Where Is the Justice? Parental Experiences of the Canadian Justice System in Cases of Child Sexual Abuse*

Alaggia, Ramona; Lambert, Elizabeth M.; Regehr, Cheryl

doi:10.1111/j.1744-1617.2009.01278.x

Cited by 6 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…This may have been either because they did not engage with the criminal justice system or because the lengthy delays in prosecuting crimes in Ireland meant that these parents were still at an early stage in that process. Other studies have highlighted how parents have felt abandoned and unsupported by the criminal justice system (Alaggia, Lambert, & Regehr, 2009; Eastwood & Patton, 2002). The practice of police questioning children who report abuse was described by parents in this study as traumatizing, and in some cases, children and their parents interpreted this approach by the police as implying that the child had done something wrong.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parents’ Experiences of Their Child’s Disclosure of Child Sexual Abuse

McElvaney

Nixon

2019

Family Process

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A child’s disclosure of sexual victimization is a difficult experience for parents and has been associated with traumatization, disbelief, denial, self‐blame, and clinical difficulties. To date, most studies on parents’ responses have been quantitative assessments of the psychological impact of disclosure on parents. A paucity of research has qualitatively explored mothers’ experiences of their child’s disclosure of child sexual abuse (CSA) and fathers’ experiences have been even further neglected. The current study seeks to characterize parents’ experiences of their child’s disclosure of CSA and to uncover the process‐oriented nature of parental responses. This qualitative study, using a grounded theory approach to analysis, involved interviews with 10 mothers and four fathers whose children (3–18 years) had experienced sexual abuse. Three themes emerged from the analysis. The first theme—making sense of the abuse in retrospect—captured the process through which parents sought to make sense of their child’s disclosure, focusing on why their child had not disclosed the abuse to them earlier, and how they had noticed something was wrong but misattributed their child’s behavior to other factors. The second theme—negotiating parental identity as protector—reflected how parents’ identity as a protector was challenged, their perception of their world had been forever altered, and they now experienced themselves as hypervigilant and overprotective. The final theme—navigating the services—pertained to parents’ struggle in navigating child protection and police services, and feelings of being isolated and alone. These findings highlight the need for empathy and parental support following child disclosure of sexual victimization.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parents’ Experiences of Their Child’s Disclosure of Child Sexual Abuse

McElvaney

Nixon

2019

Family Process

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“…The executive is always powerful, thus, there is always the need of an arm like the judiciary to regulate its behaviors including its temptation to abuse office, violate human rights, neglect the promulgation of laws; and allocation of the required resources. Notwithstanding, the executive and the legislature can enact and assent to laws but if the judiciary is not effectively delivering justice by interpreting the laws, the life and living conditions of the powerless in particular, will be more at risk since they can't be spared any abuse and violation by perpetrators knowing they wouldn't be punished for it, exponentially increasing crimes and public insecurity (Adler, 2015) concurring with: in seeking justice for their abuse children, parents have realized the following unpleasant issues within the legal system vis-à-vis the welfare of their loved children: losing control of everything, lot of inconsistencies, children treated like adults, dissatisfaction with courts' outcomes; and instead of getting some therapeutic benefits children are systematically re-abuse (Alaggia, Lambert, & Regehr, 2009). In view of the degree and complexity of child sexual abuse, for the law to have positive impacts, it is critical that transformative justice is given a chance where applicable(GenerationFive, 2017).…”

Section: Ineffective Judiciary Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Essentially lengthy court proceedings discourage children and parents to seek justice, and justice delayed is justice denied (Rass-Masson & Rouas, 2017). Thus, it is critical that in the process of ensuring justice is delivered, the special needs of the disadvantaged including children is seriously pondered otherwise it becomes re-abusive sessions in addition to justice denied concurring with: in many instances, parents pursuing justice for their sexually abused children reported that the judicial reforms in some jurisdictions don't yield the desired results since some of the children have complained been traumatized and re-abuse for the second time by the harsh court proceedings (Alaggia et al, 2009). To ensure children enjoy the right to access justice, the current legal systems of some jurisdictions must be changed so that they will be able to offer fair, supportive; and secured child sensitive proceedings (Back, 2012).…”

