INTRODUCTION
Recent literature has recognized child-friendly policing as a critical component of juvenile justice due to the sheer number of children who come into contact with the police. The juvenile justice system involves arrest, judicial recordings and sentencing, among others, targeting the restoration and reintegration of the juvenile (Hoffman and Baerg Reference Hoffman and Baerg2011). On the basis of different philosophies, objectives and codes, juvenile justice systems vary from one country to another. Nonetheless, they all should focus on the best interest of the child (Penal Reform International 2013).
Penal Reform International (2013) and Justice with Children (2021) noted that children and young people come into contact with the police when they are alleged as, accused of, or recognized as having violated the penal law, or as witnesses or victims of crimes. The United Nations World Youth Report (United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs 2003) has previously indicated that the problem of children in conflict with the law has become more intricate and universal. It stated that the number of children who were involved in crime between 1992 and 2000 was projected to have increased from 80 million to 150 million. In the United States alone, an estimated 195,000 young people are reported to be admitted to detention facilities nationwide yearly, and approximately 15,600 are held in detention daily (The Annie E. Casey Foundation 2023).
Mohammadi’s (Reference Mohammadi2021) study found that a projected 30 million children in developing countries face the juvenile crime justice system due to stealing. This is mainly attributed to the poor economic state of these developing countries. According to the Encyclopedia of World Problems & Human Potential (Union of International Associations 2022), boy offenders outstrip girls at a ratio of about 10:1 globally. It noted that among all crimes committed by children, crimes against property including stealing from cars, shops and houses are the dominant ones. A similar trend was found in the report released by the Ghana Prison Service (2023). As at 6 February 2023, the country had a total juvenile prison population of 256, apparently all boys. According to the report, Ghana has a total prison population of 14,922 as against the authorized prison population of 10,265, with the male population standing at 14,753 (98.9%). This validates the assertion that males (both adults and children) dominate in criminal-related activities globally.
The above discussions raise critical issue about juvenile justice across the globe. Justice with Children (2021) noted that policing arrangements in connection with children should be “child-friendly”, a practice that guarantees that children who come into contact with the police and the justice system are treated in a way which is reasonable, suitable and not detrimental. Emotionally and psychologically, the brains of children are less mature than adults. They are also less accountable for the outcomes of their actions; hence, they should be given further attention (Justice with Children 2021; Penal Reform International 2013).
The emerging picture is that every effort should be made to protect any child who comes into contact with the police. This is imperative because the police are normally the leading point of contact for children when they are in challenging situations (Justice with Children 2021).Footnote 1 A secure environment thus provides children with the prospects for all-round development. The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the ChildFootnote 2 expressed that all categories of children accused of infringing the penal code should be treated in a manner that supports their reintegration, and making them productive in society. Children are, thus, precious to nations (Nukunya Reference Nukunya2003) and sensitive in the eyes of the law and society. However, they are exposed to all forms of abuse, and are expected to be trained and protected with decorum to enable them to realize their overall development. Against this frame of thinking, international and national policy documents emphasize having child-friendly police stations that demonstrate child friendliness in attitude, ambience, infrastructure, procedure and enforcement (Ghana Police Service 2016; National Commission for Protection of Child Rights 2017; Penal Reform International 2013).Footnote 3
The United Nations World Youth Report (United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs 2003), however, has hinted that crime prevention strategies and mitigating programmes targeting law-breaking by juveniles across the globe either do not exist or are unsuitable to deal with the realities. It noted that the approaches to these hitches by many developing countries are quite insignificant, and international programmes are perceptibly deficient. The resources for effective policing are under threat due to budgetary constraints (National Commission for Protection of Child Rights 2017). Prevention of criminal activities should be a part of any comprehensive strategy to address crime. The United Nations World Youth Report (United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs 2003) stated that the overall effects of programmes instituted by developed countries targeting juvenile crime prevention are fundamentally weak as the mechanisms in place are often insufficient to address the present-day practicalities.
Consequently, across all social divides, children who have come into contact with the police have often reported negative experiences in their exchanges (Justice with Children 2021). This is detrimental to the development of children and thereby creates enduring strains and distrust between the police and communities (Justice with Children 2021). The United Nations World Youth Report (United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs 2003) advocated that the administration of juvenile justice should be all-inclusive in order to encourage active participation of local authorities in preventing youth crime and reintegrating young offenders into society through support projects, with the ultimate aim of promoting responsible citizenship.
