By Emma Mackie
A proposed law making those who allow child abuse to occur in their own home legally culpable, will make families more likely to hold each other accountable, says the Children’s Commissioner.
Dr Russell Wills says the law would work where families are unwilling to speak to police or blame each other in cases where young children have died or been abused.
The recent inquest into the deaths of the Kahui twins again raised questions about a family ‘wall of silence’ that may have hampered the police investigation into the twins’ death.
The commissioner is positive about the proposed new law.
“By putting pressure on families, if they fail to cooperate, police can lay the lesser but still serious charge of causing or allowing the death, or ‘failure to protect’ as we call it," says Dr Wills.
“That means families are more likely to hold accountable the person who caused the injuries or death.”
He says those who “circle the wagons” and do not cooperate will still face charges and a jail term, but he believes not many will go that far.
“Where you’ve got a family who are refusing to cooperate, once they appreciate that they could all be charged, then you’ll find that people are more likely to be held accountable.”
The proposed change in law is part of the Crimes Amendment Bill (No 2) which is currently before a social services select committee and will be reported back to Parliament on 18th August.
After that, three further steps will be required before a decision is made on whether to pass it or not.
A spokesperson for Justice Minister Simon Power says it is too early to say whether the bill will be passed and the law changed before the election.
The proposal is modelled on the English Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004 (UK), which introduced a new offence of causing or allowing the death of a child or vulnerable adult.
But proposals here do not go as far as child protection reforms in England that target the problem of defendants’ silence in court.
English law allows a jury to “draw an adverse inference” when a person charged with the offence fails to give evidence in court.
Dr Wills supports the idea of a jury taking into account failure to cooperate or continuing silence, however this is not proposed in the amendment bill before government.
Despite continued efforts in England to reform child protection and children’s services, the country is still plagued with tragic cases of horrific abuse.
A recent serious case review of the torture and murder of a three-year-old found the perpetrators were previously known to child protection agencies but failures by police and probation meant authorities were unaware the couple had a child in their care.
However Dr Wills says New Zealand is different to the UK.
“We’re different to the UK because things have changed and are changing.”
He says an evidence based approach to changing practice in the health service has already seen non-accidental injury admissions in Hawkes Bay fall by two-thirds.
A new training programme involves participants asking the hard questions and then practicing in role-play, says Dr Wills.
“What we’ve learned is that staff feel much more comfortable to ask those really difficult questions having done the role play.
“Then you need to give them opportunities to practice those skills until they get really comfortable.”
The Ministry of Health Violence Intervention Programme which started in Hawkes Bay has trained 1500 staff in the region and will be rolled out across the country.
Dr Wills, who started his five year term as Children’s Commissioner on 1 July, remains a paediatrician in Hastings half of the time and commissioner the rest of the time.
3 News