Friday, April 06, 2007

Who will be most affected by Bradford's Bill?

There can be no doubt that the level of family violence reporting will increase after the Crimes Amendment Act comes into force.

I have been reading a CYF Evaluation Report from 2000. The following excerpts point to how the police might react and who will be most effected by the passage of Bradford's Bill. CYF piloted a Safety Assessment Form for Police use when attending family violence incidents, which was intended to assess the safety of any children at the address.

C H I L D , Y O U T H A N D F A M I L Y •
S A F E T Y A S S E S S M E N T F O R M P I L O T
3. There appears to be a tendency for Police to over-identify children in need of statutory intervention. Possible contributing factors are:
• lack of adequate Police training in risk assessment
• a perception by the Police that making such an assessment is a social work,
rather than a Police task




So Police tended to over-identify Maori and Pacific children. Of the 603 SAF notifications, 264 were assessed as needing further action from CYF. Substantiated findings of abuse were entered for 65 children. The percentage of substantiated findings for Maori children were lower than their percentage of SAF notifications.

Tariana Turia knows this and yet is still supporting the legislation. I wish the Maori Party would reconsider.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Lindsay said "I wish the Maori Party would reconsider." I don't.

If the bill is passed and, as a consequence, some of the people who voted for the Party are prosecuted, they will finally realise the Maori Party is devoid of leadership and only interested in political posturing.