jacqueline: June 2009

Child abuse

This essay outlines the nature and causes of child abuse in Australia and discusses the effectiveness of the community response and the government.

Child abuse is a serious problem confronting the society; therefore, many departments and services have taken up this issue as a severe condition that faces many individuals in the community. The Department of Community Services [DOCS] (2008, para1) has defined child abuse as an action or behaviour by an adult towards a child less than 18 years of age that may harm the child physically, psychologically and developmentally. The Concise Medical Dictionary (2007) has outlined it as maltreatment or injury of a child. In addition, a child can be abused by one person or by many people inside the family or outside it. It is a universal concern acknowledged as causing damage to victims.

When outlining the nature of child abuse, physical, psychological, emotional, neglect and sexual abuse can be drawn (Devon County Council, 2002, p1).

Firstly, physical abuse includes punching, slapping, kicking, biting, shaking and other kind of physical discipline causing harm to a child (DOCS, 2008, para4). There are some signs that may indicate physical abuse such as bruising to the face, especially cheeks, eyes, ears and mouth, bleeding from the mouth or ears, burns and scalds, especially cigarette burns, poisoning, sudden infant death syndrome and absence from school (Devon County Council, 2002, p2, para2.4).

Secondly, psychological or emotional abuse may include criticism, name calling, excessive teasing, ignoring and being exposed to family violence. Also it may involve causing children to feel in danger or frightened (DOCS, 2008, para5).There are some signs of emotional abuse; for instance, exploitation by the parents, lack of curiosity and natural exploration, delayed social and language skills, low self esteem, family history of violence, self harm and fear of new situations (Devon County Council, 2002, p5, para5.6).

Thirdly, a child can be kept without food, clothing, safety, hygiene, medical care, education and love; this is neglect (DOCS, 2008, para2). Some signs to identify it include for example, failure to get better even when medical investigation has excluded any medical reason, disturbance of appetite, poor skin care and hair loss or poor condition and poor hygiene, developmental delay, impaired language skills and absence from school (Devon County Council, 2002, p4, para4.5).

Finally, sexual abuse is a sexual act upon a child including exposure, indecent phone calls, voyeurism and persistent intrusion of a child’s privacy (DOCS, 2008, para3). The signs that may indicate it are: bleeding, trauma, pregnancy and infection in urine (Devon County Council, 2002, p3, para3.7).

Children exposed to abuse often may have been exposed to violence, as it is not uncommon for both to occur together. Prolonged exposure to domestic violence can affect the child developmentally and emotionally including physical assault from intervening in adult quarrel, emotional distress and substance abuse (Devon county council, 2002, para1.7).

Many instances of child abuse are perpetrated by parents under stress who have financial problems, unemployment, divorce and separation. They can transfer their feelings of frustration onto their children. In addition, parents who have health or mental health problems that are unrecognized or untreated are more likely to abuse their children (Australia Childhood Foundation, 2008, para5&6). Furthermore, child abuse may be caused by parents who have poor parenting skills, lack of confidence and low self esteem. Parents on alcohol and drugs can leave their children in an unsafe environment and apply violence against them. Also, the child can be abused by families who are socially isolated with no one to support them. They feel left out of their communities perhaps because of loss of a parent through death or separation (Australia Childhood Foundation, 2008, para7-9).

Sometimes parents expect more than the capacity of their children, which may lead them to put pressure on themselves and their children by desiring that their children achieve impossible and unnecessary targets in their life. For instance, these parents think that their baby will not cry or their twelve year old son or daughter need always to keep their bedroom tidy (Child Abuse, 2007, para3).

Sometimes very young parents have trouble understanding their child’s behaviour

and needs. All these causes may lead to child abuse (The National Association for

prevention of child abuse and Neglect [NAPCAN], 2006, para7).

The general public has a poor understanding of child abuse problems in Australia, which leaves them without the knowledge and the confidence to prevent the abuse of their kids and to keep them safe (Australia Childhood Foundation, 2008, para3).

Once the child is abused, the government and the community step in to take care of the child. (State Government of Victoria, Australia, Department of Human Services, 2008, para1).

Beside, some of the communities accept to use physical force for the purpose of discipline and punishment of children. (State Government of Victoria, Australia, Department of Human Services, 2008, para2).

In Australia, the commonwealth government usually plays a minor role in finding child abuse prevention programs, however owing to the seriousness of the problem have initiated a national prevention framework. The basic provision of protection and support services in Australia is provided by state and territory governments (Phillips, 2009, cited in Commonwealth of Australia, para19&29).

