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Submitted by camillag on October 3, 2007
Category: Psychology
Words: 2691 | Pages: 11
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Essay 2 : Child Abuse :
Victim rights and the role of legal representative
Sexual abuse cases are incredibly sensitive subjects. The way they are handled is of paramount importance because of their complex nature. This is where the magnitude of the role of the child's representative comes into play; consequently the rights of the child must be enforced with great care. Investigation of the allegations depends on dependable information from the victim (a child in this case) and confirming physical evidence which pertains to the accused, amongst other things. Together, all of this is rare to find. Yuille, Hunter, Joffe and Zaparniuk (1993, p. 95) point out that "typically, there are two witnesses to abuse: victim and offender, and because the abuser usually denies the abuse, knowledge of what happened depends on information the child provides during victim interview", this process is, therefore, the crux of the abuse case.
The Bill of Rights is a crucial dimension in the democracy of South Africa. One of the greatest achievements of the newly formed democracy in 1994 was the chapter 29 in the Bill of Rights which entrenched the rights of children (under the age of 18). In addition, South Africa has ratified the United Nation Convention on the Rights of the Child (which has significantly enlarged public awareness of children's rights), and African Convention on the Rights of the Child. These basic rights, relevant to this essay, include a child's right to be protected from maltreatment, neglect, abuse or degradation and the fact that the child's best interests are of paramount importance in every matter concerning the child. Scheepers (2006, in Spies) establishes these factors as being in the child's best interest: ascertain during trial whether there has been abuse, determine whether the child has been coached and influenced in order to incriminate the accused, and to establish who actually abused the child.
Freeman...
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