Brott mot vuxna går före. Polis och åklagares handläggningstider vid misstänkt barnmisshandel 2011

Children exposed to violence are in a very vulnerable situation. Long drawn investigations can have devastating effects, especially when a relative is a suspect. Information to the child during the waiting period is often inadequate or non-existent. A child who has told about beatings and not heeded feel that nobody takes it seriously. When time passes there is a considerable risk that the child has time to forget and find it hard to tell again once it is called in for questioning. It is not unusual that the child has frequent contact with the suspect during the wait and can be forced or bribed to take back their history. For many children a delayed investigation implies that decisions about custody and access are taken on inadequate grounds. At worst, children continue to suffer violence during investigation time.
In 2009 Save the Children prioritized victims of physical child abuse in the family at the clinic in Stockholm. More and more cases of unacceptably long delays in office turnaround time at the police and prosecutors attracted our attention. We decided then to find out if it was more children than those who we met at our office who had to wait too long for the crime they been exposed to would be investigated.
In this report, Save the Children has a main focus on children under 15 where there is evidence of abuse. For the third consecutive year Save the Children review handling times by police and prosecutors at suspected child abuse.