Child abuse, Juvenile Court and Child Protection
As producers of The Law in Focus we asked ourselves, if we as a community are sufficiently aware of the enormous damage caused by child abuse and blatant neglect of children.
Are we as a community sufficiently aware of the effects of child abuse and neglect on our society, not only when we consider crime, but also the effects these ills have on our health care and welfare system? Are parents, guardians, the teenage mom and dad sufficiently aware of your responsibilities towards your children?
Child abuse and neglect, teen pregnancy and juvenile crime are not particular inventions of our Sint Maarten community, but are issues many countries are dealing with. Learning from the approaches applied abroad, in particular new approaches to combat these challenges is needed, and a worthwhile exercise when it is obvious that traditional methods fail, and continue to fail as crime and teen pregnancy are increasing.
Starting Thursday October 22, 2009 The Law in Focus in a series of four programs is discussing causes, effects and some very interesting solutions applied by USA based judge Patricia Martin, who serves as the Presiding Judge of the Protection Division/Juvenile Justice Department on the benches of the circuit Court of Cook County in Chicago. A Judge very engaged with “her children”, as she refers to the youngsters she attends to in her Court and or Chamber.
The benefits of a Juvenile Justice system become very clear as we spoke with Judge Martin, which provides food for thought for our own legal system in the Antilles. A judge referring to “her children” as she speaks about both the victims of child abuse and neglect, and juvenile criminals, tells a lot. Serving in a Juvenile Court she said, requires special skills, training (and approaches as we learned from our guest.
Dr. Nilda Arduin,
President Foundation Focus, Producer of The Law in Focus
