The unquestioned autocrat: The dangerous conflict between sporting authority and child protection laws

“ Be strong minded enough to enforce his decisions when once they are given. He should have been a player himself, and still be as active as ever on the field. He must be an autocrat. (If necessary, the F.A. will support him to the fullest extent possible.) Really the duties of a referee are manifold. He has full control of the play, and must use a great amount of tact, for if he does not, he not only spoils the game but his own reputation. He should be quick in giving his decisions, and must adhere to them, despite the grumblings and comments of the players or spectators. ”

“ Junior referees are badly wanted, especially men of a reputation that is well respected. I, even in my little way, refereeing last year, found my name and fame as a Cup-holder and International was a great recommendation, and called for the respect that is really due to worthy officials. If this appeals to any player it is easy for him to become a referee by applying to his local association. The biggest bugbear that the referee has to contend with is the penalty and off-side restrictions. ”

“ Sexual assault is an affront to our basic decency and humanity. And it’s about all of us – the safety of those we love most: our moms, our wives, our daughters and our sons.
Because when a child starts to question their self-worth after being abused, and maybe starts withdrawing... or a young woman drops out of school after being attacked... or a mother struggles to hold down a job and support her kids after an assault... it’s not just these individuals and their families who suffer. ”

“ The sexual abuse of a child is a most serious crime and an act repugnant to the moral instincts of a decent people. In its legislative findings, Congress recognized that there are subcultures of persons who harbor illicit desires for children and commit criminal acts to gratify the impulses. ”

“ We likewise conclude today that a State's interest in the physical and psychological well-being of child abuse victims may be sufficiently important to outweigh, at least in some cases, a defendant's right to face his or her accusers in court. That a significant majority of States have enacted statutes to protect child witnesses from the trauma of giving testimony in child abuse cases attests to the widespread belief in the importance of such a public policy. ”

“ The State contends that it has a substantial interest in protecting children who are allegedly victims of child abuse from the trauma of testifying against the alleged perpetrator and that its statutory procedure for receiving testimony from such witnesses is necessary to further that interest. ”

“ Kindergartens and schools are required to institute measures to prevent sexual assaults and harassment against minors, give minors proper sex education suited to their age, raise their awareness of and ability to protect themselves against sexual assault and harassment, and report any such crimes to the public security organs and educational administration departments in a timely manner. Relevant institutions and government departments should provide victim minors with protection and legal assistance. ”

“ Mandatory reporting of sexual abuse against minors will be implemented more effectively. A national database with information on criminals guilty of sexual assault, abuse, human trafficking, and violence will be established, and the mechanisms for background checks will be improved to prevent people with such criminal records from engaging in certain occupations. Pilot programs will be launched to release information on criminals committing sexual offences against minors. Provision of proof of no criminal record will be strictly required of foreigners seeking teaching positions in China. ”

“ The courts have the power to declare that through the loss of civil rights a man has become unfitted for the position of an official guardian; a teacher in a State school loses his position ipso facto if convicted of a criminal offence; why should not the criminal courts have the power to deprive parents, foster-parents, and private teachers of their “office,” and to declare them to be unfitted to hold it?
The great majority of punishable offences against children are committed against children of the lower classes. ”

“ If citizens in the private walks of life are obnoxious to censure on this account, what should be the measure of disapprobation of such conduct in those who aspire to high trusts and exalted stations in the government. Generally, what may pass only as a reproach on a private citizen, operates in the minds of a virtuous community and a free people, as a total disqualification and unfitness for office. ”

“ But in all cases in which a game is terminated he shall report the same to the Association under whose jurisdiction the game was played, who shall have full power to deal with the matter. The referee shall have power to award a free kick in any case in which he thinks the conduct of a player dangerous, but not sufficiently so as to justify him in putting in force the greater powers vested in him. The power of the referee extends to offences committed when the play has been temporarily suspended and when the ball is out of play. ”

“ In the event of any ungentlemanly play on the part of the players the offender, or offenders, shall be cautioned, and if further offence is committed, or in case of violent conduct, without any previous caution the referee shall have power to order the offending player off the field of play, and shall transmit the name or names of such player or players to his or their National Association, who shall deal with the matter. ”

