Child Abuse
The young and defenceless will always be at the mercy of the adults who are supposed to care for them. The 'blame game' of who is the more abusive towards children is a waste of energy that could be better put to assisting parents who are at risk of harming their children. While many do break from the cycle of abuse, what is clearly obvious however, is that children who are abused themselves, or witness abuse suffer social and psychological problems into adulthood. Often times they are unable to cope with the pressures of parenthood and will lapse into abusive behaviour towards their own children.
Horrific child abuse figures spur crusade
The NSW Police Commissioner,Ken Moroney has declared child abuse a national epidemic, with 33,000 cases reported each year, and has called in the FBI and his colleagues from across Australia to deal with the crisis.
Long-Term Effects of Childhood Abuse on the Quality of Life and Health of Older People: Results from the Depression and Early Prevention of Suicide in General Practice Project
Numerous studies have demonstrated an association between childhood sexual and physical abuse and impairments in adult physical and mental health. Adult mental health consequences of childhood abuse include depression, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, sexual disorders,
suicidal behavior, and substance abuse, whereas physical health effects include chronic pain, gynecological problems, irritable bowel syndrome, diabetes mellitus, arthritis, headaches, cardiovascular disease, and chronic fatigue syndrome.
Child Sexual Abuse Allegations in the Family Court - Wendy Lee Foote
This research is concerned with decision-making in judgments made in the Family Court of Australia where there are allegations of child sexual abuse. This research was undertaken against a historical and current backdrop of scepticism about the veracity of child sexual abuse allegations in family law disputes, despite the heightened risk to children, after their parents separate and/or divorce.This research found that ... the separation and divorce and the legal/psychiatric paradigms, resulted in a reticence to test out the allegations of child sexual abuse made against fathers....court-ordered assessors ...represented the sceptical conceptualisation of allegations of child sexual abuse as the product of the parental conflict, associated maternal anxiety and mental illness. In contrast, fathers were not scrutinised as closely against criteria for sex offending even when they made admissions relating to the allegations. Evidence from and about children was not central to the hearings and professionals who were in a position to present assessments of the child sexual abuse allegations to the court were discredited as a result of concerns about ‘contamination’ relating to criticisms of investigation and other methodological errors. Index
Single-mum kids prominent in abuse cases
It is with dismay that we read the headline "Single-mum kids prominent in abuse cases". It would appear that your newspaper is aiming to demonise single mothers rather than providing them with the support that they so desperately need. …The article fails to note the statement made by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare in its report that "a family member with whom the child was living may not have been responsible for the abuse, neglect or harm to the child".Rather the article leaves the reader with the impression that single mothers are the ones responsible for the abuse of their children.
Court bans fathers use of belt to smack son
A father has lost a legal battle with his former wife for the right to discipline their 10 year old son physically in a case that raises doubts about the legal rights of parents to smack their children. The father argued at a trial in the WA Family Court that he was entitled to discipline his son any way he considered appropriate and that for the court to prevent him from doing so was unwarranted interference with his parental rights. But in a judgment delivered before his retirement last month, WA Family Court chief judge Michael Holden told the father: That is a view I do not share. Justice Holden ordered the father not to inflict any physical discipline on his son and told the father it was glaringly obvious he could repair his strained relationship with his son by refraining from physically disciplining him.
STATISTICS FROM THE UK
Claims are made that the following statistics prove that that mothers are the greatest danger to children, and the courts should be giving more fathers custody of children after separation.The study found that children are seven times more likely to be beaten badly by their parents than sexually abused by them and violent acts towards children are more likely to be meted out by mothers than fathers. Despite the proportion of mothers involved in violent treatment,a fifth (20%) of the sample were 'sometimes really afraid' of their fathers. In comparison, only 7% of the sample were 'sometimes really afraid' of their mothers.
CHILD ABUSE IN THE CONTEXT OF PARENTAL SEPARATION AND DIVORCE: NEW REALITY AND A NEW INTERVENTION MODEL
Child abuse in the context of parental separation has been seen as a weapon manufactured by parents to gain a tactical advantage in their private divorce war. Thus, it has long been regarded as fictitious and unreal.... It represented only the fight between two adults breaking up a high conflict partnership.
A number of Australian studies have now shown that child abuse causes parents to separate If partnership violence is included in the definition of child abuse, and it should be noted that the Family Court of Australia regards the existence of partnership violence whether witnessed by the child or not as child abuse, then some 43% of parents leave their spouse for reasons of child abuse or serious partnership violence..
Addict jailed for baby slamming death
A 23-year-old woman who killed her partner's baby daughter at Dubbo, in central-western New South Wales, has been jailed for up to seven-and-a-half years. The 16-week-old girl died from a massive head injury in July 2004. The woman, who cannot be named, admitted to slamming the child down on a bed, striking her head on a wooden arm rest.
Man jailed for bashing baby daughter
A Melbourne man has been sentenced to six years in jail for bashing his four-month-old daughter, leaving her with fractured ribs, bruises and a torn lip.
