Milloin tulisi epäillä lapseen kohdistunutta pahoinpitelyä?

Lääkärillä on velvollisuus ilmoittaa poliisille ja lastensuojelulle, jos hänelle työssään herää epäily lapseen kohdistuneesta pahoinpitelystä. Rikoksesta ei tarvitse olla varmoja todisteita. Kun ilmoitus on tehty, rikosepäilyn tutkinta kuuluu poliisille. Jos lääkäri on epävarma, täyttyykö ilmoitusvelvollisuus, on suositeltavaa konsultoida poliisia tai lasten oikeuspsykiatrian työryhmän asiantuntijaa tai sosiaalipediatrian erikoislääkäriä lähimmässä yliopistosairaalassa. Pahoinpitelyn tunnistaminen on vaikeaa, mutta asiantuntijoiden konsultointi ja viranomaisyhteistyö helpottavat asioiden selvittämistä

Children's disclosures of sexual abuse in a population-based sample

Most previous studies on disclosing child sexual abuse (CSA) have either been retrospective or focused on children who already have disclosed. The present study aimed to explore the overall CSA disclosure rate and factors associated with disclosing to adults in a large population-based sample. A representative sample of 11,364 sixth and ninth graders participated in the Finnish Child Victim Survey conceming experiences of violence, including CSA. CSA was defined as having sexual experiences with a person at least five years older at the time of the experience. Within this sample, the CSA prevalence was 2.4%. Children reporting CSA experiences also answered questions regarding disclosure, the disclosure recipient, and potential reasons for not disclosing. The results indicate that most of the children (80%) had disclosed to someone, usually a friend (48%). However, only 26% had disclosed to adults, and even fewer had reported their experiences to authorities (12%). The most common reason for non-disclosing was that the experience was not considered serious enough for reporting (41%), and half of the children having CSA experiences did not self-label their experiences as sexual abuse. Relatively few children reported lacking the courage to disclose (14%). Logistic regression analyses showed that the perpetrator's age, the age of the victim at the time of abuse, and having no experiences of emotional abuse by the mother were associated with disclosing to an adult. The results contribute to understanding the factors underlying children's disclosure patterns in a population-based sample and highlight the need for age-appropriate safety education for children and adolescents.Peer reviewe

How old was she? The accuracy of assessing the age of adolescents' based on photos

Information on the degree to which individuals can make accurate estimations of someone's age can be of importance in different legal contexts, such as for example child sexual abuse cases in which the victim is an adolescent and asylum procedures. There is, however, a scarcity of studies concerning age estimations conducted with young target persons. Using facial photos of target persons aged 12-18 years, we investigated the effects of gender, age, and ethnicity of both targets (n = 240) and observers (n = 869) on the accuracy of age estimation. We also investigated the effects of targets' facial expressions (neutral or smiling), use of makeup, and photo quality. Participants overestimated the age of the adolescents by, on average, 3.51 years. Participants overestimated the age of young adolescent girls to a greater extent than that of younger boys. Men made larger overestimations than women. Participants also estimated smiling targets as being older than targets with neutral facial expression, and the age of girls with makeup to be older than girls without makeup. Because there was considerable variation in the accuracy of estimations, and overestimates were common, we conclude that the ability of individuals to estimate the age of adolescents is generally low. This might have important legal implications.Peer reviewe

Lapsiin kohdistuvien väkivaltarikosten tutkintaa nopeutettava

Lapsiin kohdistuvien seksuaalirikosten käsittely kestää keskimäärin lähes kaksi vuotta. Tämä on selvästi pidempään kuin aikuisten kohdalla. Rikosepäilyjen tutkinnan viiveet vaikeuttavat sekä hidastavat lapsen ja perheen toipumista. Eurooppalaisten Barnahus-standardien mukaan lapsiystävällisten rikosoikeudellisten menettelyjen perusperiaatteena tulee olla tarpeettomien viivästysten välttäminen lapsiin kohdistuvien rikosepäilyjen selvittelyssä. Koska kyseessä on monitahoinen pulma, ongelma ei ole yhden ammattikunnan tai hallinnonalan ratkaistavissa. Tässä julkaisussa tuodaan esiin keinoja parantaa eri viranomaisten yhteistyötä ja kehittää ammattilaisten osaamista lapsiin kohdistuvien rikosten tutkinnassa. Tavoitteena on taata lapselle ja perheelle apu ja tarvittavat tukitoimet viiveettä koko rikos- ja oikeusprosessin ajan

The effects of drawing on preschoolers' statements about experienced and non-experienced events

Although drawing is frequently used during investigative interviews, few studies have explored the effectiveness of draw-and-talk techniques with very young children. In this article, we examined the effects of drawing on preschoolers' (3-6 years old) reports of self-experienced and non-experienced events. In Study I, we interviewed 83 preschoolers about a staged event. We did not observe any significant statement differences between children asked to draw-and-talk compared to a verbal-only condition. In Study II, we interviewed 25 preschoolers about a nonexperienced event. Twenty-one children initially denied the event. When asked if they could help the interviewer draw a person from the event, 13 (61.9%) children complied with the request and eventually provided several false details. While drawing did not significantly increase the average number of details, exploratory findings indicated that drawing may have helped a subset of children. However, drawing might impair children's accuracy when suggestively interviewed about nonexperienced events.Peer reviewe