The import of the foregoing ideas is that child-friendly policing and justice delivery require varying resources and inventiveness by the police. Apparently, in Ghana, as across the globe, the police, as an institution primarily responsible for internal security, has come under attack and is known more for its associated bad practices than the challenges which restrain it from any meaningful policing arrangement. A review of present and past scholarly finds that works on the preservation of criminal justice are filled with police misconducts and brutalities. Low public–police collaboration is blamed on police attitude revealed in bribery, breach of trust, crime trade, lack of respect and brutality, among others (Adegoke Reference Adegoke2016; Amagnya Reference Amagnya2017; Atuguba Reference Atuguba2007; Faull Reference Faull2011; Manaliyo Reference Manaliyo2016; Marfo, Badu-Yeboah, and Gyader Reference Marfo, Badu-Yeboah and Gyader2021; Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe 2008; Schanzer et al. Reference Schanzer, Kurzman, Toliver and Miller2016; Wekesa and Muturi Reference Wekesa and Muturi2016). This development, as in Ghana, has slanted public attention from the obvious challenges that militate against any active child-friendly policing and the maintenance of justice for children in the country. This is the niche of the present study.
While so much is demanded from the police in terms of justice delivery, the public voice on the challenges facing the institution is hardly pronounced. Dispersed scholarly works in Ghana (Bagson and Owusu Reference Bagson and Owusu2016; Marfo Reference Marfo2016; Marfo et al. Reference Marfo, Badu-Yeboah and Gyader2021; Owusu et al. Reference Owusu, Owusu, Oteng-Ababio, Wrigley-Asante and Agyapong2016) have cited inadequate service vehicles, modern communication gadgets and personnel as among the challenges confronting the police. For instance, a recent study by Ame et al. (Reference Ame, Laurier, Ayete-Nyampong and Gakpleazi Dzifa2020) on Ghana’s juvenile justice system focused principally on assessing the state of selected formal institutions and agencies in the country. Their study found inappropriate police cells for juveniles on remand, and an inadequate number of juvenile court judges and panel members as among the problems making an impact on the country’s juvenile justice. Important as these studies are, none obviously looked more closely and holistically into the untold challenges which prevent the practice of a meaningful child-friendly policing in the administration of juvenile justice in the country. This underscored the significance of the current study.
The Police as an Innovative Guardian
The proposition is that to be able to safeguard the child’s sense of self-worth, and to achieve the spirit of transformation and reintegration into society, the juvenile justice system should be accorded with special treatment. States in this regard are entreated to uphold the interest of the child as a core value of their implementation of legislative policy. The juvenile justice system is complex by nature and involves a variety of institutions and bodies. Key among these institutions and bodies is the police (Hamilton Reference Hamilton2011; Justice with Children 2021).
Resourcing the police to function as the guardian for children in the juvenile administration system in an ever-changing environment is critical. The duty of the police is not only to prevent and detect crime, and to arrest and detain offenders, but, most importantly, to ensure that the end of justice delivery involving the minor becomes productive. Any justice delivery process which undermines the development of any child is counterproductive to the spirit of the 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana and other legal policy documents targeting the wellbeing of the child. This is in consonance with the principle of the change theory of policing which anchored the present study. Kegley (Reference Kegley2009) wrote that the globe is undergoing a constant and rapid change. He contends that we can make the world better if we can provide the tools necessary for understanding why it exists and how events are unfolding.
Newcomb’s (Reference Newcomb1943) study on attitude and change found that the attitudes of people change as their reference groups change. He posited that people gradually divaricated over time. Change theory of policing associates modifications in policing to changes in societal circumstances. It focuses on the quality and effectiveness of the police in crime control and the administration of criminal justice in the ever-changing environment. It is postulated that policing arrangements change, because the societies in which they operate are dynamic.
The application of change theory in policing is quite relevant in this study in that the emergence of human rights and transformation activism in policing circles, the rise of new politically influential civic society, the growth of child criminality and discourses on child justice, the advent of interest groups in child welfare and the demand for greater accountability from the police require constant overhauling of the police as an institution. The globalized nature of contemporary societies and technological innovations in information processing and communication in criminal science demand that the police should be transformed and galvanize requisite resources and skills to function as a friendly and effective guardian. The police, thus, cannot remain reserved from the changing societal contexts within which they work if they wish to remain sincere and responsive. The complexity of modern societies suggests that the police have to act and react to the changing circumstances so as to make their role beneficial. It is argued that until the mandate of the police matches its resources, the police institution will serve as a scapegoat and the State and society will ever blame it for any criminal justice administration failure. As noted by Penal Reform International (2013), legislative reform in countries targeting the protection of children’s rights in the justice system is necessary. It, however, unequivocally stated that, empirically, support for those who work within the justice systems is the key to effective and fair implementation of the principles of justice.
