The Israeli Independent Public - Abstract of the Inquiry Report - December 2021

Service and in the police, should be reformed to trauma-informed services and should be adapted to children’s life circumstances. (4) A continuity of services should be created, from the moment the abuse is reported and throughout the child’s intervention, in order to preclude situations where the child lacks protection, worsening their trauma. (5) The survivors indicated the need for a single agency responsible for child protection and for coordinating and synchronizing between the different systems. They described feeling extremely lonely and abandoned in their encounters with the different systems. They thus emphasized the urgency of establishing one system of child protection with a protocol ensuring the child is accompanied from the moment the abuse is reported and throughout all the steps of the intervention. | 5. The law enforcement and legal systems Some of the testimonies submitted to the inquiry mentioned the law enforcement system and the legal system in the context of child abuse. Notably, in a relatively low percentage of testimonies (9%) a concrete inquiry was made to the law enforcement system, such as filing a complaint with the police or opening an investigation by a child investigator; in most cases, the abuse was not reported to the legal authorities or investigated by them. Survivors shared how they chose not to avail themselves of these systems due to fear for their emotional survival and the harm they may experience from these systems, based on what they had heard from others. The low rate of contact with the legal system is extremely concerning, and clearly, as part of policy change on child sexual abuse, deep thought must be devoted to creating a conceptual change among children and survivors regarding the legal system as an agency that benefits them. An analysis of testimonies of survivors who did turn to these systems reveals three major themes: proceedings that were not adapted to the survivors of the crime, a need for validation and justice, and fear of the toll criminal proceedings may take.

The Israeli Independent Public Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse

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