Protect and prosecute: a post-structural analysis of police policies on responding to children of arrestees in Australia

Children of criminal justice-involved parents have long been an overlooked population within adult criminal justice systems globally. This paper uses Australia as an analytic case, applying Bacchi’s poststructuralist approach to examine how policing policies recognize, represent, and respond to the wellbeing and protection needs of these children. Three Australian states – New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland – are identified as having publicly available policies addressing the needs of children of arrestees. Further analysis of these policies reveals four key themes: children are oversimplified as in need of care, silencing their diverse experiences during arrest and the various contextual factors that characterize their lives; potential harm is the underlying assumption in problem representation, relying on frontline officers’ assessment and overlooking the breadth and gravity of child harm associated with parental arrest; police responsibilities are confined to children who are present and require immediate care or other urgent needs; and policy silences have implications for both police practice and children’s lived experiences. These findings demonstrate how children of arrestees are rendered invisible within a liberal democratic policing system, where police face dual challenges of protection and prosecution. They highlight significant limitations in current policing policies for guiding child-aware, trauma-informed practice during parental arrest. This paper delineates the respective roles of police, child protection, and support services, and outlines what effective protection should involve. It argues for child-sensitive arrest procedures and coordinated efforts beyond policing to uphold children’s rights and wellbeing. These insights have relevance for jurisdictions with comparable policing and child protection architectures.