Therefore, state governments provide three levels of services; primary, secondary and tertiary.

The goal of the primary service is to support and educate the families before the development of the problem. These services include ante natal services, health services for mother and children, and education at school about relationships. Public education programs focus on educating people about alternatives to abuse, changing public attitudes about violence, or encouraging debate regarding issues such as family violence, gun laws (State Government of Victoria, Australia, Department of Human Services, 2008, para3).

Secondary services are provided not only by governments but also by community based organizations. These services include in family support, counseling, respite care and other parenting groups (State Government of Victoria, Australia, Department of Human Services, 2008, para4).

The tertiary services are for abused individuals who have been affected by the violence. These include the statutory child protection services, placement services for children who can no longer live at home and treatment services such as for sexual assault (State Government of Victoria, Australia, Department of Human Services, 2008, para5).

In order to evaluate the success of programs it is important to look at some statistics. In 2007-2008 there were 55,120 substantiated reports of child abuse and neglect (Commonwealth of Australia, 2009, p6). These statistics represented a fall from the previous year; however the rate has more than doubled since the 1990’s. Indigenous people are six times more likely to be abused (AIHW, 2009, cited in Commonwealth of Australia, p6)

Further in the year 2008-2009 child abuse has increased from approximately 10 to 15 % across the country. In fact, the hospitals handle about 1500 cases a year and they report an increase of 20 to 30% of requests for consultation regarding child maltreatment. One of these cases is of a four month old baby who had been shaken violently but unfortunately, this is only one of many such cases of violence towards infants (Ramachandran, 2009, para5, 10&12).

As an indication of the number of people affected by child abuse, a charity recently advertised its services assumed that more than two million Australian schoolchildren had been abused in some way (Horinbein, 2004, para1).

The government set up parent education programs to help with child abuse that are

based on a premise that promotes caring to create safe and good environments for children. Thus, parent education programs are designed to increase parent’s knowledge of child development, normalize the difficulties existing in parenting and assist to develop parenting skills. Most studies report a successful result from parent education programs (Holzer, Higgins, Bromfield & Higgins, 2006, p9).

Outside the family, the NSW Department of Education and training attempts to minimize child abuse. Since the beginning of 2000, it has sacked 21 teachers, from its 65,000 workforce, for improper sexual conduct (Robyn &Adrian, 2002, para8).

In 2009 the council of Australia governments created a national framework for protection Australia’s children. This document explicitly recognizes the failure of the system in prevention abuse for many children and young people (Commonwealth of Australia, 2009, p6).

In Australia, research has indicated that parent education program and home visiting programs are the most widely used child maltreatment prevention.

Home visiting programs have the advantage of bringing services into the home rather than go out within the community; most studies report some degree of its effectiveness (Holzer et al, 2006, p14).

Home visiting programs were more likely to be successful when the focus was on improving both maternal and child wellbeing. It aims to enhance the “mothers” life chances as well as reducing the child maltreatment (Holzer et al, 2006, p17).

It was shown that parent education programs and home visiting programs can improve parent knowledge and may be effective in preventing child abuse and neglect .However both of them need to be seen as an approach to child maltreatment prevention (Scott, cited in Holzer et al, 2006, p21).

To sum up, child abuse affects the child physically, emotionally and developmentally as it can be seen from the latest statistics completed in Australia. However, the community and the government took precautions in order to reduce this maltreatment by providing valuable educational and interventional programs.

Reference list

Australia Childhood Foundation 2008, viewed 16 April 2009,

http://www.stopchildabuse.com.au

Horinbein,G 2004, Child abuse blight affects entire community, viewed 15 May 2009,

http://www.musckids.com/news/child-abuse.htm

Commonwealth of Australia 2009, Protection children is everyone’s business: National

Framework for Protection Australia’s Children 2009-2020, viewed 2 June

2009, http://www.coag.gov.au/long-meeting-outcomes/2009-04-

30/docs/child- protection-framework.pdf

Concise Medical Dictionary, Oxford University online 2007, Child abuse. U.S:

Oxford University Press, viewed 19 April 2009,

http://www.accessibility.com.au/conditions/child-abuse/definition

Department of Communities Services 2008, what is child abuse? Viewed 1 May 2009,

http://www.community.nsw.gov.au

Devon county council 2002a, Nature of child abuse: General abuse, viewed 18 April

2009,