated or neglected (National Low Income Housing Coalition, 2014). It is easy to see that this act and policies within it are aimed at protecting children specifically, yet looking only at the children,

According to our textbook, Public Law 93-247 which is the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA), came into effect on January 31, 1974. This law is regards to childhood maltreatment. The law implemented the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect. Central agencies needed to be created in each individual state. The central agencies had to have legal authority to investigate and be able to prosecute cases that involved abuse and neglect. The States also had to develop their own definitions, policies, procedures, and laws dealing with child abuse and neglect. With the amendment of 2003, states needed to include foster care, adoption, abandoned infants and family violence protection into their services.

In 1984, as they helped to pass The Missing Children’s Act of 1982 and The Missing Children’s Assistance Act of 1984. In 1983, The Adam Walsh story was made into an NBC television movie called, Adam. In 2006, former President George W. Bush signed into law the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 (“Walsh Act”) “The Walsh Act is a recent addition to an array of federal programs designed to combat sexual violence and child exploitation in America. Its stated purposes are to "protect children from sexual exploitation and violent crime, to prevent child abuse and child pornography, to promote Internet safety, and to honor the memory of Adam Walsh and other child crime victims.” (President Signs Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act. (n.d.). PsycEXTRA Dataset. doi:10.1037/e426372008-004)

Therefore, this essay will firstly critically evaluate how court reporting restrictions in the family court, under the anonymity provisions of the Children Act 1989 and the contempt at court provisions in section 12 of the Administration of Justice Act 1960 along with other court reporting restrictions in the family courts, are problematic for family proceedings when compared to being protective. Furthermore, this essay will then analyse how the protective scope of court reporting restrictions in the family court system has been reduced as a result of the continued problems that court reporting restrictions cause, but in a need to make the court more transparent has made the court reporting restrictions even more

Courts within United Kingdom, along with several other countries have made several propositions for addressing the vulnerability of child witnesses within the courtroom, although these provisions generally do not directly address the linguistic difficulties. Thus, in some jurisdictions, child witnesses are allowed to give evidence on closed-circuit television, in order to alleviate them from trauma of being face to face in court with a suspect against whom they are testifying against. However, children are often required to be present in court for cross-examination, sometimes provided with support by a screen between the child and the accused (Birnbaum, and Bala, 2010).