Body cams for accused parents?
May 11, 2018 1:06 PM Subscribe
The reference to slap drones to deter crime in a post about the Culture and the earlier post about somebody under suspicion of child sex abuse got me thinking. What about body cams for parents accused of abuse?
I deal very peripherally with divorce cases in which one parent is accused by the other parent of abusing the child (usually sexually, but the accusations are often of mental or physical abuse too). These cases are tragic. The accused parents often don't see their children for months - and sometimes never. Sometimes they damn well shouldn't. In other cases, the parents are totally innocent and the accusing parents are either deluded or deeply malicious.
Anyway, to connect all these thoughts, my idea was: what if the accused parents in these cases wore police-type body cams for the entire time they were with their children, at least until the court made a ruling? That way they could have custodial time with their children, but just in case they ARE abusers, they'd be deterred by the fact that their abuse would be on camera. Of course, if they weren't deterred, they'd never get a chance to abuse the kids again since the evidence would be on tape. I think innocent parents would leap at this, if it meant they could see their kids for more than an hour a week under supervision. Also, this might deter false accusations, too, since malicious parents would know they couldn't keep the other parent from the kid by simply accusing them (which is their goal).
I googled this, but I couldn't find anything about it. But I'm sure I'm not the first person who has had this idea. So my question is: Why wouldn't this work?
I deal very peripherally with divorce cases in which one parent is accused by the other parent of abusing the child (usually sexually, but the accusations are often of mental or physical abuse too). These cases are tragic. The accused parents often don't see their children for months - and sometimes never. Sometimes they damn well shouldn't. In other cases, the parents are totally innocent and the accusing parents are either deluded or deeply malicious.
Anyway, to connect all these thoughts, my idea was: what if the accused parents in these cases wore police-type body cams for the entire time they were with their children, at least until the court made a ruling? That way they could have custodial time with their children, but just in case they ARE abusers, they'd be deterred by the fact that their abuse would be on camera. Of course, if they weren't deterred, they'd never get a chance to abuse the kids again since the evidence would be on tape. I think innocent parents would leap at this, if it meant they could see their kids for more than an hour a week under supervision. Also, this might deter false accusations, too, since malicious parents would know they couldn't keep the other parent from the kid by simply accusing them (which is their goal).
I googled this, but I couldn't find anything about it. But I'm sure I'm not the first person who has had this idea. So my question is: Why wouldn't this work?
This post was deleted for the following reason: Heya, this is kinda loose and chatty "so I have an idea..." framing for Ask; probably better to do some research first and then if there's some more specific questions you have based on that to bring them over here vs. just brainstorming. -- cortex
It strikes me that short of situations where there is enough existing evidence along with the accusation to indicate a likelihood of abuse taking place, you're presuming the accused is guilty and that they need to prove their innocence, and that's not how things work.
The comparison to police body cameras isn't a good one. Police officers are government employees in a position of public trust and extraordinary authority. Along with that came come a reasonable expectation of monitoring, tracking, etc. Not so for normal citizens.
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 1:23 PM on May 11, 2018
The comparison to police body cameras isn't a good one. Police officers are government employees in a position of public trust and extraordinary authority. Along with that came come a reasonable expectation of monitoring, tracking, etc. Not so for normal citizens.
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 1:23 PM on May 11, 2018
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posted by blnkfrnk at 1:15 PM on May 11, 2018