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Child Maltreatment
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Overview of Child Maltreatment lecture for Violent Crime exam.
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Child MaltreatmentIntroduction
Globally, 1 in 2 children experienced violence in the last year (WHO, 2020)
- Equivalent to 1 billion children worldwide
- Mostly interpersonal violence
- For infants and younger children, mainly involves child maltreatment at the
hands of parents/caregivers or other authority figures. As children reach
adolescence, peer violence and IPV become highly prevalent, in addition to
maltreatment (WHO, 2020)
Ni3 = international team of researchers committed to changing that reality through
research into child maltreatment and development of serious gaming interventions
to prevent it’s occurrence
Defining Child Maltreatment
Definitions often include:
1) What counts as a child?
2) The type of ‘behaviours’ that count as maltreatment
3) Relationship between victim and perpetrator
4) Nature of harm to victims
International definition from WHO (2020):
- “Child maltreatment is the abuse and neglect that occurs to children under 18
years of age. It includes all types of physical and/or emotional ill-treatment,
sexual abuse, neglect, negligence and commercial or other exploitation, which
results in actual or potential harm to the child’s health, survival, development or
dignity in the context of a relationship of responsibility, trust or power”.
Exposure to intimate partner violence is also sometimes included as a form of
child maltreatment
The definition is not universally accepted.
Government representatives responded on behalf of 155 counties in the United
Nations – only 88% have laws in place for preventing violence against children
(WHO, 2020)
- 47% thought these were being enforced strongly enough.
- 25% thought prevention and response approaches from agencies were sufficient
to reach all children who need them.
e.g. India introduced Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act 2012 – but has
no laws against non-sexual abuse in the family (Sharratt et al., 2021)
- In the UK 16-17 year olds can marry with parent’s permission – but this loophole
means young people can be coerced into marriage
Consequences of Child
Approx. 80% of child maltreatment is perpetrated by parents/carers (NICE, 2019)
But we warn children about ‘stranger danger’
Routine Activity Theory? (Cohen & Felson, 1989)
Maltreatment and other family violence are considered to be amongst the most
intense sources of stress that a child can suffer in their early years (WHO, 2020)
, Not least because of the betrayal of supposed close relationships and trust (Malloy
et al. 2016)
Over course of lifetime, victims at increased risk of (WHO, 2020):
- Poor physical health (e.g. compromised immune system, cancer, heart disease,
diabetes, infectious diseases such as HIV, child pregnancy and associated
complications)
- Poor mental health (e.g. anxiety, depression, PTSD, eating disorders, disturbed
sleep)
- Risky behaviours (e.g. alcohol and drug abuse, smoking, unsafe sex)
- Social problems (e.g. educational under-attainment, poorer occupational
outcomes, homelessness, involvement in crime, future victimisation including
IPV)
This renders child maltreatment a significant public health concern
Prevention (Health Perspective)
“Violence against children is not inevitable. Scientific studies clearly demonstrate
violence can be prevented and its impact reduced using the same public health
principles that have been successfully applied to many other health problems. These
inform a four-step approach to preventing violence that involves: (1) defining the
problem by systematically collecting and analyzing data on the magnitude, scope,
characteristics and consequences of violence; (2) investigating why violence occurs
through research into risk and protective factors; (3) Exploring ways to prevent
violence by designing, implementing, monitoring and evaluating interventions, and
(4) scaling up proven and promising interventions, widely disseminating information
about them and determining programme cost-effectiveness.” (WHO, 2022)
Prevention (Legal Obligation)
United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child established in 1989.
Article 1 (definition of child)
- “Everyone under the age of 18 has all the rights in the Convention”
Article 19 (protection from violence)
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