DATE: Tuesday, May 27, 1997                 TAG: 9705240007

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B8   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Editorial

                                            LENGTH:   47 lines

CHILD ABUSE BALANCING RIGHTS

Virginia's Department of Social Services wants to reduce the amount of evidence needed to declare a child to be a victim of abuse.

Initially, that sounds very noble: It appears to be a step toward better protecting the children of the commonwealth. But child abuse is a highly emotional issue and the protection of children who may have been abused must be balanced against the rights of those accused - often wrongly - of abusing children.

The proposed change would not affect the criminal definition of child abuse in the code of Virginia. The changes that are being proposed are administrative and could allow bureaucrats to tar citizens with damning charges in the absence of a criminal conviction.

When a child is declared to be a victim of abuse, another person is usually declared to be his abuser. This designation is often used to prevent a parent from having unsupervised visits with a child or to decide child custody. It can follow a person for the rest of his or her life.

A person whose name appears on the commonwealth's Central Registry of child abusers is identified as an abuser - even if that person has never been convicted of the crime of child abuse.

Unfortunately, it is easy to abuse child abuse laws. It is not unheard of to level false charges in a nasty divorce, for instance.

Child abuse is a serious problem. Because the victims are young, these cases are often difficult to investigate and prosecute. But before making drastic changes in its regulations, the Department of Social Services must make a convincing case that it lacks the tools to aid abused children now. So far, it has not.

The department is also calling for tape-recorded interviews with children when abuse is suspected. Curiously, some social workers are opposed. They argue that children frequently change their stories in the course of an investigation and having those tales on tape would weaken the case against the accused.

Maybe. But defending oneself against charges of child abuse is tough. It is one instance in our justice system where the accused really must prove his innocence. Tape recording all interviews would help both sides in suspected child abuse cases.

We urge the department to go slowly before changing its threshold of proof in child abuse cases. The only thing as bad as child abuse is wrongly labeling someone a child abuser.

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