Sex offender escapes jail term
A confessed sex offender who indecently assaulted his former girlfriend in a way similar to his own childhood abuse has escaped an immediate jail sentence. Justice Simon Whelan said the man suffered childhood abuse from his father and sister. Part of the abuse included his sister forcing him to perform oral sex on her when he was six or seven. If the boy refused, the girl, who was being abused by their father, would complain about him to the father, and the boy would be given violent retribution.
Murder is murder
LAST month the homicide squad went to search bush near Myrtleford looking for the body of little Daniel Thomas, who disappeared from his home in October 2003. While detectives went home without finding the remains, they are confident they now know what happened to the two-year-old in the days and months before his murder.He was not so much abused as tortured. This was not the case of an adult cracking, flying off the handle and using deadly violence. The awful behaviour was premeditated, ruthless and repeated. These were actions more fitting to a concentration camp than a family home.
A CHILD IS ABUSED EVERY 13 MINUTES
A child is abused every 13 minutes across Australia, a new report has revealed.The Childhood Abused study, to be released on Monday, reports there were 40,416 substantiated child abuse reports in 2002-03 - a rate of one child every 13 minutes
Increase in child protection reports 'tragic' - Meagher
The NSW Department of Community Services (DOCS) says the number of child protection reports it handles has increased by more than 30 per cent in 18 months. NSW Minister for Community Services Reba Meagher said DOCS received 64,880 child protection reports in the first three months of this year, up 30.2 per cent on the 49,840 in the September 2004 quarter. Mandatory reports, made by those who work with children who are legally obliged to to report suspected child abuse or neglect, comprised 73.6 per cent of the reports to DOCS in this year's March quarter. But non-mandatory reports increased by more than 54 per cent between September 2004 and March 2006 to 17,109.Ms Meagher said the figures showed people were increasingly aware of their responsibility to report cases of abuse or neglect.
ABUSE reports rise
Increased intervention in abusive families has failed to cut the number of children harmed in Queensland. A report from the Queensland Commission for: Children and Young People shows abuse complaints, and substantiated abuse complaints, continued to rise even as more children were being placed in protective care.
WHAT IS THE PREVELANCE AND INCIDENCE OF CHILD ABUSE IN AUSTRALIA?
It is generally accepted that there are four types of child abuse, sometimes referred to as child maltreatment. These are physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional/psychological abuse, and neglect
There is no accurate information about the prevalence of child abuse in Australia. 'Prevalence' refers to the total number of children who have experienced abuse or neglect in the Australian community. Such information is usually collected via a large survey of the population.
KIDS HELP LIINE - CHILD ABUSE 2003-2004
During the 2003 - 2004 financial year, Kids Help Line counselors responded to 5,154 contacts from children and young people with concerns about child abuse - 10% more than the previous year (4,698).
The majority of these contacts concerned physical or sexual abuse, however, emotional abuse, neglect and sexual offending were also significant issues for children and young people. For 4,003 children and young people child abuse was the main reason for contacting KHL, while for 1,151 young people child abuse was a significant secondary concern. Over 5% of these children and young people reported experiencing multiple forms of abuse.
WHAT IS CHILD ABUSE? (DOC's)
There are different forms of child abuse. These include neglect, sexual, physical and emotional abuse.
WHO ABUSES CHILDREN
It is clear from the available evidence that children are most likely to be physically or emotionally abused, or neglected, by parents or other caregivers (Cawson et al., 2000). Further, despite the general view that children are sexually abused mainly by strangers, the reality is that most sexual abuse is perpetrated by someone who is known to the child, such as a family member, family friend or person with whom the child comes into contact (e.g., sports coach, teacher, priest)
WHO'S LOOKING AFTER THE KIDS?
An Overview of Child Abuse and Child Protection in Australia
Increasing public attention and concern about child abuse has seen an increasing role for governments with respect to child protection policy. However, it is only comparatively recently that this concern has been translated into systematic strategies and programs designed to help alleviate the problem. Much has been written about how child abuse and neglect (the latter often being seen as a 'less serious' form of abuse) should, or could be defined, but in the Australian context there seems to be a fairly broad consensus as to what constitutes child abuse.
Laws that treat children as chattels do lifelong harm
WHEN young children report sexual abuse by a parent, the other parent is placed at a disadvantage. Unless there is a prosecution and conviction (and statistics published in The Advertiser show how rare convictions are), the protective parent may have to turn to the Family Court to vary or stop contact between the victim and the abuser.This is risky, given that some judges ignore medical evidence of abuse and determine that parenting must be shared or, worse, that the child should be handed to the accused sex offender. In some cases, the protective parent may choose to flee the country
Australia’s responsibilities for the protection of children.
When Australia signed the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, it agreed that, “the child shall be protected against all form of neglect, cruelty and exploitation" The adversarial justice system does not protect child victims of sexual abuse. The Australian Government agreed to protect all children: it did not say that it would discriminate against the young. It did not say that it would discriminate against children with disabilities and yet child sex offenders can abuse these children with little fear of apprehension.
OTHER SUBJECT HEADINGS:
Familicide
Child Abuse
Child Sexual Assault
Domestic Violence
Male Suicide
False Allegations or False Denials?