Introduction
The process of investigating crimes committed against children is complex and requires a lot of sensitivity to a number of issues. To begin with, children as minors may be unable to avail the information required for the successful prosecution of the offenders and may need protection from the criminals (Ferraro Casey & McGrath, 2004). Secondly, some of the crimes committed against children are too serious and cause injuries to them, thereby causing them to need special treatment before being able to express themselves about the crimes. Thirdly, children are vulnerable to multiple crimes but may not be able to express themselves to reveal the perpetrators of the crimes against them especially if the suspected criminals are their relatives or guardians (Turvey, 2008).
Another concern about crimes against children is the role of investigators in handling the crimes against children. It is obvious that for an investigation to be effective, the investigator or group of investigators have to be impartial in their duties. This requires a commitment to the terms of service as stipulated in the legal procedures of operation. However, as human beings with feelings, there is a tendency that investigators will lean towards the child victims of crime particularly if the public opinion about a particular crime is that the perpetrator of the crime should be subjected to harsh punishment. The issue becomes more convoluted if the investigators involved are parents with children of the same age as those involved in the crimes being investigated (Turvey, 2008).
This paper will evaluate the above issue with particular concern that investigators are supposed to be dispassionate or neutral while collecting information about crimes involving children. But where the investigators are parents, this becomes complicated as it becomes difficult to separate the roles of the investigators in their job and as parents.
Overview of the role of investigators in crimes involving children
According to Morgan and Zedner (1992), investigators of crimes involving children have to ensure that their operations enhance the coordination and cooperation between various police departments and social service providers in order to promote good collection and compilation of information regarding the crime. The investigators, therefore, have to ensure that the information they collect is very reliable and not subjected to any form of bias to facilitate correct handling of the matter by the relevant authorities (Morgan and Zedner, 1992).
The second responsibility of investigators is to increase awareness about the various types of crime committed against children such as sexual abuse, other forms of child exploitation, and pornography (Ferraro Casey & McGrath, 2004). Along this line, the investigators have to ensure that they analyze all forms of crime committed against children in order to come with sufficient evidence against the perpetrators of the crimes. This information is important in creating awareness about the occurrence of similar crimes or providing important ideas about the identification of different types of crimes against children.
The third role of investigators in crimes involving children is to ensure that they reduce repeat interviews of children and or repetitions of medical examination for the children whose rights are violated (Morgan and Zedner, 1992). This requires that the investigator be very keen in their first contact with child victims of crime. The reason for this is that the first contact is very crucial as it may provide the bulk of information required in a particular investigation. Subsequent contacts may be affected as the child victims of crime may be influenced by some authorities to provide fallacious information.
The fourth task of crime investigators in crimes against children is that their work should be able to facilitate effective decision-making and disclosures (Morgan and Zedner, 1992). Of particular importance in this context is the fact that the investigation findings are usually relied upon in a number of legal issues concerning particular crimes against children.
The fifth role of crime investigators involved in cases affecting children is to ensure that their findings can be used reliably to provide protection for the victims and other support facilities to the victims’ families (Turvey, 2008). Thus the information availed by the crime investigators must be unprejudiced and offering a detailed explanation of the events in the crime or crimes against children.
Nature of crime investigators
According to Turvey (2008), the complexity of crimes is not confined to the layman- even crime investigators have difficulties in understanding some vastly complex crimes. In addition, many people including laymen, professionals, and the police are usually seldom in a position to study crimes such as those involving murders, they can only solve common varieties of crimes (Turvey, 2008). It is therefore imperative that while handling such crimes, investigators should be impassionate and neutral; which is particularly difficult since investors, like all human beings, can be overcome by feelings when investigating some crimes against children.
Turvey (2008) notes a number of qualities that crime investigators should possess in order to facilitate good delivery of service. Some the qualities are common and can be attained through regular training and experience and include an abundant possession of energy at all times, a good business head, good education, total accuracy and correctness in the search for facts involved in crimes and their causes as well as in the exposition of a problem. The investigators should also possess clever reckoning skills and be fine in speculating skills (Turvey, 2008).
Perhaps one of the most important aspects of crime investigators is the possession of a high grade of selfless power and an unostentatious character with a slight interest in public success (Turvey, 2008). This implies being impassionate and neutral. However, it is one of the most challenging attributes in that crime investigators will certainly not always be neutral depending on the nature of crimes committed against children. As parents, the investigators are likely to be touched so much by the crimes committed against children since they may regard the children as their own. Consequently, they may disregard the aspect of being selfless and reason with biased interest in the children’s rights against those of the criminals. This may affect the nature of findings collected by the investigators, as they will be done in favor of the children, even if the crimes purported to have been committed are mere allegations.
Another important attribute of crime investigators is that they should have profound knowledge of human beings including criminals, victims, witnesses, and experts (Ferraro Casey & McGrath, 2004). Nevertheless, this attribute is also difficult to attain since a good understanding of the human being is affected by a person’s own opinion about humanity. This aspect makes it difficult for investigators to be critical of child victims of crime if they are parents. There is a high likelihood of the investigators taking the position of a “mother” or “father” of the child. Such a standpoint affects the quality of investigation done by the investigators.
Criminal investigators should also be honest personalities and be able to reason in an agreeable manner (Turvey 2008). However, the quality of being honest is relative and depends on different personalities. It may occur that the investigator may not, in reality, be dishonest in their procedures, but if they are parents, they may be traumatized by the magnitude of crimes committed against children such as rape, molestation, child labor, and so forth. The magnitude of the crime may be so grave that if the investigators put themselves in the position of the children’s parents, they may not be neutral in their investigation but will favor children so that the perpetrators of the crimes may get harsher punishments.
All criminal investigations require methodical approaches in addition to the scientific approaches used in which knowledge and precision are indispensable factors in tracking criminals (Turvey 2008). In this context, investigators are supposed to ensure that they follow all steps required in obtaining substantial information about crimes committed against children. However, common knowledge has it that children may not be able to narrate certain events like adults. They will require some form of prodding in order to volunteer information, whose description may not be sequential. This may require the investigator to be involved in ensuring that the information relayed by the victims makes sense when presented before an audience. However, this involvement may require a bit of professional reasoning that calls for attention to the principles of criminal investigation so that the information relayed does not portray any preconceived notions. Nevertheless, as parents, investigators are likely to prod children who are victims of crime by asking them questions in a similar manner that they would use to ask their children. This parental feeling translates into the development of personal feelings for the children and sympathizing with their condition, such that the information obtained may be oriented in favor of the victims while being biased against the criminals.
According to Ferraro, Casey, and McGrath (2004), the criminal investigation is concerned with people and things, and only people commit crimes. An effective criminal investigation must therefore dual, i.e. encompassing both people and things. Along this line, criminal investigation officers must read widely so that they can be able to provide appropriate information in various circumstances. The information obtained through reading may help the investigators to be more critical in their duties and avoid being passionate or biased. However, this is also depended on the investigators’ personality since reading per se may not impart a major change in their personal feelings.
Conclusion
A criminal investigation is a complex process, particularly where the investigators in crimes involving children are themselves, parents. It has been noted in this paper that as parents, criminal investigators may develop personal feelings for child victims of crime and carry out investigations in their favor- to the detriment of the criminals.
References
Ferraro, M. M., Casey, E. & McGrath, M. (2004). Investigating child exploitation and pornography: the Internet, the law and forensic science. New York: Academic Press.
Morgan, J. & Zedner, L. (1992). Child victims: crime, impact, and criminal justice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Turvey, B. E. (2008). Criminal Profiling: An Introduction to Behavioral Evidence Analysis. New York: Academic Press.