World Perspectives on Child Abuse

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World Perspectives on Child Abuse
Gray J., OBE, BSc, Dip Social Work, Dip Teaching
and Higher Education Tonmyr L., MSW, Ph.D
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Special thanks to

• Funders American Humane Association, OAK
  Foundation and Public Health Agency of Canada
• Specialist roles Deborah Daro, John Fluke
  (Co-chair of WG on child maltreatment data
  collection), Bert Van Puyenbroeck, Lutz Goldbeck,
  Andy Hauser, Don Bross and Jasminka Draca
• All our contributors
• ISPCAN staff especially Kayla Manzel

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Selected issues and concerns

• 11 commentaries on use of research
• To improve policy and practice to address child
  abuse
• To understand the incidence or impact of child
  maltreatment
• To underscore the variability of the definition
  of child abuse and neglect and how this presents
  unique challenges in developing international
  policy or training programs

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Child maltreatment data

• Articles describing diverse aspects of data
  collection-strengths and limitations
• Inclusion of child maltreatment questions in
  health survey of general population
• Development of data collection in Greece and SE
  Europe
• Introduce public health perspective to CAN
• Code mortality and morbidity data using ICD codes
• Use of helpline data

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Frameworks for international trends in CAN data

• Ten countries participated
• Topics
• Legal aspects
• Data collection methods and systems
• Maltreatment patterns
• Strengths and limitations
• Future plans and directions

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Mini-survey

• Completed by 23 countries (5 continents)
• Focus on national initiatives
• Important developments in the last 2 years
• Three key challenges
• Data collection programmes

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Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey
(MICS)-Executive Summary

• 35 middle and low income countries participated
• Describes findings of the child parental
  discipline module
• Helps understand prevalence of child disciplinary
  practices in a cross national context

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MICS study findings

• Violent and harsh psychological discipline was
  common in children aged 214
• 3995 reported to receive violent discipline
• Positive interactions between caregivers and
  children relate to lower levels of violent
  discipline and non-violent discipline
• Strongest association between violent discipline
  and the belief that child needs physical
  punishment to be raised properly
• no violence against children is justifiable,
• and all violence against children is preventable
  
• (Pinheiro, 2006, p.5)

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Bibliography

• Research from 35 countries
• 89 journal article and reports (03/08 05/10)
• Represents overview of the available research on
  child abuse and neglect

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Copies are available

• Order online www.ispcan.org
• ISPCAN website for members

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Suggestions for future editions

• Please send to
• Howard Dubowitz
• hdubowitz_at_peds.umaryland.edu

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Thank you! Jenny Gray jennyagray_at_ntlworld.com L
il Tonmyr Lil.Tonmyr_at_phac-aspc.gc.ca