“ A violation of the rules in football carries with it a severe penalty for the team, provided of course that the referee sees it, consequently, a beginner must be especially careful not to permit his anxiety to make a good showing to result in being offside when the ball is put in play, interfering with a man about to make a fair catch or in doing many other things which the excitement of the game may occasion. ”

“ Hints to Junior and Amateur Clubs.
It is an old adage that the boy is father to the man, and this applies casually to football circles. The boy of to-day has a great advantage over a boy of say ten or fifteen years ago. Every possible opportunity is put in his way for developing his play, as schoolmasters take a bigger interest in [Pg 37] their boys than in olden days. Schoolboy Internationals and shield competitions are the order of the day, while years ago boys used to meet together, pick sides, put their jackets down for posts, and go full speed ahead without any referee or any official. ”

“ If a professional is late a severe penalty is imposed upon him, and the Football League are most autocratic in knowing that the referee and linesmen are always there at the correct time, and if they are late they are liable to be fined. Regarding training for juniors, it only behoves a boy to be thoroughly fit and well. ”

“ Any team of school-boys who are properly looked after and cared for while playing the game, and who are physically fit to play it, need have no fear of doing so, nor need their parents have any fear that their sons will be permanently injured or incapacitated from pursuing a collegiate or business career from injurious effects sustained upon the football field. ”

“ Clubs are expected to provide a private way for players and officials from playing ground to dressing room wherever this' is practicable. It is misconduct for any Association or Club, or any player, official, or member of any Association or Club to offer, or attempt to offer, either directly or indirectly, any consideration whatever to another Club, player, or players of any other Club, with a view to influence the result of a match. It is misconduct for any Club, player, or players to accept any such consideration. ↑ A player shall not act as linesman or referee during suspension. ”

“ Because § 29A's prohibition extends to posing or exhibiting children "in a state of nudity," rather than merely to their participation in live or simulated sexual conduct, the statute clearly restrains expression within the ambit of the First Amendment.
It is equally evident that the Commonwealth's asserted interest in preventing the sexual exploitation and abuse of minors is "of surpassing importance." ”

“ Accordingly, we hold that, if the State makes an adequate showing of necessity, the state interest in protecting child witnesses from the trauma of testifying in a child abuse case is sufficiently important to justify the use of a special procedure that permits a child witness in such cases to testify at trial against a defendant in the absence of face-to-face confrontation with the defendant. ”

“ The trial court in this case, in ruling that the Confrontation Clause did not prohibit admission of the younger daughter's hearsay statements, relied on the following factors:
"In this case, of course, there is physical evidence to corroborate that sexual abuse occurred. It also would seem to be the case that there is no motive to make up a story of this nature in a child of these years. We're not talking about a pubescent youth who may fantasize. ”

“ The nature of the statements themselves as to sexual abuse are such that they fall outside the general believability that a child could make them up or would make them up. This is simply not the type of statement, I believe, that one would expect a child to fabricate.
"We come then to the identification itself. Are there any indicia of reliability as to identification? ”

“ The District Court found that few minors can take advantage of the exception for a minor who declares that she is a victim of sexual or physical abuse because of the obligation to report the information to the authorities and the attendant loss of privacy. ”

“ It is important for professionals dealing with child sexual abuse to recognize and learn to manage this denial of a serious problem. Professionals must overcome the denial and encourage society to deal with, report, and prevent sexual victimization of children. ”

“ If one could not deny the existence of child sexual abuse, one described victimization in simplistic terms of good and evil. The "stranger danger" approach to preventing child sexual abuse is clear-cut. We immediately know who the good guys and bad guys are and what they look like. ”

“ Because we do not create a strict liability standard, a district is not compelled to purge its schools of all peer harassment to avoid liability. Rather, we require school districts to implement effective preventive and remedial measures to curb severe or pervasive discriminatory mistreatment. Appropriate and reasonable measures will reinforce the basic principle that student-on-student sexual harassment is unacceptable. ”

“ Schools shall not conceal the serious bullying behavior, and shall report it to the public security organ and the educational administration department in time, and cooperate with the relevant departments to deal with it in accordance with law.
⁠Article 40 Schools and kindergartens shall establish a working system for the prevention of sexual assault or harassment to minors. Schools and kindergartens shall not conceal such illegal and criminal acts of sexual assault and harassment to minors. ”

