The criminal law and child neglect: - Action for Children

The proposed offenceSocial workers welcomed the inclusion ofnon-physical abuse, particularly as a meansof encouraging the police to see the issue asa legitimate concern. As one person put it:‘Emotional harm has been ignored fortoo long, so it’s good to see it within theproposed law. It may be difficult to measurebut has to be in the law.’Regardless of whether a criminal prosecutionis pursued, social workers considered that aunified definition in criminal law, based on thecivil law, would help them in two key ways: 341. being able to warn parents anddemonstrate the seriousness of theirbehaviour; and2. allowing the police to collect evidencethat would be of use in child protectionproceedings, helping to improve thequality of evidence and speeding updecisions in care or other proceedingsin the family courts.Social workers welcomed the changeto ‘reckless’ from ‘wilful’, particularlybecause this would clearly protect parentswith significant learning difficulties fromprosecution (as described above).The police were strongly in favour of thealternative offence, particularly the changeto ‘reckless’, which would provide muchneeded clarity to officers. The change toencompass emotional harm was also warmlywelcomed, responding to current frustrationsat not being able to intervene unless anduntil physical harm occurs. Additionally,police commented that these proposedchanges would directly help in the trainingof new officers regarding child neglect.34In addition to the points raised by social workers, a clear view emerged from specialists in the advisory group thata unified definition across criminal and civil law would have the positive impact of speeding up access to specialisttherapeutic services for those children who have been identified as suffering a ‘criminal’ level of psychological and otherforms of abuse.15.