Section: Lengthy and Intimidating Court Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Child Sexual Abuse in Tourism and the Legal System: Lessons for Child Protection Professionals

Bah

2023

Int. j. adv. economics

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Almost everywhere around the globe children are subjected to maltreatment. Serious actions are required at all levels to end it with urgency. All children are entitled to full protection from all forms of abuse. This is reaffirmed by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) in which all nations are obligated to protect children from all forms of abuse and promote the physical and psychological recovery and social reintegration of sexual abuse survivors. The objective of the review was to examine the gaps in child abuse prevention legal systems in order to share knowledge to better protect the children. Thus, a systematic review of the literatures using data from different sources was actuated. Different search engines were used to search for these articles. Only peer-reviewed scholarly publications published after 2000 were selected except extracts perceived to be critical. The review demonstrates that the protection of children against abuse through the existing legal systems is constrained by inadequacy of legislations, poor enforcement mechanisms, poverty and corruption, lack of rehabilitation programmes, negative attitudes, ineffective judiciary system, lack of training, inadequate multidisciplinary collaboration, lack of child friendly courts, threatening defense lawyers, lengthy and intimidating court procedures, inconsistent age of consent, lack of mandatory reporting of abuse, non-recognition of institutional crime, wee statute of limitation, insufficient funding, discriminatory laws, lack of cooperation and support, lack of birth registration; and lack of national sex offenders register. To conclude if the safety of the children is to be ensured, the challenges highlighted in the legal system must be addressed with urgency. Key words: Child Abuse, Legislations, Child Friendly, Courts, System.

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“…So, it has become probably one of the most important things that we have. (ID 101) Although researchers have begun to address the potentially traumatic impact of trials more broadly (Edwards and Miller, 2019;Leclerc et al, 2020;Lonergan et al, 2016;McQuiston et al, 2019), and the impact of involvement in the justice system for victims of sexual violence (Englebrecht, 2012;Kunst et al, 2015;Regehr et al, 2008;Spencer et al, 2018) and their families (Alaggia et al, 2009), to date little work has specifically addressed the unprecedented growth in graphic digital evidence and its potentially traumatic impact on survivors, victims and families.…”

Section: The Ubiquity Of Video Evidencementioning

confidence: 99%

“…While the primary victim is the individual upon whom acts of sexual violence were perpetrated, the impacts often radiate to others who care for them, sometimes referred to as secondary victims (Alaggia et al, 2009). This is particularly true in situations in which the primary victim is a minor, or when the acts of violence culminate in murder.…”

Section: Loved Onesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Technology facilitated re-victimization: How video evidence of sexual violence contributes to mediated cycles of abuse

Regehr

Birze²,

Regehr

2021

Crime, Media, Culture

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With the ubiquity of technological devices producing video and audio recordings, violent crimes are increasingly captured digitally and used as evidence in the criminal justice process. This paper presents the results of a qualitative study involving Canadian criminal justice professionals, and asks questions surrounding the treatment of video evidence and the rights of victims captured within such images. We argue that loss of control over personal images and narratives can re-traumatize survivors of sexual violence, creating technologically-facilitated cycles of abuse that are perpetuated each time images are viewed. We find that the justice system has little to no consistent policy or procedure for handling video evidence, or for ameliorating the impact of these digital records on survivors. Subsequently, we assert that the need for a victim-centred evidence-based understanding of mediated evidence has never been greater.

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Where Is the Justice? Parental Experiences of the Canadian Justice System in Cases of Child Sexual Abuse*

Cited by 6 publications

References 34 publications

Parents’ Experiences of Their Child’s Disclosure of Child Sexual Abuse

Parents’ Experiences of Their Child’s Disclosure of Child Sexual Abuse

Child Sexual Abuse in Tourism and the Legal System: Lessons for Child Protection Professionals

Technology facilitated re-victimization: How video evidence of sexual violence contributes to mediated cycles of abuse

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