Globally, children are considered vulnerable. Research suggests that children are disproportionately more likely to be victims of crime as they often experience crimes in spaces and by people that should keep them safe. Moreover, their victimisation is under- or unreported to the police nor do they readily access other professional victim services. Despite the consensus on their vulnerability as well as wide acceptance and acknowledgement of their victimhood, the nexus between childhood, victimhood and policing is under-researched and under-explored especially in the Caribbean. Within Caribbean communities, policing authorities are required to navigate the associated contexts of smallness, tight-knit kinship networks and relational sensitivities and entanglements that can have an impact on policing child victims. Using this context, the current chapter will focus on policing child victims within the Caribbean. Through data gathered in semi-structured interviews with police officers working with children, the chapter explores how policing practices are contextually informed. It seeks to locate the role of situated knowledge and trauma-informed practices in officers’ subjective understandings of child victimisation and policing practices. Therefore, the chapter intends to provide insights to an underexplored aspect of policing practice within the Global South and contributes to future policing practice regarding policing child victims.

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Policing Child Victims: Responding to Vulnerability Within the Caribbean Context

  • Leah L. Cleghorn

摘要

Globally, children are considered vulnerable. Research suggests that children are disproportionately more likely to be victims of crime as they often experience crimes in spaces and by people that should keep them safe. Moreover, their victimisation is under- or unreported to the police nor do they readily access other professional victim services. Despite the consensus on their vulnerability as well as wide acceptance and acknowledgement of their victimhood, the nexus between childhood, victimhood and policing is under-researched and under-explored especially in the Caribbean. Within Caribbean communities, policing authorities are required to navigate the associated contexts of smallness, tight-knit kinship networks and relational sensitivities and entanglements that can have an impact on policing child victims. Using this context, the current chapter will focus on policing child victims within the Caribbean. Through data gathered in semi-structured interviews with police officers working with children, the chapter explores how policing practices are contextually informed. It seeks to locate the role of situated knowledge and trauma-informed practices in officers’ subjective understandings of child victimisation and policing practices. Therefore, the chapter intends to provide insights to an underexplored aspect of policing practice within the Global South and contributes to future policing practice regarding policing child victims.