[The judge facing physical and sexual abuse in children]

The author, a judge at the Juvenile Court of Grenoble, explains the judicial responses and the role of the judge in response to child physical and sexual abuse in the French judicial system. In the case of physical abuse, the judge has two main objectives: to define the type of abuse inflicted and to protect the child. The knowledge of the type of violence is required in order to understand the aggressive behaviour of the parents to determine whether this could be included in the constitutional parent-child relationship, or an educative response, or an isolated incident of intolerance. The familial and social environment, parents and child previous histories, and child behaviour are important criteria in this analysis from which the judge will decide upon which type of protective measure to take. For sexual offences against children and adolescents, the French Penal Code defines three categories: rape, indecent assault with violence, and indecent assault without violence. The latter condition is the most frequently encountered and the judge is frequently confronted with a lack of evidence. Therefore the report of the initial complaint by the child is essential. Besides the penal procedure adopted by the public prosecutor overrides the procedure of educative assistance. This procedure has two main goals: to give psychological assistance to the abused child or adolescent, and to help reconstruct the family when, as is usually the case, the assailant is a member of the family.