Mar 27, 2018 By: yunews
Daniel Pollack, professor at , with Lisa Thurau 鈥91C, executive director of Strategies for Youth, for the March 14, 2018, issue of New York Law Journal. Titled 鈥淚mproving Training, Interviewing Skills When Investigating Pre-Teens, Adolescents,鈥 the authors argue that law enforcement agencies need to train and guide law enforcement officials to handle cases with youth with the skills, resources, and information necessary to avoid results leading to severe miscarriages of justice resulting in traumatic impacts.
First, police and prosecutors need to understand that 鈥渋n the delinquency setting, young children do not perceive, process, and experience the world as adults do and also need to be treated differently,鈥 a point recently made by Judge Jane Stranch of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit when she wrote in a case that 鈥渋t is of unquestionable importance that law enforcement officers receive proper training and support in how to understand and interact with children鈥攚hether they are accusers or the accused鈥攊n a way that recognizes the unique needs and vulnerabilities of children.鈥
Clearly, policies, practices, and training need to shift, but one of the obstacles is the 鈥渄ecentralized model of policing,鈥 which often means that 鈥渟tates do not take responsibility for ensuring that appropriate policies exist and are followed, and whether they have been updated to reflect the law and best practices.鈥 Litigation, then, remains the only way to challenge these policies, but litigation has limits when it comes to enforcing changes.
The authors conclude that 鈥渨ithout state-sponsored statutory or regulatory oversight mechanisms, there are few incentives to ensure that law enforcement practices for young children will change quickly. And that鈥檚 tragic.鈥