A stab in the dark: The distance threshold of target identification in low light

Prior research shows that increased distance and decreased light result in less correct eyewitness identifications, yet their combined effect is not well understood. The aim of the present study was to establish the maximum distance in low lux (lx) where an eyewitness's later identification in target present (TP) line-ups is no longer reliable. We randomized participants (N = 178) into one of three lx conditions (high:300 lx, medium:10 lx, low:0.7 lx) and presented them with eight targets (one at a time) at eight separate distances (6-20 m). Each target-presentation was followed by an 8-person simultaneous TP line-up (i.e., there was a .125 probability of choosing the target correctly by chance). We found that the rate of correct TP identifications decreased with increased distance in all lx conditions. At 20 m the rate of correct TP identifications was .53 in the high lx condition, .41 in the medium lx condition and .11 in the low lx condition. The generalizability of our findings to overall eyewitness accuracy is limited by the exclusion of target absent line-ups, yet our findings show that reliable and correct target present identifications are very unlikely following observations made in low lighting (0.7 lx) at 20 m

The NICHD protocol:a review of an internationally-used evidence-based tool for training child forensic interviewers

PurposeThis article reviews an evidence-based tool for training child forensic interviewers called the NICHD Protocol, with a specific focus on how the Protocol is being adapted in various countries.Design/methodology/approachWe include international contributions from experienced trainers, practitioners, and scientists, who are already using the Protocol or whose national or regional procedures have been directly influenced by the NICHD Protocol research (Canada, Finland, Israel, Japan, Korea, Norway, Portugal, Scotland, and United States). Throughout the review, these experts comment on: How and when the Protocol was adopted in their country; who uses it; training procedures; challenges to implementation and translation; and other pertinent aspects. We aim to further promote good interviewing practice by sharing the experiences of these international experts.FindingsThe NICHD Protocol can be easily incorporated into existing training programs worldwide and is available for free. It was originally developed in English and Hebrew and is available in several other languages.Originality/valueThis article reviews an evidence-based tool for training child forensic interviewers called the NICHD Protocol. It has been extensively studied and reviewed over the past 20 years. This article is unique in the it is the first to bring together practitioners who are actually responsible for training forensic interviewers and conducting forensic interviews from all around the world

Seri-tukikeskusten asiakkaiden tausta, tukipalveluiden käyttö ja rikosprosessin eteneminen : Väliraportti

Seksuaaliväkivaltaa kohdanneiden tutkimukset ja tukipalvelut ollaan Suomessa keskittämässä Seri-tukikeskuksiin. Tässä tutkimuksessa selvitettiin sekä rekisteri- että kyselytutkimuksen keinoin Seri-tukikeskuksen asiakkaiden taustatietoja, rikosprosessin etenemistä, rikosilmoituksen tekemiseen liittyviä seikkoja ja kokemuksia palveluista. Seri-tukikeskuksen asiakkaista 70% oli alle 30-vuotiaita ja 96% naisia. Rekisteritutkimuksessa tukikeskuksen 688 asiakkaasta 74% teki rikosilmoituksen. Tapauksista 36% eteni syyteharkintaan ja 22% tapauksista nostettiin syyte. Aikaa rikosilmoituksesta syyteharkinnan päätökseen kului yli vuosi. Kyselytutkimuksessa 235 (29%) asiakasta vastasi kyselyyn. Aiemmat väkivaltakokemukset ja mielenterveysongelmat olivat yleisiä. Poliisille ilmoittamisen motiiveina oli mm. toive estää saman tapahtumista muille tai toive oikeuden saamisesta. Rikosilmoitus jätettiin usein tekemättä, koska tapahtuma haluttiin unohtaa, siitä koettiin häpeää tai oikeusprosessin pelättiin olevan liian raskas. Seri-tukikeskuksen asiakkaat olivat tyytyväisiä saamiinsa palveluihin. Psykologin, sosiaalityöntekijän tai sairaalapastorin tukipalveluita käytti 75% vastaajista ja heistä 86% koki saamansa tuen riittävänä. Kuitenkin mm. parempaa jatkohoitoon pääsyä, pidempää tuen kestoa ja lähipalveluita olisi kaivattu. Yleisin syy palveluiden käyttämättömyyteen oli toive asian unohtamisesta.Tämä julkaisu on toteutettu osana valtioneuvoston selvitys- ja tutkimussuunnitelman toimeenpanoa. (tietokayttoon.fi) Julkaisun sisällöstä vastaavat tiedon tuottajat, eikä tekstisisältö välttämättä edusta valtioneuvoston näkemystä

How (not) to interview children : interviews with young children in sexual abuse investigations in Finland

