[Official approach to sexual abuse].

The topic of sexual abuse must be seen from different points of view as the State presents itself at three levels: legislative executive, and judicial. The executive power is mainly represented by the Jugendamt (Youth Office) whose tasks are set out precisely in the Kinder- und Jugendhilfegesetz (KJHG) (Child Protection Act); however, the Act itself does not state clearly how the responsibilities should be fulfilled. Even so, cooperation between non-government organizations, the Family Court and other cited institutions (i.e. school, police) is necessary. In addition, the staff members of the Youth Office should be experts (i.e. adequate education, advanced training, supervision) but often lack the necessary knowledge of law, developmental psychology and paediatric psychiatry. The necessary skills such as interviewing methods, class- and age-specific language and professional recording are not always available and the plans for the child's care prescibed by the Act are often inadequate. The data-protection regulations play a counterproductive role and financial shortages are often born by the weakest members of the society. The judicial power in the Family Court area has to free itself from possible procedures of the Criminal Court and has to intervene earlier. A legal representation of the child should be made available as soon as possible. The family judges should exhaust all legal possibilities. Police and public prosecution should cooperate better with Youth Protection and Family Courts. Judges should be more willing to believe child-witnesses. All the possibilities of the Code of Criminal Procedure should be used in favour of the child. The compensation for victims of sexual abuse should be more directly aimed towards helping the victims. The legislative power could break up a narrow jurisdiction (continuation of offence, definition of violence, verification of credibility). It could apply new methods (video-recording to replace public examination, psychotherapeutic treatment instead of, or combined with penal sentence sanctions) and correct inadequate acts (competence of Family Court and Guardianship Court, counterproductive data protection). In conclusion, it must be said that many details concerning the official approach to sexual abuse could be improved. However, the main problem lies in the fact that the State does not really attempt to create a systematic solution to sexual abuse. The ad hoc reaction in Germany has led to an uncoordinated set of rules and practices without a common sense of purpose.