METHODOLOGY
Research Design
Given the objective of the study, a correlational design was employed. As argued by Creswell (Reference Creswell2009), such a design enables a researcher to use the correlational statistic to describe and measure the degree or relationship between two or more sets of scores. This design helped the researchers to establish the significant agreement among police officers’ ranking scores of challenges in the study locality.
Profile of the Study Locality
The study locality is situated in the Northern Region of Ghana. The region has 16 administrative districts, with a population of 2,310,939 (Ghana Statistical Service 2021). In terms of crime control and justice delivery, the region is under the authority of the Northern Regional Police (1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana, Article 200) with 1,158 police personnel. The region has a police–citizen ratio of 1:1,996, far above the United Nations’ endorsed ratio of 1:500. This by implication exerts much pressure on the police in terms of criminal justice delivery.
Sample
Due to financial constraints (transportation and enumeration costs), the researchers employed the simple random sampling technique to select three police districts out of the 16 in the study region. The selected police districts shared similar characteristics with all the other police districts within the region. According to the Northern Region Police Command (2022), the three selected police districts had a combined police population of 203. Given this information, Yamane’s (Reference Yamane1967) sample size determination approach was employed which enabled the researchers to select the required number of 160 gender-inclusive police respondents comprising 96 males and 64 females. After determining the required number of respondents, a proportionate sampling approach was employed to select a specific number of police respondents from each of the selected districts. The sample size obtained from the study using the Yamane approach is shown in Table 1 (Israel Reference Israel2017; Yamane Reference Yamane1967:886).
Table 1. Summary of Selected Respondents
Source: Field survey, 2022, as informed by the Northern Region Police Command (2022) Summary of Police Personnel.
Sample size formula:
n = N/[1 + N(e)2]
N = sample frame (203)
n = sample or sample size
e = error margin (0.05)
For males: n = 127/[1 + 127 (0.05)2] = 96
For females: n = 76/[1 + 76 (0.05)2] = 64
Total police respondents =160 (96 + 64)
Data Sources and Instruments
Primary and secondary sources of information were utilized in this study. Questionnaire administration was employed as the primary data collection method supplemented with secondary information generated through rigorous review of journal articles, official reports and the Internet. Throughout the study, the respondents’ rights of anonymity, informed consent and confidentiality were adhered to.
Data Analysis
The results were analysed with the use of Kendall’s coefficient of concordance. This was done to establish the link between the police officers’ ranking scores and their seeming challenges in the practice of child-friendly policing as part of the broader process of juvenile justice delivery in the study locality. According to Legendre (Reference Legendre2005), Kendall’s coefficient of concordance (W) is a measure of the agreement among several (p) judges who assess a given set of (n) tasks or challenges. W, the index, measures the ratio of the observed variance of the sum of ranks to the maximum possible variance of the ranks. This idea is to establish the sum of the ranks for each challenge being ranked. If the ranking is in perfect agreement, the inconsistency among these sums will be maximum (Stake Reference Stake2006). The equation of Kendall’s coefficient of concordance (W) is as follows:
$${\rm{W}} = 12{\rm{S}}/{{\rm{p}}^2}\left( {{{\rm{n}}^3}-{\rm{n}}} \right)-{\rm{pT}}$$
Where:
W represents Kendall’s coefficient of concordance,
p represents the figure for challenges,
n represents the number of respondents (sample size),
T represents the correlation factor for tied ranks, and
S represents the sum of squares statistic.
The sum of squares statistic (S) is given as:
$${\rm{S}} = \sum {\left( {{{\rm{R}}_{\rm{i}}}-{\rm{R}}} \right)^2}$$
Where: Ri = row sums of ranks
R = the mean of Ri
The correlation factor for tied ranks (T) is also given as:
$${\rm{T}} = \sum {\rm{ }}\left( {{{\rm{t}}_{\rm{k}}}^3-{{\rm{t}}_{\rm{k}}}} \right)$$
Where: tk = the number of ranks in each (k) of m groups of ties.
The χ2 statistic is computed using the formula:
$${\chi ^2} = {\rm{p}}\left( {{\rm{n}}-1} \right){\rm{W}}$$
Where p = number of challenges
W = Kendall’s coefficient of concordance.
