Varela explained that in cases involving minors, the most common assessment is for sexual abuse and ill-treatment, compared to assessments made of adults, which are largely for bodily harm.
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“Comparing all assessments for sex offenses conducted in 2020, between the adult and child populations, which were 3 thousand 12 cases, 2 thousand 587 were minors, which corresponds to 86% of the evaluations performed“, Varela indicated.
The provinces where most juvenile assessments are conducted are Panama, West Panama, Chiriquí, Veraguas, Bocas del Toro. “One in five children evaluated corresponds to the province of Panama, just as one in five corresponds to the province of Chiriquí,” he said.
The specialist said that the cases are treated immediately, once the authority requests it, ie the expert’s opinion leaves immediately, on the contrary, when indications are collected that require criminological analysis, it takes a little longer to get the test result.
Varela pointed out that at national level there are only 87 experts from the forensic medicine sub-directorate related to the assessments of minor victims.
Psychological impact
forensic psychologist David Frías, He said sexual abuse and child abuse cause psychological damage that can last into adulthood. The most common signs that minors show are emotional disorders, low self-esteem, stress, anxiety and self-harming behavior, so it is important that the psychologist performing the intervention of the minor to do it professionally to determine what traumatic event generated the behavior. .
Frías says shelters should be temporary places where children receive support from professionals, which allows them to integrate into their family or society, but unfortunately children are institutionalized in shelters and this also has an impact on mental health. .
“The best thing is that shelters are places that offer the least tools to be able to reintegrate into their family, in the same way that family tools provide them. However, what we see is that, as a result of the long-lasting processes, the child is kept for a long time and this has repercussions on the child’s psychology “, explained frías.
At the national level there are only 25 forensic psychologists that last year they had to participate in 1,664 cases of sexual offenses and 350 cases of child abuse, which is a high demand.
Budget
Vera Varela pointed out that for this year they asked for 50 million dollars, but they were given 48 million dollars, of which 1.5 million dollars were cut, but the needs are multiple, not just hiring experts appropriate, but rather it is necessary to modernize the infrastructure.
“The judicial morgue in Panama is obsolete, falling apart and it is necessary to build a new judicial morgue in accordance with our days, in accordance with modern requirements and accreditations. We are an institution that requires the accreditation of processes, laboratories, departments and experts, so the resources are needed to respond to justice, “he said.
Varela concluded by saying that although they affect the stage of the investigation when these cases go to trial, they also have the social task of presenting statistics so that public policies can be taken, improving security, education and the provision of health services, ie affecting and crime prevention.