NCJ Number
188664
Journal
Child Abuse Review Volume: 10 Issue: 1 Dated: January-February 2001 Pages: 60-69
Date Published
January 2001
Length
10 pages
Annotation
This paper provides background information about personnel selection to protect children in the United Kingdom from child abuse in schools, children’s residential facilities, and similar settings and describes legislation to make it a criminal offense for someone with convictions for offenses against children to apply for work with children.
Abstract
The Criminal Justice and Court Services bill applied not only to child sexual abusers but also to others who had offended against children. The bill resulted from the efforts of an interagency committee initiated in 1998. The bill introduced disqualification orders for such offenders. The legislation complements existing arrangements for the pre-employment screening of child care workers by fitting with existing arrangements for criminal record checks, with current bans, and with the role of the forthcoming Criminal Records Bureau, which would tie these systems together in one agency starting in the summer of 2001. The legislation had not yet been enacted as of August 19, 2000. Finally, it remains to be seen whether the new system will represent a proportionate and measured response to the problem and whether the civil liberties implications have been resolved. 30 references (Author abstract modified)