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Tragedies must not be repeated in which children abused by their parents lose their lives without being kept in protective custody by child consultation centers. Under a new framework with the involvement of the judiciary, a system should be put in place to promptly save such children.
Temporary protective custody, in which child consultation centers take away children suspected of being abused from their parents, is fraught with complicated problems. There is no end to cases in which children die from abuse or are injured while the centers hesitate to provide protection because of strong opposition from the parents.
On the other hand, there have been cases in which children were protected for a long period of time by the centers, but it was eventually determined that no abuse had occurred.
For this reason, a “judicial review” system will begin in June in which a court will decide whether to put a child suspected of being abused under temporary protective custody. Under the system, if a parent refuses to comply, the court will review the case and issue a “warrant for temporary protective custody” to a child consultation center should the court deem that safeguarding is necessary.
It is expected that assessing family situations by incorporating objective court judgments will facilitate protection when necessary.
However, the introduction of the judicial review system will place a heavier burden on child consultation centers, such as having them perform administrative procedures.
When local child consultation centers implemented the new system on a trial basis, it reportedly took more than eight hours to request one warrant for temporary protective custody from the court. It appears that it takes time to hear the opinions of parents and children and prepare documents that corroborate abuse cases, among other procedures.
The total number of cases of abuse handled by child consultation centers nationwide exceeds 200,000 a year, keeping the personnel extremely busy. Of these, the number of temporary protective custody cases subject to judicial reviews is estimated to be around 3,300, and there are concerns that, without a reduction in the burden on the centers, it will be difficult to conduct smooth reviews.
In addition to efforts to increase the number of personnel, the streamlining of operations at the centers must be promoted. The introduction of a system that automatically transcribes the content of information related to abuse and calls with parents, for example, would save the time and effort needed for creating documents to keep as records.
Some local governments outsource to the private sector the task of confirming the safety of children in cases of abuse reported by residents that are deemed to be less urgent. By doing this, the centers’ personnel can focus on more serious cases. This could be an initiative that can be used as a reference by other local governments.
It is also essential for centers to share abuse information with the police so that they can properly assess the level of danger.
The courts, which will be responsible for judicial reviews, also need to establish a structure to carry out the new system. Training sessions for judges, for example, should be enhanced so that they do not miss any signs of danger.
There also are many matters that need to be coordinated in advance with child consultation centers, such as how to deal with highly urgent cases of abuse that occur during the night.
