should abused kids be locked up?

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I posted this question before, but then I learned from a legal forum that it was my mistake: minor victims of abuse can only be locked up if they are runaways or acting in a way that will endanger them or others. Locking up a kid just because he's a victim of abuse is illegal.

However, forty four percent of those who answered the poll on various forums voted it's ok to lock up a kid. Now I wonder if it was because they meant a runaway or otherwise troublemaker kid. This left me curious to know how people feel, what people want.

So, here's a new poll. In cases like this only: A child was abused by his/her parents, and so the parents were taken to jail. The cops take the kid to the hospital and then when released from hospital to the police station. It's a rural area, and children services should take four hours to get there. There's nowhere to put the kid but in the police station.

The kid is NOT a runaway or a troublemaker. He/she is not out of control, and never broke the law.

If it was up to you, if you were the decision maker and the law allowed it, would you allow the cops to lock up the kid in a holding cell in the police station, alone, all by himself, until a social worker arrived, or would you demand the kid will not be locked up while waiting in the police station? Wait in the police station, but not in a locked cell.

I think it's terrible to lock up an abused child if they haven't done anything wrong. It would give them the impression that they're in trouble, and give them an unwarranted mental scar. I think they should wait in the police station, but with somebody by them to check if they are okay.

My friend's mom used to work as a police dispatcher in a small town back in the late seventies and early eighties while she was going to school for nursing. I heard they had a couple kids like you're talking about in this post at the station, but they didn't lock them up in a cell while they waited. I don't know if that's a matter of time or place. I do think that's closer to the right solution though.

I imagine locking them in a cell would just further traumatize them, why couldn't they just sit at the police station while waiting for child services without being 'locked up' as to me that seems cruel and unnecessary, same with if they simply ran away due to trying to get away from abuse....a jail cell is not appropriate in either of those cases. In fact that should only be used when someone commits a crime and is under arrest for said crime, like if the kid tried robbing someone with a weapon or something as being abused does not excuse that sort of thing.

I wanted to vote to lock the parents/abusers up, but you seem to have left it off your poll?

No absolutely not. For that 4 hours the police are the child's legal guardian and custodian. Would it be perfectly ok for any other type of guardian such as a foster parent, teacher or daycarer to confine the kid in a cage? No. That's considered abuse in itself.

Surely the police aren't THAT busy. Get a constable or two to entertain the kid with some TV or colouring in, maybe even let the kid help themselves to someones desk space to sit. Putting them in a cell is just lazy because they can't be arsed supervising them properly (like a guardian should).

Who in their right mind would lock up the VICTIM of a crime, rather than the perpetrator? I say the law needs to get tough on parents who abuse their kids, because abuse seriously screws people up, and kids who are abused growing up often end up become abusers themselves, perpetuating the cycle.

Usually they try and place them with relatives, and if thats not possible they place them in foster care. If they go to the hospital then they can keep them there for the few hours or even overnight until the foster parents or the relatives can come pick them up from there. They can watch tv or play with toys or read, and hospitals usually have at least one of those things.

If they can't be picked up at the hospital for whatever reason, then the police or someone from social services can take them from the hospital to the relative's house if they live within a reasonable distance or to the foster family's home.

I don't think I've ever heard of abused children being locked in a jail cell unless they were being disruptive or something similar. Also, kids under about 16 are usually not locked up in the adult jail cells, they are taken to juvenile holding, which is different.

I think having them wait at the hospital is perfectly acceptable. It's probably better than waiting in the waiting area of the police station.

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