The investigation also sheds light on the “deficiencies” that the judicial system has and that cause it to “not be up to par with children,” in the words of Carolina Perazzo, director of social impact of the aforementioned onegé.
The child protection law, better known as the ‘Rhodes law’ in reference to the pianist James Rhodes who suffered sexual abuse in his childhood, required specialized courts in the violence suffered by children in June 2022 but Spain “is more than a year late,” as reported by Carmela del Moral, head of childhood policies at Save the Children, this Thursday in the presentation of a study that analyzes almost 400 sentences on sexual abuse and concludes that eight out of every Ten attackers are known to the victims. That is, they are relatives, educators, monitors, neighbors…
The research also sheds light on the “deficiencies“that the judicial system has and that cause it to “not live up to childhood”, in the words of Carolina Perazzo, director of social incidence of the aforementioned onegé. These failures could be resolved if Spain implemented the specialization of the courts but, during the last legislature, there were three legislative projects where the judicial system could have been reformed – without passing a specific law – but none of them ever saw the light of day. For this reason, Save the Children has asked the new Government this Thursday to “prioritize” judicial specialization in children during the next legislature.
Only in 24.9% of the processes for sexual abuse of minors is pre-constituted evidence used, which allows the testimony to be recorded so that the child does not have to repeat it
To comply with the ‘Rhodes law’, both the investigative and prosecution courts should specialize and it is “essential” that there be a prosecutor’s office specific violence against children, differentiated from the juvenile prosecutor’s office (which deals, among other powers, with minors who commit crimes). Likewise, the norm provides that specialized training be provided to legal operators, that there is legal assistance to victims from the beginning to the end of the process and, above all, that all minors under 14 years of age can testify through the pre-constituted testwhich consists of recording their statement during the instruction phase so that the child does not have to repeat, over and over again, the sexual assaults suffered in front of strangers, which represents secondary victimization.
The pre-made test
According to the analysis of the almost 400 sentences, pre-constituted evidence was used in only 24.9% of the cases. In the rest, the minor had to declare up to three times, before the police or civil guard, the prosecutor’s office and the judge. “This means that violence is revived, in a space that is not adapted or with professionals who are not specialists and do not know how to treat children,” denounced Perazzo. Likewise, the report reveals that in the 2019-2020 period, 67.3% of the processes were resolved in two years and in the 2021-2022 period only 23.5%. “We do not know the reasons but it is important to emphasize it because the judicial process cannot become an ordeal,” said the director of social advocacy at Save the Children.
Fortunately, the situation could change in the future because the autonomies are, little by little, implementing the model Barnahus (which translates to children’s houses in Icelandic). The Barnahus consist of a space for comprehensive care for children who have suffered sexual assaults where all institutions coordinate and work under one roof to avoid secondary victimization. In this space you can carry out the recording of the child’s testimony in a friendly environment, with appropriate technology and specialized professionals. For this reason, the Council of Europe recommends its implementation.
In Spain the first Barnahus opened in Tarragona in 2020 and since then seven autonomies are following the same path. The opening of a house for children victims of sexual abuse in Madrid and another in Euskadi is imminent. “The extension of the Barnahus model and the specialization of the courts must go hand in hand,” claimed Carmela del Moral.