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30 JuLY 2008
NO 1328
Maltreatment
Although children's rights are being given increased attention by various forms of legislation, significant numbers of children are still subject to various forms of maltreatment such as sexual, physical or emotional abuse and/or physical or emotional neglect. All these forms of maltreatment can have serious detrimental consequences for the child. Nevertheless, it has been said that there are as many definitions of abuse as there are books written on the subject. In this paper each of these types of abuse is discussed with regard to how it is defined and some of the effects that it can have on victims. Ideas for intervention are briefly described for each type of maltreatment and the reader is referred in the text to other sources for further information. The paper aims to demonstrate the complexity of the problems faced in dealing with maltreatment, the difficulties in predicting the consequences of different forms of abuse on individual children and their families, and the need to evaluate the impact of interventions.
The need to protect children is not a new idea. As Buchanan (1996) notes, children in Mesopotamia 6000 years ago were allocated a patron goddess, and child protection laws were legislated as long ago as 450 BC. The Greeks and Romans established orphan homes and some accounts also mention the existence of foster care. During the Renaissance, children came to be seen as a dependent class needing the protection of, and protection from, society. In the 18th century the London Foundling Hospital gave paediatric care and also campaigned to control the availability of gin that was seen as the major cause of many problems that affected families and children. However, the watershed for child abuse in many ways was in 1962 when Kempe and his colleagues published their paper on the 'battered child syndrome' emphasising that children were maltreated by apparently normal and respectable families (Kempe et al., 1962).
Nowadays, in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (United Nations, 1989), there are 41 articles outlining the child's rights (Buchanan, 1996; Lansdown, 2000). It is recognised that children need special care and protection because of their vulnerability, and although the family has the primary responsibility for the child's care and protection, there is also a need for legal protection. The state has a duty to ensure the child's survival, to protect children from abuse and neglect, and to provide accommodation if they cannot live safely with their families. Children with disabilities are to be given special care. The child has the right to express opinions on matters affecting him/her and the right to appropriate information. The child also has a right to health services, social security, education, the right to leisure, protection from child labour, drug abuse, sexual exploitation, sale, trafficking and abduction, and other forms of exploitation including torture.
The UN convention clearly sets out what the child is entitled to. However, not all children are treated in accordance with its principles, and some are subject to maltreatment or abuse. Child maltreatment can take many forms, some of which may be more obvious or easily perceived than others (Bailey & Bailey, 1986). These include:
Sexual abuse.
Emotional or psychological abuse.
Physical abuse.
Neglect.
These types are not mutually exclusive and a child may be the victim of multiple types of abuse (Claussen & Crittenden, 1991; Ney et al., 1994; McGee et al., 1997; Hobbs et al., 1999; Higgins & McCabe, 2000). In 1996 Doyle carried out a review of British journals and found that most papers focused on child sexual abuse (Doyle, 1996). Physical abuse was examined in terms of distinguishing between physical punishment and abuse. There was very little discussion of physical neglect or emotional abuse. There was also very little attention paid to the abuse of children with disabilities.
HELGA SNEDDON
Sneddon, Helga. (2003).
The effects of maltreatment on children's health and well-being.
Child Care in Practice, 9, 3. pp. 236-237.
REFERENCES
Bailey, T.F. and Bailey, W.H. (1986). Operational definitions of child emotional maltreatment: Final report. National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect (DHSS90-CA-0956. Washington, DC. US Government Printing Office.
Buchanan, A. (1996). Cycles of Child Maltreatment: Facts, Fallacies and Interventions. Chichester. Wiley.
Claussen, A.H. and Crittenden, M. (1991). Physical and psychological maltreatment: relations among types of maltreatment. Child Abuse and Neglect, 15. pp. 5-18.
Doyle, C. (1996). Current issues in child protection: An overview of the debates in comtemporary journals. British Journal of Social Work, 26. pp. 565-576.
Higgins, D.J. and McCabe, M.P. (2000). Multi-type maltreatment and long-term adjustment of adults. Child Abuse Review, 9. pp. 6-18.
Hobbs. C.J.; Hanks, H.G.I. and Wynne, J.M. (1999). Child Abuse and Neglect: A Clinician's Handbook. Edinburgh. Churchill Livingstone.
Kempe, C.H.; Silverman, E.N.; Steele, B.E.; Droegemueller, W. and Silver, H.K. (1962). The battered child syndrome. Journal of the American Medical Association, 181. pp. 105-112.
Lansdown, G. (2000). Human Rights Act 1998. Implications for children. Paper given at the National Youth Advocacy Conference, Manchester, 10 May.
McGee, R.A.; Wolfe, D.A. and Wilson, S.K. (1997). Multiple maltreatment experiences and adolescent behaviour problems: Adolescents' perspectives. Development and Psychopathology, 9. pp. 131-149.
Ney, P.G., Fung, T. and Wickett, A.R. (1994). The worst combinations of child abuse and neglect. Child Abuse and Neglect, 18, 9. pp. 705-714.
