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Forensic psychology training for judicial officers handling sexual offences cases
The impact of sexual abuse has far reaching emotional, psychological and psychical effects on victims– women, children, persons with disabilities and other vulnerable groups as they engage the court system.
As such the United Nations Children’s Fund, (UNICEF), and the University of Guyana, (UG)’s Faculty of Health Sciences collaborated with the Judiciary to offer specialized forensic psychology and sexual offences training to court officials involved in the process.
During the launch of the programme on Tuesday, Chancellor of the Judiciary (ag), Justice Yonette Cummings-Edwards, told members of the judiciary who converged at the Savannah suite of the Pegasus Hotel, that the training is important, since insensitive treatment of victims can result in secondary trauma.
“You may ask why the need for training in this field? What does this have to do with law? The complexities of such cases required specialised training on the part of all involved…
A section of the gathering of judicial officers at the launch on Tuesday
“Persons engaged in working in this field also need debriefing exercises, because they, too, can suffer from secondary trauma,” Justice Cummings-Edwards said.
Further, the Chancellor stressed that victims not only require support services but also to be treated with fairness, respect, dignity and privacy.
“Even the offenders cannot be left out in this regard. To ensure prompt, adequate and effective court response to meet both the offender and victim, an intensive approach is needed.”
“The efficacy of the Court will ultimately depend on its personnel. The court and its equipment do not exist in a vacuum,” she added.
Justice Cummings-Edwards emphasized further that court appointed social workers, probation officers, those providing support services, prosecutors, police officials, the Magistrates, the Judges must be exposed to some level of training.
She therefore dubbed the programme, another step in the right direction.
In her remarks, UNICEF Country Representative to Guyana and Suriname, Sylvie Fouet stated that the rate of, sexual violence against children in Guyana is very alarming.
Fouet pledged further collaboration with various stakeholders, towards addressing the issue. This includes the establishment of the Sexual Offences Court in 2017 and the Juvenile Justice Court in 2018.
“In 2019 and 2020, there are plans to bring those services to scale with the leadership of the judiciary, we are looking at expanding the court system outside of Georgetown in Berbice and Essequibo, therefore, increasing access of services to children who have been abused,” Fouet stated.
Meanwhile Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences, Dr. Emmanuel Cummings, highlighted the importance of DNA profiling in solving sexual offences cases.
Dr. Cummings explained that the evidence from DNA profiling can make or break the outcome of a case. He said it can hold the perpetrator accountable, prevent future crimes of a similar nature, increase guilty pleas and result in a reduction of retrials.
With that, the Health Sciences Dean explained that “the applied focus in this course will provide an excellent foundation for continued education for the judiciary in various forms of forensic science including forensic psychology and medical science in an effort to strengthen the justice system by building the capacity for the use and interpretation of more credible evidence.”
The training will commence this weekend. The Magistrates and Judges will undergo 20 hours of training at the University of Guyana Turkeyen Campus.
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