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Written: Contributions to Political Comment
2020-02-10 13:22
Last updated: 2020-02-10 13:22According to a recent report, a man who was sentenced to prison for illegal anal sex ten years ago concealed his sexual crimes, worked as a righteous instructor in a charity, and took advantage of a job opportunity to rude two elementary school boys. The behavior of the wolf division is outrageous, but the question we should ask is: Why can a person with a sexual crime case take the opportunity to commit another crime? Can the child protection system in Hong Kong effectively protect the safety of children?
Written by: Dr. Xiao Meijuan, Director-General, International Training Centre
The report also pointed out that the mentor had already signed a statement under the witness of the boy's mother and charity staff, confirming that he did not have any sexual conviction records in Hong Kong. In fact, cases like "sex hunters" are not uncommon. The famous foreign scholar Finklehor pointed out that when studying the psychology of sexual offenders, sexual offenders generally need to go through 4 processes to commit crimes: including "motivation of crime", "overcoming psychological barriers to self", "overcoming external environmental barriers", and "finding suitable victims" By". Many people think that charity employees and volunteers are mostly caring "careers", but they may ignore the prevention of some criminal motives in the recruitment process and want to abuse children through the convenience of work. Another British study pointed out that 58% of those interviewed for child sex crimes admitted that they would choose to work with children in frequent contact to commit crimes, and 78% of the offenders said they would specifically select out-of-organizational environments to contact and abuse children . The so-called "day defense and night defense, family thieves are difficult to prevent", a comprehensive mechanism for checking sexual conviction records can be said to be the first checkpoint for assisting institutions to "prevent sex offenders and protect the safety of children."
Imitation of the UK's enhanced conviction record mechanism for sexual offences
However, is the current conviction record mechanism for sexual offences in Hong Kong complete? The current sexual conviction record checking mechanism in Hong Kong is designed to assist employers in checking and approving employees' conviction records, and to ensure that those who come in contact with children have a “clean background” and are suitable for working with children. However, the mechanism is only voluntary, and it does not cover private tutors and volunteer workers. Many organizations can only ask volunteers or related parties to sign a "clean statement", which is better than nothing. Moreover, as the mechanism is only open for use by institutional employers, parents have no way of knowing the conviction records of the private tutors they have hired, which has made children accidentally fall into the claws of potential offenders.
We recommend that the government refer to the United Kingdom's Child Sexual Offender Disclosure Initiative to strengthen child protection mechanisms. Users of the Child Sexual Assault Disclosure Scheme in the United Kingdom have a broader coverage, allowing children's agencies, parents or caregivers to check whether people who have contact with children, including volunteers, private tutors, and others have a history of committing child sexual crimes. The police will assess the risks posed to the child by the person involved and decide whether to meet with the applicant to disclose the details without prior consent from the person involved. Furthermore, the UK government mandates that child-related agencies must report to the local government suspected child abuse incidents within the agency and assist police investigations. In addition, if an agency or employee dismisses a child because it poses a risk to the child, they must report to the authorities and include the person on the "prohibited list", prohibiting them from engaging in child-related work, and preventing the person from working with children again Crime. This improved safety network prevents a wider range of suspicious individuals, whether salaried or volunteer, from reaching and abusing children again.
Prepare for a Child Prevention Policy
However, even a comprehensive sexual crimes inspection mechanism is only a “secondary precautionary measure.” In addition to strengthening the sexual offenders inspection mechanism to help agencies prevent people who pose a risk to child safety during the recruitment process, the government also needs to supervise and blame. Assist organizations to set up a “guardian child policy” and establish child-friendly and friendly codes of conduct and regulations. For example, staff members should avoid being alone with children, establish a comprehensive reporting policy, and increase the awareness of children's self-protection in order to reduce criminal motivation. Opportunities for individuals to commit crimes within the institution. Organizations also need to make parents and children aware of the organization's measures to protect children, and to let children know how to turn to the organization for help if there are safety concerns, to reduce the chances of children being harmed.
The incidents of sexual assaults on children of "righteous religions" and "private supplements" have occurred one after another. The government authorities must urgently improve the mechanism of "sex crime conviction record check", supervise and assist organizations to establish "guardian policies". The International Child Care Association is also actively expanding the training and advisory services related to guarding children. It is hoped that it can assist various children's organizations to formulate institutional policies so that children can grow up in a safe and friendly environment and health.
References:
1. The boy boy concealed the case as an obligatory tutor to recognize the indecent assault. The two boys wanted to assess the impact on the victim's family (HK01):
https://bit.ly/38vUaxX
2. Finkelhor, D. (1984). Child Sexual Abuse: New Theory and Research, New York: Free Press.
3. Sullivan J & amp; Beech A (2004). A comparative study of demographic data relating to intra- and extra-
familial child sexual abusers and professional perpetrators. Journal of Sexual Aggression 10: 39–50
(The content of the article represents the author's point of view)
Child abuse