'Most child sex offenders have no criminal past'

 In a majority of sexual assaults on children at schools in the City, the perpetrators had no prior record of any crime. In such a situation only background verification, no matter how stringent, of the school’s staff is not enough and there is a need of an additional check in the form of a psychological and scientific assessment of the staff.

This was one of the three suggestion given by M Chandrashekar, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime), representing the City police, at the consultation on the draft of the ‘Karnataka State Child Protection Policy, 2015’ here on Friday. Chandrashekar said:

“Almost 99 per cent of the criminals caught in such crimes do not have any criminal antecedents. We have therefore suggested that a sort of psychological profiling and assessment be done for all the staff."

 However, when asked if such a strategy would work, he said that it was only an additional measure and “he did not know.”

Chandrashekhar also asked for a greater  role of the police in child protection committees since it was the police that took all the beating from the public when such incidents took place. He said that the issue of installing CCTV cameras should also be included in draft. A number of individuals, NGOs, officials and various other members of the public made their suggestions as well.

A representative of government school for girls in Bidar highlighted the harassment of wards by guardians at home and asked for severe punishment in case of such incidents.   
Child psychiatrist and Nimhans faculty, Shekhar Seshadri questioned a number of widely held norms while dealing with such cases. A “motivated” individual will always find ways to subvert a large number of laws enacted for protecting children. Also, with children having been raised in a “culture of obedience” makes the situation even worse. He further said that there was a need to streamline all medicolegal processes involved in such cases and the establishment of certain protocols with regard to questioning of a child.

D Shashi Kumar,  General Secretary, Karnataka Associated Managements of English Medium Schools (KAMS), submitted objections to the draft that talked about issuing guidelines even for parents with regard to their ward’s safety and enacting a law to protect educational institutions. Women and Child Development Minister Umashree,  Primary and Secondary Education Minister Kimmane Ratnakar,  Health Minister U T Khader,  Law Minister B Jayachandra and a host of officials were present during the consultation.

Registry
Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) M Chandrashekhar talked about a measure to have a registry of sexual offenders although he said that the plan was still at a “nascent stage”. “Planning is process and it is at a stage of discussion,” he said.