The views of SAPS officers about their role and the role of designated social workers in child abuse case management: A qualitative description

Abstract

Child abuse is a global catastrophe, a problem with wide-ranging, destructive consequences for the people who are directly and indirectly affected by it. It is a problem that requires a response from a larger child protection system that includes multiple role players such as designated social workers (DSWs), police officers, legal professionals, and health practitioners. Cooperation between the different role players is a prerequisite for successful investigation and overall management of child abuse cases. A few research studies, which explored the views of social workers and other professionals, highlight the apparent inadequacies of many police officers in executing their role when managing child abuse cases, which is said to lead to poor service delivery, often leaving children behind and negatively affect successful prosecution of such cases. There is, however, a gap in literature about how the SAPS view these different roles in the management of child abuse cases. Understanding their views will support efforts toward solution formulation. Therefore, in response to this gap, a qualitative study was executed to describe the views of some SAPS officers based in Hillbrow, Gauteng, on their role and the role of designated social workers in the management of child abuse cases. Participants were recruited through a self-referral process and snowball sampling. Thirteen participants took part in the study and data was collected by means of one-on-one semi-structured interviews. Data was transcribed and analysed through thematic analysis. In relation to the findings on SAPS officers' view of their role in the management of child abuse, six themes were identified: open a case, statutory intervention, interaction with other role players, investigate and arrest, participating in judicial process and police conduct/attitude vs. victim response. The role and duties of designated social workers in the management of child abuse cases included: initiation of investigations, statutory intervention, counselling services and police experiences when working with DSWs. Serendipitous findings are also reported. The findings of the study help us better understand, why there are problems in the larger child protection system in terms of professional collaboration and service delivery; and the study findings also help us formulate further research agendas toward solutions in this regard. Conclusions and recommendations follow.