Trauma art wins its day in court

Pictures are said to tell a thousand words. Experts are now focusing on children's drawings to reveal untold stories of devastating abuse. ANDREW YOUNG reports.

Courts in Canada and the United States have started allowing pictures to be used as evidence in prosecution cases, with scope for New Zealand abuse experts to follow suit.

The Canadian art therapist Jacquelyn Jay said many children found it impossible to talk about traumatic abuse but could express themselves more easily through pictures.

She said many cases of abuse were revealed through art therapy which might never otherwise have come to light.

Jacquelyn Jay said she had presented pictures in court as an expert witness which had helped in convictions.

The key was spotting telling signs in each picture, without coercing or leading on the child.

"The artwork will lead you into a conversation with the patient. If abuse is there, the issue will be raised several times."

Judges in Canada have often ordered families and children to be assessed by the therapist.

"Adults who are not having a close relationship have difficulty communicating with each other. How, then, can children possibly find the vocabulary?

"For expressing traumatic events, they just don't have the language."

But Jacquelyn Jay said it was vital the children's pictures and actions were not misunderstood.

She had looked into some cases where parents had mistakenly suspected their child was being abused, but the youngster had merely been copying things he or she had heard or seen.

This could include repeating angry words or phrases from fighting parents, which was a matter of the child learning bad behaviour rather than actually being abused.

The Auckland crown solicitor, Simon Moore, said there was scope for expert witnesses to present children's drawings as court evidence but he doubted if it had happened here.

Mr Moore said that under the Evidence Act registered psychologists or psychiatrists could give evidence on aspects of the complainant's behaviour that were consistent with sexual abuse. This could include pictures.

Such evidence had limitations, he said, as it could not directly be used to prove abuse.

But pictures could be powerful accompanying evidence in a prosecution.

"I think the potential is, without doubt, substantial. If you think it through, pictures may be more reliable than observed behaviour."

Jacquelyn Jay said the symbols to look out for in drawings were:
* Genitals;
* Encapsulation or feeling trapped;
* Heavy lines about the hem or waist;
* Absence of the lower body;
· Phallic shapes.
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She said teachers should be trained to spot the signs in children's art and refer cases to the relevant authorities for investigation. In Canada, she had been involved in lecturing school staff.

The president of the New Zealand Principals' Federation, Nola Hambleton, said such advice here would be welcomed.

"That kind of knowledge is something principals here need to know a lot more about.

"Child abuse fills principals with dread and there are responsibilities we have in reporting suspicious circumstances. I don't think we have really fully come to terms with that yet."

Nola Hambleton said she recalled two occasions when she had used students' pictures to back up suspicions of abuse.

"They were simply cases where it occurred to me that the pictures were important."

In both cases, abuse was already well suspected.

Jacquelyn Jay said art therapy could be used solely as therapy for abused children, or as part of the therapy programme.

She pointed to one male teenage patient who had rebounded, through six months of art therapy, from a low-achieving student with a chronic stutter.

Initial pictures of anger, violence, self-hate and confusion had gradually modified to calmness and confidence.

Jacquelyn Jay said she found no evidence of sexual abuse, rather emotional and some physical parental abuse.

Through therapy, the teenager had lost the stutter and had become a high achiever at school.

Many people regarded art therapy as new, she said, despite its originating after the Second World War to help shell-shocked victims.

The goal now was to see it being implemented in more countries to ensure traumatised children were offered relevant treatment. "I don't think it ever reverses the damage, but you integrate it so they aren't preoccupied with the problems for the rest of their lives."

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