Kingdom of Bahrain Ministry of the Interior Women Police and the Community. Colonel Awatif Hasan AL Jishi

Women Police and the Community Kingdom of Bahrain Women Police have a very important and effective performance within the Public Security and Society. Establishment of Women Police : The Bahraini Women Police force was established in November It started its work with two women police officers. Today we have Twelve women officers & 234 other ranks.

Women Police and the community : From the beginning and now Women Police serve the community in many ways such as : 1.Serving women through solving their problems with their husbands, and help the victims to have the necessary medical and psychiatric treatment to over come harmful physical and psychological problems. 2.Women police with the legal doctor to accompany women during necessary legal medical Examination. 3.Working with finger print Section to serve the Women who come for finger printing. 4.Women police are working with traffic and Immigration Directorate. 5.Women police work at the International Airport dealing with security as it affects women travelers. 6.The very important relation between Women Police and the community is through dealing with delinquent juveniles and those who are exposed to delinquency, and through running the child protection office.

Juveniles social Care: We have two kinds of juvenile social care, social care within the community and social care inside the Juvenile Care Centre. A. Juveniles Social care within the community : Within every police station there is a woman police unit to deal with female cases as well as juveniles cases. They deal with delinquent juveniles as well as the ones exposed to delinquency. After investigating the case the social worker transfers it to Social Care Unit within the Women Police Directorate. But she has to be careful when she investigates juveniles cases as some of these juveniles are not delinquent, they only commit a childish mistake and they only need some body to speak with them about it and warn them.

Social Care Unit : When the case reaches Social Care Unit the social worker meets the child and his parents or guardians and then arranges for home and school visits to prepare a full social report about the child. Then the case is submitted to the juvenile judge through the public prosecution. After the juvenile judge decision the social worker at the unit opens a file of action including the original case, the social report and any further reports or decisions. Then she starts to put a time schedule for follow up visits. these visits are mainly to the juvenile’s home and school and it is done every two weeks. The social worker prepares a small report on every visit, then she puts one full report to the juvenile judge every four months or six months, for the juveniles under supervision. When the judge receives the follow up report, he decides according to the juvenile’s behavior to stop the follow up visits or to expand the period of it or to change to another more effective procedure.

Juvenile Care Centre : A detention order is the last option chosen by the juvenile judge, as the best results of social care is when the juvenile is getting this care while he/she is with the family. There is no time fixed for staying at the Centre, but there is a time limit. The period of staying depends on the improvement of the juvenile’s behavior, the way they participate in different activities and the family circumstances and whether they are willing to receive their child and give him/her proper care and attention. The social worker, responsible for the juvenile in the Centre, writes a full report to the judge every six months. The juvenile judge decides whether to keep the juvenile in the Centre or hand him/her to the family or to the guardian.

The Juvenile Centre`s Aims : 1.Give proper care to the juvenile through many kinds of services, like social, psychiatric, health training and education. 2.Help the juvenile overcome his/her delinquency. 3.Increase the good relations between the juvenile and the family. 4.Build up good relations between the juvenile’s Family and the social worker and give the family the assistance needed to prepare them to receive their child, when the juvenile judge decides to hand the juvenile to his/her family. 5.Give proper care to juveniles exposed to delinquency and those who are used to wandering and sleeping in the street.

Kinds of care given : 1.Social Care : The social worker prepares a plan with the Centre Committee for every juvenile entering the Centre. and she supervises the juvenile during his/her stay in the Centre. The juveniles are divided to families. Each family has a social worker and a number of supervisors working on shift duty. She supervise all juvenile’s activities, and encourages the family to visit their child weekly. 2.Health Care : Every juvenile entering the Centre has a full medical check up. The Centre nurse and the family supervisors will carry out any medical treatment required. 3.Education : There is a government education system within the Centre from primary level to intermediate. the juveniles in secondary level attend government schools. 4.Training : The boys have carpentry training, and fine handcraft with wood pieces. The girls besides handcrafts learn to sew, hair dressing and cooking.

5.Sports : The Center pays good attention to sports for boys and girls under the supervision of professional trainers. 6.Leisure programs : The Centre pays great attention to leisure programs for juveniles, as this is the best way for juveniles to be attached to the community during their stay in the Centre, and to solve their behavior problems more effectively. 7.Follow up visits after leaving the Centre : The family social worker starts to prepare the juvenile to go back to his family from the beginning. When the juvenile is ready to leave, the social worker arranges joining a school or suitable work. She continue looking after the juvenile leaving the Centre, by arranging regular visits to home, school and work. visits may last for one year to two years.

Child protection Unit : The child protection unit works with child abuse cases, sexual or physical. 1.The social worker investigates such cases, and interviews, the child in an arranged place for this purpose ( video photographed ). 2.Help is arranged for medical or psychiatric or social workers to assist the child to overcome the problem. 3.Regular visits are arranged to the child’s home especially when the abuser is part of the family.

The Causes of Child Abuse and negligence : 1.We see that many abusers are under 15 years old. This means that the families should take more care with their children to prevent them from delinquency. 2.Mistreatment and child abuse by guardians can lead the child to abuse other children. 3.Broken families can lead their children to many dangers. 4.Poverty, big families and small houses can lead to Sexual abuse between brothers & sisters. 5.Some foreign workers living in the same area with the families.. are involved in abusing children sexually.

To prevent child abuse we should think about many Things like : 1.Activating the existing legislation’s. 2.Adding new legislation where necessary. 3.Establishing Child Affairs specialist organization for preventing and dealing with child abuse cases. 4.Passing information to the families about the way their children should be treated. 5.Not allowing foreign worker to live in the same areas with the families. 6.Organizing useful activities for children in all area.

Difficulties : We face some difficulties in working with juveniles or with child protection such as : 1. There is no after care house for the juveniles over16 years old and the juveniles leaving the Centre And still don’t have a proper place to live. 2.We don’t have a home for problem girls over 15, who need care and training, to save them from becoming criminals in future. 3.There are not enough laws to protect the child.

Recommendations : 1.Involve Women Police with more work with community. 2.Increase the social specialist women police at juvenile Care unit. 3.Build a separate home for after care and older male juveniles. 4.Build a house for problem girls over 15 to 21 year old and establish legal rules for entering the house and for care and training. 5.Issue special laws for protecting the child and his/her rights. 6.Improve the child protection office with the co 'operation of the public prosecutors.