The present thesis had two main objectives: The first was to assess how child sexual abuse (CSA) interviews in Finland are conducted through analysing the interviewing techniques applied and the language used by the interviewers, as well as to suggest ways to improve interviews if they were found to have deficiencies. The second main aim was to contribute to the growing research corpus concerning CSA interviews, in particular, by addressing how interviewers follow up information provided by the child, by analysing whether child health care professionals would use childadapted language, and by studying the kind of modifications in the verbal behaviour of interviewers and children that were associated with a) repeated interviews, b) a support person’s presence at the interview, and c) the use of anatomically detailed dolls. Two complementary samples of CSA interviews were analysed. The first one was composed of child interviews with 3-12-year-old children (N = 27) that had been considered problematic by lawyers or other involved professionals (Studies I and IV). The second sample consisted of unselected interviews (N = 43) with children aged 3 to 8 years conducted in a number of hospitals in different parts of the country (Studies II and III). Study I: The verbal interaction between interviewer and child was analysed in a sample of interviews that had been considered to be problematic by involved professionals. Results showed that interviewers used inappropriate questioning techniques, relying on option-posing, specific suggestive and unspecific suggestive questions to a significant extent, these comprising around 50% of all interviewer utterances. The proportion of invitations, which the research community recommends interviewers to rely on, was strikingly low. Invitations and directive utterances were associated with an increase in informative responses by the child in terms of response type, number of new details reported, as well as length of response. The opposite was true for option-posing and suggestive utterances. Longer questions by the interviewer (in number of words) often rendered no reply from the child, whereas shorter questions were followed by descriptive answers. Even after the child had provided an informative answer, interviewers failed to follow up the information in an adequate way and instead continued to rely on focused and leading questions. Study II: Due to the possible bias of the sample analysed in Study I, the most important analyses were rerun with the unselected sample and reported separately. Results were quite similar between the two studies, indicating that the problems observed in Study I, with interviewers relying on option-posing and suggestive questions to a significant extent, are likely to be general and not specific for those interviews. Even if suggestive questions were slightly less and invitations slightly more common in this sample than in the previous study, almost half of the interviewer questions were still optionposing or suggestive, and also in this sample, interviewers failed to follow up information by the child in a facilitating manner. Differentiating between judicial and contextual details showed that while facilitators, invitations, and directive utterances elicited more contextual than judicial details, the opposite was true for specific suggestive utterances. These results might be explained by the reluctance of children to describe sexual details related to the abuse events. Alternatively, they may also be due to children describing incorrect sexual details as a result of suggestive interviewing techniques. Study III: This study examined features of the language used by the interviewers. Interviewer utterances included multiple questions, long statements, complicated grammar and concepts, as well as unclear references to persons and situations. More than a fifth of the interviewer utterances were coded as belonging to at least one of these categories. The results suggest that even professionals who are experienced in interacting with children may have difficulties in using a child-sensitive language, adding to the pool of studies showing similar problems to occur in legal hearings with children conducted by lawyers. As children rarely comment on, or even recognise, their lack of comprehension, the use of a language that is too complex can have detrimental consequences for the outcomes of investigative interviews. Interviewers used different approaches to introduce the topic of abuse. While 15% of the children spontaneously addressed the topic of abuse, probably indicating that they felt confident with the interviewer and the situation, in almost 50% of the cases, the interviewer introduced the topic of abuse in a way that can be considered leading. Interviews were characterised by a lack of structure, apparent in frequent rapid switches of topic by the interviewer. This manner was associated with a decrease in the number of new details provided by the children. Study IV: This study analysed possible changes in the interview dynamics associated with repeated interviewing, the presence of a support person (related to the child), and the use of anatomically detailed (AD) dolls. Repeated interviewing, in combination with suggestive questions, has previously been found to seriously contaminate children’s accounts. In the present material, interviewers used significantly more suggestive utterances in the repeated condition, thus endangering the reliability of the children’s reports. Few studies have investigated the effects of a support person’s presence at the interview. The results of the present study showed that interviewers talked more and children provided less information when a support person was present. Supporting some earlier findings regarding the use of AD dolls, the present results showed that using AD dolls was associated with longer interviewer utterances and shorter, less responsive, and less detailed child responses. Interviewers used up to five times more unspecific suggestive utterances when dolls were used, for instance through repeatedly asking the child to show “what really happened” with the dolls. Conclusion: The results indicate that CSA interviews in Finland are not conducted in a manner that follows best practice as defined by the research community and as stated in a number of guidelines. When comparing these questioning strategies with the recommendations, which have been predominant in the field for more than ten years now, it can be concluded that the interviews analysed were conducted in a manner that undermines the possibility to elicit an uncontaminated and accurate narrative from the children. A particularly worrying finding was the fact that interviewers did not follow up relevant information by the children in an adequate way. A number of clinical implications can be drawn from the results, particularly concerning the need for improvement in the quality of CSA interviews. There is convincing research regarding how to improve CSA interviews, notably through training forensic child interviewers to use a structured interviewing protocol, and providing them with continuous supervision and feedback. Allocating appropriate resources to improve the quality of forensic child interviews is a matter of protecting the rights of all persons involved in CSA investigations, in particular those of the children