RESULTS
Challenges Facing the Police in Handling Children in Conflict with the Law and in Need
To be able to achieve the objective of the study, the researchers first established the challenges faced by police in handling children who come into contact with them. These challenges as gathered from the respondents were: inadequate cells for juveniles at the police stations; inadequate serviceable vehicles; lack of remand homes for juveniles; lack of State-owned temporary shelters to house victims of abuse; inadequate government budgetary support for handling juvenile crimes; and inadequate police officers’ knowledge and skills in handling juvenile crimes (Table 2). These challenges were then ranked in order of severity using Kendall’s coefficient of concordance (Table 3). The results established a highly significant agreement among police officers’ ranking scores of their practical (observed) challenges in handling children in conflict with the law. As shown in Table 3, the value for χ2 (df = 5) was 147.119; asymptotic significance (p) was 0.000, implying a significant agreement among police officers’ ranking scores. The Kendall’s coefficient of concordance (W) figure was 0.751, suggesting that 75.1% of the ranking scores given by police officers were in agreement with these challenges.
Table 2. Descriptive Statistics of the Challenges Facing the Police in Handling Children in Conflict with the Law and in Need of Care
Source: Field survey data, 2022.
Table 3. Police Ranking of Challenges
Source: Field survey data, 2022.
DISCUSSION
With a mean rank of 2.15, inadequate police cells for juveniles (both males and females) at the police stations was adjudged the highest ranked challenge faced by police officers. A check with all the three district police commands revealed that the Tamale District had only one juvenile cell. Both Tolon and Bimbilla Districts, however, had none. This revelation indicates that the police stations are basically neither child-friendly nor gender sensitive. This finding was in line with the study conducted by Decker and Marteache (Reference Decker and Marteache2017) which found that lack of juvenile cells was the major challenge across developing countries. A check with the Northern Regional Police Command revealed that the whole region has only one juvenile cell. This implies that in the event of the arrest of children in contact with the law, police officers may be compelled to place them in cells with adults in contravention of both national and international child rights legal frameworks.Footnote 4
The second ranked challenge faced by police officers identified in the study was the lack of a remand home for juveniles. This has always been attributed to lack of finance and poor policy on child welfare. The study revealed that the whole Northern Region has only one juvenile remand home in Tamale, the regional capital. Apparently this has been closed down for lack of maintenance, as hinted by the Northern Regional Police Domestic Violence and Victims Support Command. The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (2017) has recounted that resources for friendly policing are under threat owing to budgetary restraints. The study found that none of the study’s police districts had a remand home for juveniles. If the government of Ghana is committed to child-friendly policing and justice for juveniles intended for their transformation and rehabilitation, then the country needs a deliberate policy to expand remand home facilities for juveniles. Anything short of this, the police may be blatantly blamed for abusing the rights of the child in the wake of justice delivery. It is on record that juveniles are incarcerated in adult prisons in the country (Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) 2019; Crabbie Reference Crabbie2019), purportedly due to inadequate juvenile remand homes.
Lack of State-owned temporary shelters to house victims of abuse who come into contact with the police was identified as the third challenge faced by police officers. The stereotype of children as victims of the law is one of the challenges confronting the policymakers, as society has a negative tag on them. However, it is seen that the State has not given it the needed thought to provide temporary shelter to house victims of abuse. The study found that the whole Northern Region has no single functional temporary shelter to house victims of abuse. The only State-owned temporary shelter in the Northern Region is located at Kpong-Tamale, which the study revealed has over the years been abandoned. Confronted with such a working situation, the police may find it difficult to take any concrete action to safeguard the interest of the victims of abuse. Apparently, they are often chastised for being insensitive to the rights of children, which undermines any spirit of reintegration. The change theory espouses that the police have to update the way in which they conduct themselves in consonance with the dynamics of society. They can, however, be effective if they are provided with the necessary infrastructure and working tools.
