– This is a type of matters which must faster through the system, says lawyer Erik Widerøe, the Norwegian broadcasting corporation NRK.
A working group appointed by the ministry of Justice and public security has investigated why the police often spend a long time in cases concerning ill-treatment and abuse against children in close relationships.
A report with 25 proposals for action was published in march of last year and the matter has now been at the hearing.
One of the suggestions from the workgroup is to replace the current deadline of 90 days for voldssaker – which often is about violence between adults – with a deadline in the barnevoldssaker.
bar association REQUIRES DEADLINES: Attorney Erik Widerøe meet the children and their families who fixed a lawyer in cases of violence and abuse against children. He is also involved in the bar association that requires deadlines in this type of cases.
Photo: NRK “Logical inconsistency”
Seven of the ten public prosecutors in Norway supports the proposal to drop the 90-day deadline in voldssaker. They will instead impose deadlines in cases of violence and abuse against children.
Statsadvokatembetet in Vestfold, Telemark and Buskerud, type the following at the hearing:
“It has been a logical inconsistency that voldssaker of a less serious character has saksbehandlingsfrist, but not criminal cases that are being investigated, such as violence in close relationships”,
Stressful waiting time
the director of public prosecutions, who has the overall responsibility for all straffesaksbehandling in Norway, has for several years asked the police to prioritize investigations about violence against children.
They are not satisfied with the time spent in many of the cases.
“In many cases, it goes for a long time from review to påtaleavgjørelse in the police. The result is stressful waiting time for those involved. Little less time in the police, strafferabatt by * the passing of sentences”, writes the director of public prosecutions in do so.
An investigation from the Norwegian broadcasting corporation showed that serious barnevoldssaker were lying untouched for months.
In one of the cases known the baby not left his father when he was acquitted over 3 years after he was charged with gross violence.
Barnevoldsparadokset
Violent parents get strafferabatt
the attorney general is negative to the deadline
But the attorney general is skeptical to introduce time limits for the proceedings.
“Deadlines do not take into account the case’s scope and character varies,” writes attorney general by Riksadvokatembetet, Birgitte Istad in an e-mail to NRK and elaborates:
“They can affect the quality of etterforskninga negative. Deadlines also have a tendency to go out of other cases that are less serious. The director of public prosecutions believe it is more important for the progress of how the investigation is organised. That investigation is targeted and controlled, and that one leads to the control of the matters are not lying”.
WARY OF the DEADLINE: attorney general at attorney general, Birgitte Istad, mean it is more important that the investigation is well organized than that it introduced deadlines in cases of violence and abuse against children.
Photo: attorney general disagrees with the director of public prosecutions
Erik Widerøe in the bar association supports the proposal to introduce time limits in cases of violence and abuse against children.
– the bar association is for the deadlines. But it is not enough that the police have a time limit. The court must also have a deadline, says Widerøe, the Norwegian broadcasting corporation NRK.
How often do you see that children are children placed in temporary fosterheimer while the investigation is in progress?
we experience quite often. It may take a half a year. So it turns out that it was not due for review. That it was not like you thought it was. So should children be returned to the family. It is not something simple.
But can not deadlines go out over the quality of the etterforskninga?
– Here is the talk about continuity. Then it will be a good and safe investigation. Etterforskninga is lessened when a case is lying, believes that Widerøe.
WILL HAVE a DEADLINE: the district attorney in the county of Møre and Romsdal, Inger Myklebust Ferstad, believes that the deadlines in cases that utelivsvold must give way to deadlines in barnevoldssaker.
Photo: Ingrid Telset Heltne / NRK Will scrutinize the deadline for utelivsvold
Statsadvokatembetet in the county of Møre and Romsdal believes that consideration for the children must be emphasized. District attorney Inger Myklebust Ferstad writing this in the do so:
“Even though the deadline for voldssaker have had a special reason, namely, to quickly and effectively combat the samfunnsproblemet as utelivsvold represents, it seems proper that this must give way to more important considerations. By scarcity of resources, need priorities to be done. It appears that the right that children who violated the party must win this battle”.
“We agree that saksbehandlingsfristen for voldssaker should be replaced with a deadline in cases where the offended person is a child and prone to violence”, writes førstestatsadvokat in Trøndelag, Bjørn Kristian Soknes in do so.
Kripos believes that the workload has been huge,
Anders goes against the deadlines in the hearing and believes other measures should be considered. They believe that the short processing time does not necessarily mean the high quality in the investigation:
“and yet, There is a clear risk that a too large focus on the processing time can be at the expense of other kvalitetsmarkører in the investigation”.
Anders writes in his responses received can be seen that it should be considered whether it is allocated sufficient resources.
“the Workload for the involved investigators and påtalejuristene has been great. Anders is familiar with that this has led to high staff turnover both at avhørere and avhørsledere the last few years”.
Anders is positive that it is made an overview of different measures that will be able to improve police, prosecution and courts ‘ treatment of these cases.
NRK has not been given access to do so from the Police in the internal hearing.
Etterforskningsledere switch alarm
Not enough police officers to investigate barnevold
