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Issue Description
No child should have to live in fear, but as the Baby P case recently demonstrated, abuse is a tragic reality for some children – experts have estimated that up to one child in ten is abused in the UK. These children may suffer neglect, emotional, physical or sexual abuse, in many cases from those responsible for their care. This title examines the issue of child abuse and how it can be tackled. It also looks at the debate surrounding smacking.
The information comes from a wide range of sources and includes government reports and statistics, newspaper reports, features, magazine articles and surveys, literature from lobby groups and charitable organisations.
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Key Facts
- When you report child abuse to social services, they must look into it if they think there is a real risk to the safety or well-being of the child. Social services will decide if the child needs protection and what needs to be done to protect them. (page 2)
- In a series of papers published by the Lancet medical journal, child abuse experts say that one in ten children in the UK suffers physical, sexual, emotional abuse or neglect. (page 4)
- One in four adults (25%) have been worried that a child they know or who is living in their area is being neglected, and over a third (38%) did not tell anyone about their concerns, a new survey published by Action for Children has revealed. (page 7)
- ChildLine counselled more children for sexual abuse in 2007/08 than at any other time in its 22-year history. They included 465 children aged seven or under and nearly 6000 of these calls related to rape. (page 13)
- The Annual Report 2008 from the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) revealed a fall of nearly 10% in the number of international websites with child sexual abuse content. (page 17)
- The vast majority of child abusers have no convictions at all. Criminologist Mark Williams-Thomas estimates there may be as many as 250,000 people in Britain with an active sexual interest in children when only 30,000 have been caught, convicted and signed the sex offender’s register. (page 22)
- The majority of sexual offenders are family members or are otherwise known to the child. Sexual abuse by strangers is not nearly as common as sexual abuse by family members. (page 25)
- Studies suggest certain forms of sexual violence against children are on the rise in Europe and that a significant minority of children in Europe, between 10% and 20%, are sexually assaulted during their childhood. (page 29)
- In the UK, legislation prohibiting corporal punishment does not apply to the home or to some alternative care settings. (page 30)
- The 2008 report from the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child recommended that the UK should ‘prohibit as a matter of priority all corporal punishment in the family, including through the repeal of all legal defences...’ (page 31)
- New figures released by the NSPCC show that a majority of adults now think it is cruel to smack a child: 95% of adults say that smacking a baby under one year old is cruel; 73% of adults consider it is cruel to smack a toddler aged one to four; 54% of people think it is cruel to smack a child of five and older. (page 32)
- A survey from the Department of Children, Schools and Families found that 59% of parents agree that the law should allow parents to smack their children, although a significant minority (22%) disagree and around one in ten parents overall disagree strongly (11%). (page 38)
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Table of Contents
Chapter One: Child Abuse
What is child abuse?, Child abuse, One in ten children suffer abuse, say experts, Child abuse – signs and symptoms, People ‘too afraid’ to report child neglect concerns, How the abuse industry is exploiting Baby P, Neglected children should be taken from parents, Guidance to help identify child maltreatment.
Chapter Two: Sexual Abuse
Counselling for sexual abuse reaches new high, Behind every statistic, a young victim, Global decrease in child sexual abuse websites, Social networking, ‘Sexting’ amongst UK teens, Teen domestic violence statistics, Protecting children from sexual abuse, The dangers of Sarah’s law, Adult survivors of child abuse, Abused children ‘need therapy’, The nightmare of false memories of sexual abuse, New research sparks fear over paedophile convictions, EU steps up fight against trafficking and child abuse.
Chapter Three: Discipline and Abuse
Corporal punishment, Hitting children is wrong and the law should say so, Record number of adults say smacking is cruel, Defending Government’s position on smacking, Stop hitting!, Debate smacks of confusion, Shouting at your children as bad as smacking them.
Key Facts
Glossary
Index
Additional Resources
Acknowledgements
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The Study Guide for: Tackling Child Abuse - Volume 179
Each book in the Issues series has a study guide. These four-page guides provide a variety of discussion points and other activities to suit a wide range of ability levels and interests.
Publisher: Independence Educational Publishers
Price: £1.95
ISBN: 978 1 86168 519 3