Inadequate police officers’ knowledge and skills in handling juvenile crimes occupied the fourth position in the challenge ladder. Juvenile crimes need special attention and treatment. However, this can only be achieved if the police are well trained and imbued with child-friendly ethics. Police officers who habitually or completely engage with children or are chiefly engaged in the prevention of offences committed by children are expected to undergo special training and instructions in child-friendly policing. The study found that child-friendly policing had been integrated into the contemporary police training academies of Ghana. The results, however, showed that police officers (71.3%) had moderate knowledge in handling juvenile crimes. Their approach to children may defeat the purpose of transformation and rehabilitation.Footnote 5
Inadequate budgetary support for handling juvenile crimes, due to rationing, was identified as the fifth challenge confronting the police in executing their statutory functions. The Ghana Police Service over the years has been resourced by the central government and occasionally with the support of philanthropists. Given this situation, the police could only effectively promote child justice delivery depending on how it is resourced by the State. This challenge was linked to inadequate serviceable vehicles for handling crimes and juvenile offences, which was the least ranked challenge by the police. The study revealed that Tolon and Bimbilla Police Districts have one serviceable vehicle each, while Tamale District has two. Given the enormity of activities that have to be carried out on a routine basis, these vehicles may be seen as woefully inadequate. It has become a common phenomenon for the police to be selective in matters that border on crime control and justice delivery. Police officers at the various police stations often asked complainants to provide means of transport before they could make an arrest or attend to a case (Marfo et al. Reference Marfo, Badu-Yeboah and Gyader2021). This development has affected the way they respond to child-related crimes. The change theory of policing views the police as a changing guardian who is required to be fully resourced to enable it to meet the needs of contemporary criminal justice administration.
Karn’s (Reference Karn2013) study in the United Kingdom revealed that having fewer resources represents a significant challenge to the police. He noted that funds are needed in meeting the demands of a more globalized, culturally diverse and technological connected society. It is on this note that Marfo (Reference Marfo2016) wrote that any meaningful policing arrangement as a way of ensuring public safety and the promotion of justice delivery requires institutional or sectorial collaboration. His study in the Wa Municipality of Ghana revealed that inadequate logistics, in general, and lack of mobile vehicles, in particular, have reduced police visibility, a concept intended to make police more visible to the public, to a static patrol. He proposed that industrialists, the government and civil society organizations should be supportive to the police (both in cash and kind) to make it more vibrant to provide the needed security and enabling environment for a sound development in Ghana.
Working in such ill-funded conditions, the police may conduct themselves in a way to execute their own personal agenda. Yet, they are habitually accused for the deficiency in the criminal justice delivery. This could explain why huge sums of monies are often demanded from the public before the police intervene in a given crime situation and also before bail is granted (Marfo Reference Marfo2016). Ame et al. (Reference Ame, Laurier, Ayete-Nyampong and Gakpleazi Dzifa2020) found that Ghana’s juvenile justice policies and programmes look sound on paper, yet, the lack of resources to implement these policies has bedevilled the country dating back to the late 1940s. The emerging picture is that inadequate resources to make police more functional to respond to contemporary societal dictates has been a chronic problem in the country which runs counter to the spirit of change theory in policing. The earlier this problem is tackled holistically, the better for the implementation of child-friendly policing and justice administration for children who either come into contact with the police or are in need of care in the country.
CONCLUSION
The police as a statutory institution plays a critical role in crime control and the administration of justice, especially juvenile justice, in Ghana. Policing in the country is thus expected to be child-friendly and innovative at all times in responding to the needs of children who are in need of care and in conflict with the law, as espoused by the change theory of policing. The effectiveness of the police to function as expected in the administration of justice for children was found to be contingent on the availability of resources, namely, adequate cells for juveniles at the police stations, adequate serviceable vehicles, adequate remand homes for juveniles, availability of State-owned temporary shelters to house victims of abuse, adequate government budgetary support for the handling of juvenile crimes, and adequate police officers’ knowledge and skills in handling juvenile crimes. This study found that these resources are virtually absent or completely lacking, which has undermined any spirit of child-friendly policing arrangement in the locality studied. Among all the challenges faced by the police in relation to the administration of justice for children, inadequate police cells for juveniles (both males and females) at the police stations was ranked the highest deficiency by the police. Having inadequate serviceable vehicles for handling crimes and juvenile offences was the least ranked challenge.
Acknowledgements
Our appreciation goes to all the respondents for their unflinching cooperation.
Samuel Marfo is a Professor of Conflict Resolution at the Simon Diedong Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies, Ghana (SDD-UBIDS). Professor Marfo has worked in the arena of peace, conflict education and security for over 35 years. He is interested in peace and conflict resolution, democratic growth and accountability, child welfare and cross-border security.
Florence Naah Bamora is a lecturer at the Simon Diedong Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies, Ghana (SDD-UBIDS). Dr Bamora has worked for over 30 years in the area of women’s empowerment, gender inclusivity and rural development.
Wilson Aniagyei (PhD candidate) is Chief Superintendent of Police in Ghana and Commandant of Pwalugu Police Public Safety Training School. Mr Aniagyei has worked for over 30 years in the field of criminal justice, human rights and child-friendly policing.
