{"id":163501,"date":"2015-07-03T13:15:46","date_gmt":"2015-07-03T13:15:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=163501"},"modified":"2015-07-03T13:15:46","modified_gmt":"2015-07-03T13:15:46","slug":"child-sex-abuse-investigations-inadequate-police-watchdog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/latest-news\/child-sex-abuse-investigations-inadequate-police-watchdog\/","title":{"rendered":"Child sex abuse investigations \u2018inadequate\u2019 \u2014 police watchdog"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Police investigations into allegations of historical child sex abuse have been branded \u201cinadequate\u201d in a new report, which claims more than one-third of such inquiries are substandard.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: initial;\">Her Majesty\u2019s<br \/>\nInspectorate of Constabulary\u2019s latest report found the police<br \/>\nresponse to 38 percent of child abuse inquiries in a sample of<br \/>\nnearly 600 was inadequate.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Of the 576 cases considered in the report, 177 were deemed of a<br \/>\ngood standard, 179 regarded as merely adequate, while 220 were<br \/>\nviewed as inadequate.<\/p>\n<p>In one of the cases, social workers blamed the cause of a<br \/>\nfour-year-old girl\u2019s vaginal bleeding on eczema, despite her<br \/>\nclaiming she\u2019d been abused by a family member.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/RlpTDmSQzWA\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><br \/>\n  Her Majesty\u2019s Inspectorate of Constabulary said the results<br \/>\ndemonstrate how often police underestimate the risks facing<br \/>\nchildren.<\/p>\n<p>Poor handling of such cases could fail an entire generation, they<br \/>\nadd.<\/p>\n<p>A second report, \u201c<em>Online and On the Edge: Real risks in the<br \/>\nVirtual World into Online Abuse<\/em>,\u201d revealed that police<br \/>\nhandling of online child abuse was even worse.<\/p>\n<p>A sample of 124 online abuse cases found that 52 percent were not<br \/>\ninvestigated properly.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" lang=\"en\" readability=\"7.2105263157895\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\n    Despite dedication of police in tackling online child abuse<br \/>\nvital opportunities to protect children are being missed<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/t.co\/LmvzcYwrwM\">http:\/\/t.co\/LmvzcYwrwM<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2013 NSPCC (@NSPCC) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NSPCC\/status\/616555164296736768\">July 2,<br \/>\n2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" lang=\"en\" readability=\"7.9411764705882\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\n    Damning <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/HMICgov\">@HMICgov<\/a><br \/>\nreport today: over half of police investigations into child<br \/>\nabuse inadequate. Children exposed to police postcode lottery<\/p>\n<p>\u2013 NSPCC (@NSPCC) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NSPCC\/status\/616487171487309825\">July 2,<br \/>\n2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children<br \/>\n(NSPCC) revealed more than 23,000 child abusers were workers in<br \/>\nthe UK last year. It also found 2,800 children were identified as<br \/>\nneeding protection from pedophiles.<\/p>\n<p>Another NSPCC report revealed over 1,000 young people contacted<br \/>\nChildLine last year to seek help over online sexual abuse.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/rt.com\/uk\/269968-whitewash-police-sex-abuse\/\">READ MORE:<br \/>\nPolice suppressed child sex abuse report ahead of 2010 UK<br \/>\nelection<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Commenting on the report findings, NSPCC CEO Peter Wanless says<br \/>\nit\u2019s a \u201cdamning indictment of police forces\u201d that investigations<br \/>\ninto online child abuse are so inadequate.<\/p>\n<p>Despite commitment and dedication among officers tackling these<br \/>\n<em>\u201cdark crimes,\u201d<\/em> opportunities to protection children<br \/>\n<em>\u201care being missed by the police,\u201d<\/em> Wanless said in a<br \/>\nstatement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<em>Backlogs in forensic analysis of seized devices, lack of<br \/>\ntraining, supervision and poor prioritization<\/em>\u201d means the<br \/>\npolice response is just \u201c<em>scratching the surface of crimes<br \/>\ncommitted<\/em>,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>The report also highlighted that officers simply don\u2019t believe<br \/>\nchildren in many cases, and in other cases children were arrested<br \/>\nand accused of lying when reporting an offense.<\/p>\n<p>This has made it harder for children to open up about being<br \/>\nabused. An NSPCC report titled, \u201c<em>Child abuse and neglect in<br \/>\nthe UK today<\/em>\u201d shows that 1 in 3 children who are sexually<br \/>\nabused don\u2019t speak up.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/rt.com\/uk\/270346-janner-prosecuted-sex-abuse\/\">READ MORE:<br \/>\nLord Janner faces prosecution over alleged child sex abuse<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Norfolk Chief Constable Simon Bailey, the Association of Chief<br \/>\nPolice Officers\u2019 lead officer on child protection and abuse<br \/>\ninvestigations, admitted that the police need to change their<br \/>\napproach to <em>\u201cprotect the public from harm committed on or<br \/>\noffline.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201c<em>This requires a cultural shift away from largely reactive<br \/>\npolicing that targets acquisitive crime with success measures by<br \/>\ncrime statistics and conviction rates<\/em>,\u201d he told The<br \/>\nGuardian.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<em>It must be supported by all agencies that work with children<br \/>\ngetting better at spotting signs of abuse, cruelty or neglect and<br \/>\nintervening early to protect harm<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Home Office minister Karen Bradley accepted such investigations<br \/>\nare \u201c<em>difficult and complex work\u201d but insists police forces<br \/>\n\u201cmust do all they can to improve child sex abuse and<br \/>\nexploitation<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Her Majesty&#8217;s Inspector of Constabulary Dru Sharpling said the<br \/>\nfindings suggest that police will \u201c<em>have to adapt to a<br \/>\nsubstantial new challenge.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Children \u201c<em>must be placed at the head of what policing does<br \/>\nnext<\/em>,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n<p><!-- Go to www.addthis.com\/dashboard to customize your tools --><br \/>\n<!-- Share template --><\/p>\n<p><!-- Go to your Addthis.com Dashboard to update any options --><\/p>\n<p>This piece was reprinted by <a href=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\">RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n<p><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/rt.com\/uk\/271276-child-sex-abuse-police\/\" target=\"_blank\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Police investigations into allegations of historical child sex abuse have been branded \u201cinadequate\u201d in a new report, which claims more than one-third of such inquiries are substandard. Her Majesty\u2019s Inspectorate of Constabulary\u2019s latest report found the police response to 38 percent of child abuse inquiries in a sample of nearly 600 was inadequate. Of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":163502,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487,18,1615],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-163501","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news","8":"category-latest-news","9":"category-uk-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}