Abused children are interrogated eight times

the lesser victims of sexual abuses are heard is eight times, in average, for diverse entities, when they are involved in actions at law.
They pass for the commissions of minors protection, for the policy, technician, psychologists, lawyers, judges.
Is the conclusion of a study elaborated by Catarina Ribeiro, investigator and forensic psychologist.
This "perversion" of the system results in the call "secondary victimization", compelling the child to feel again the abuse, with all the load of additional suffering that such repetition unchains, supports the psychologist. This, without counting on the number of times where it tells the facts to the family or to the teachers.

To avoid the huge repetition of exams, interrogatory and psychological tests is exactly one of the main express claims in a petition of a group of citizens, with eight thousand signatures, that finish to be sent to the President of the Republic.

The moral author of the petition, Clara Sottomayor - teatcher in the Law school of the Catholic University of Oporto and investigator in the domain of maltreatment the children - said to the DN that "this only happens because the system is not organized for the effective protection of the child". The jurist supports that the process would have to be lead, most possible, from an only certification, attended for technician to multidiscipline and recorded in video for future memory ". To remain current practical it "we are to generate a total unjustified suffering the children who already are suffering in excess". On the other hand, the master in Family law observes that the international experience indicates that the repetition of the certifications does not favor the approach to the truth, in the measure where the certifications tend to suffer a distortion for the effect from suggestion of successive questionnaires.

In the petition, people of the area of justice, medicine, psychology, culture, among others, appeal to the "establishment of social, administrative, legal measures and judicial that carry through the duty of protecção of the State in relation to the children trusted to the guard of institutions, as well as that they assure the respect for the special necessities of the child victim of sexual crimes, testify in criminal proceeding". Although not related, the case "Casa Pia" serves of inspiration to the petition. The signatories of the petition also appeal to the necessity of a psychological formation and legal specialized of the part of who works with the victims, magistrates, who has functions of direcção in institutions that receive children and of employees. Programs of sensitization and information to the population, nominated to the children, for prevention of the pedofilia, are also complained. The petition can be subscribed in
www.petiononline. com/crianças/petition.html.|
CARLA AGUIAR
took from: http://dn.sapo.pt/2008/01/11/sociedade/criancas_abusadas_interrogadas_oito_.html