“ No organization or individual shall recruit or employ minors under the age of 16. No entity or individual shall provide job placement services to minors under the age of 16. Minors under the age of 16 are prohibited from opening businesses. The use of child labor is illegal and will be investigated and punished.
⁠– Preventing and punishing sex crimes against minors by law. Education on preventing sexual abuse for minors will be strengthened, with efforts to increase awareness and ability of families, schools and communities to identify, prevent and report sexual abuse. ”

“ Here the constitution seems to make an evident distinction between such misdemeanors as would authorize a removal from office, and disqualification to hold any office, and such as are criminal, in the ordinary sense of the word, in courts of common law, and punishable by indictment. So far as the offence committed is injurious to society, only in consequence of the power reposed in the officer being abused in the exercise of his official functions, it is inquirable into only by impeachment, and punishable only by removal from office, and disqualification to hold any office ”

“ Suppose a person in office not possessing the talents he was judged to have at the time of the appointment, is the error not to be corrected; suppose he acquire vicious habits and incurable indolence, or totally neglect the duties of his office, which shall work mischief to the public welfare, is there no way to arrest the threatened danger? Suppose he become odious and unpopular by reason of the measures he pursues, and this he may do without committing any positive offense against the law, must he preserve his office in despite of the popular will? ”

“ A judge has no right to spare a man who has taken human life because he is sorry for the prisoner. I have no right, as a leader, to suspend this penalty on you. Your act in destroying the civil law, arresting men without warrant and holding them by military force without bail or date of trial, was, in my judgment, a crime of the highest rank, not merely against me—one individual whom you happened to hate—but against every man, woman and child in the state. Unless that crime is punished another man, as daring in high office, may repeat it in the future. ”

“ It is but too natural, this wrathful utterance of the popular voice, when it declares that a high official, who, trusting in the practical approval of the Imperial favour, ordains corporal punishment according to his arbitrary caprice against defenceless prisoners, is guilty of a greater offence than he who feels driven, by a passionate notion of justice, to constitute himself, of his own free will, an avenger of the public conscience.... ”

“ That such persecution should exist in a civilized community is a disgrace to its civilization, that public officers should, for one moment, be permitted to engage in such hideous traffic in the liberties of their fellows, is a scandal upon the administration of justice, and that executive officers of the law, sworn to its enforcement, should be ignorant of the infamy of such arrests, or knowingly permit them to be made, is malfeasance in office, and subversion of civil rights. ”

“ He is himself the first official in the realm, and he knows that the abuse of power by a subordinate has a tendency to produce hostility towards the fountain of all official power. Frequent punishment of officials might, it is thought, diminish public respect for the Government, and undermine that social discipline which is necessary for the public tranquillity. It is therefore considered expedient to give to official delinquencies as little publicity as possible. ”

“ It is not merely the offenses here disclosed that must be punished now and prevented in the future, but that spirit must be checked which so recklessly protects offenders, or this will become no longer a Government of laws, but a Government of factions, without conscience, without self-respect, and without restraint, or a Government whose powers are wielded without responsibility, and whose arrogance is submitted to without shame. ”

“ How far, under an alleged right to examine into the fitness and qualifications of men who are either in office or are applicants for office-or, how far, under the obligation of a supposed duty to arraign such men either at the bar of their immediate superiors or that of public opinion, their reputation, their acts, their motives or feelings may be assailed with impunity-how far that law, designed for the protection of all, has placed a certain class of citizens without the pale of its protection? ”

“ Judges know how rapidly the value of the oath sinks in courts where violation of the prohibition laws is a frequent charge, and how habitual perjury becomes tolerated by respected people. The city politicians know still better how closely blackmail and corruption hang together, in the social psychology, with the enforcement of laws that strike against the beliefs and traditions of wider circles. The public service becomes degraded, the public conscience becomes dulled. ”

“ To turn back the criminal, yet, by so doing, destroy the dignity of the individual, would be a hollow victory. * * * We can have the Constitution, the best laws in the land, and the most honest reviews by courts — but unless the law enforcement profession is steeped in the democratic tradition, maintains the highest in ethics, and makes its work a career of honor, civil liberties will continually — and without end — be violated. ”