Child Abuse and Steps for Its Prevention - Essay Example

Child Abuse and Steps for Its Prevention Introduction Over time, society has learnt more about the nature of individuals and developed appropriate mechanisms that accommodate for these flaws. One front that needs more attention, however, is the issue of child abuse and molestation that is rampant in modern society. The primary years of one’s life are the chief factor that influences the overall psychological profile of an individual. As a result, abuse during these years has a detrimental effect on the individual and create a problem for society in the future. Individuals at this stage also have little or no defense and with the neglect afforded by the social care systems, some cases have resulted in the avoidable and foreseeable deaths of minors. One such case involves 17 month old Peter Connolly (Baby P), whose death under the care of his guardians could have been prevented by proper attention from the health and social care workers who dealt with his case. Baby P’s Case This case came into the spotlight in August 2007 and raised a lot of attention due to the number of inconsistencies and inadequacies that it revealed in regards to the welfare and health care systems. Baby P was admitted in hospital several times before his death in which instances the healthcare providers, who offered complete and conclusive reports on their physical examinations, noted his battered body and the bruises on his skin (Marinetto, 2011). Over the course of 8 months while his mother was living with her boyfriend (not Peter’s biological father), the child experienced physical trauma resulting in over 50 injuries. This was indicative of a trend of physical abuse from the live-in boyfriend and should have been spotted and stopped before it got to such extents. While the physical abuse was being carried out, the family interacted with agencies that could have noticed the problem over 60 times, with none of these encounters being effective in stopping the abuse. Doctors’ reports analyzed during the inquiry over his death indicated that Baby P had swallowed a tooth broken during a beating, had a broken spine and several fractured ribs (Marinetto, 2011). The last of these reports was dated a day before his death and according to pathological reports, should have acted as the much needed wake-up call that could have saved his life. About 9 months and then again 2 months before his death, the child was placed under the protective care of a friend of the family to ensure his well-being. The second homecoming resulted in his death and from the wealth of evidence of abuse that had been accumulated, could have been prevented by the provision of better and more adept child welfare practices by all the professionals involved. Professionals in the social fields have a very important job of putting together the pieces that indicate that an individual needs more help from them than their position affords. As a result, agencies involved in such industries operate under a model of interdependency, with practitioners forwarding the cases that another agency will pick up on. This model allows for the sharing of information and the assessment of cases that social workers would, under normal circumstances, not review. This system depends on the communication between professionals and if this is not established, a lot of cases could go under the radar, as was the case with Baby Peter. This case was repeatedly analyzed by practitioners from several departments who ended up with the conclusion that he was safe in the environment that he was in, which is clearly a fallacy. It is therefore imperative that we understand the shortcomings of the agencies and agents that handled the case to negate the possibility of such calamities in the future. The physical aspect of child abuse manifests itself in a condition that normally requires the attention of medical practitioners. This is the first line of defense and can create awareness if the neighbors and other individuals in the child’s environment are not aware or do not respond to the child’s distress. The first General Practitioner who examined Baby P at 9 months identified the need for special attention due to some bruises he noticed (Marinetto, 2011). This was a wise move and it led to the arrest of the child’s mother, only for the child to be returned to her custody in a month. This was the first failure on the part of the agents who dealt with the case since they deemed the child to be out of danger, or the environment to be safer for them to return him into his mother’s custody. From baby Peter’s return to his mother, it took a further 5 months for the continuing abuse to arouse the interest of social workers. He was taken to hospital and upon examination, they discovered bruising that is consistent with abuse and consequently took him under their care and placed his mother in protective custody. Another month later, the Children & Young People’s Service ruled that the case did not meet the parameters that would classify it as a serious case and returned the child to Miss Connelly (Marinetto, 2011). This was another blunder that could have acted as the turnaround that the child needed to escape the abuse at home. Instead, they returned him to the abusive household where he died a month later. Peter also had a run-in with a medical practitioner who should have noticed the extent of his injuries and notified the necessary authorities. According to the autopsy, Dr. Sabah, who examined the child a day before his death, should have alerted the relevant protection service as soon as he notices the heavy injuries that Baby P exhibited (Marinetto, 2011). His failure to do so raises a lot of questions, especially considering that he is a paeditrician who should have the child’s best interests at heart. This amounts to professional neglect and places him on the list of people who should have made a difference in this case’s eventuality. A follow-up after the initial case and caregivers who paid attention to their patients even after they leave the confines of their care would definitely have saved little Peter’s life. Victoria Climbié’s Case While Peter Connelly’s story is a shocking display of the inadequacies of the childcare system, it comes after the reviewing and updating of childcare practices effected after worrying cases in the past. One such case involves a young child as well and if the lessons from this case had been fully applied, Baby P would still be alive and safe today. Victoria Climbié was a child who migrated from Ivory Coast in 1999 with and met her death at the hands of her great aunt Kouoa and her live-in boyfriend in 2000 (Committee, 2003). In the time that she lived in Britain, she was attended to by numerous agencies which did a shoddy job in following the progress of the child’s health situation. In fact, the caregivers never faced charges before her death and the external attempts to help her were fruitless, such as one instance where a taxi driver took her to the hospital where she died. The Victoria Climbié case was a wake-up call for the inefficiency of the social services and iterated the need for increased communication between the agencies that had encounters with her. For one, the educational system failed to assert the significance of the bruises that she wore when she went to school and her repeated personal absence in class or her sleeping when she should have been studying (Committee, 2003). While the blame can be placed on the apparent lack of communication between the relevant public authorities, the fact that her mother had no established residence played a major role in how the case played out. This was the primary reason hindering the provision of proper services that would have removed her from her great aunt’s custody and helped save her life. Implications The Victoria Climbié case was a major turning point for the social services section of the national framework due to its inhumanity and the fact that it occurred under laws that should have prevented it. One of the main contributing factors was the fact that the accused were of African ethnicity and the presiding social worker was African-Caribbean (Committee, 2003). This brought about the issue of African culture, in which children respect their adults enough not to speak out of turn and thus, Climbié’s silence was mistaken for this respect instead of the desire to keep herself safe by not revealing the truth. This was in itself a major loophole in the service provision and it enabled the guardians to continue mistreating the child. After the Climbié incident, the government strove to create a better social services section to ensure that such occurrences were detected early enough before permanent physical, mental or emotional harm was dealt. In their study, the government honed down on poverty as the main factor behind child abuse and introduced several features to benefit families in low-income neighborhoods (Chief Secretary to the Treasury, 2003). The measures included the addition of services directed at schools and children’s centres which take the burden of schooling and nutrition away from parents. This was aimed at reducing the factor that contributed towards parents feeling like they can not provide for their children, which is a motivating factro for feeling sof resentment which are a leading cause of child abuse. The government also implemented measures that revamped and ensured the cooperation of all the agencies that deal with children’s issues. These were measures aimed at providing increased information sharing between agencies to improve the overall efficiency of the child welfare system (Chief Secretary to the Treasury, 2003). Another measure suggested in the Every Child Matters report indicated a need for information collection and directed that these agencies keep a simngle database to reduce data redundancy. This ensured that the information needed by any social care provider was available and up to date with the data entered by other agencies and workers who had dealt with the case. It also contributed to their suggestion for a lead professional to deal with any case that had traversed agencies to ensure that the cases that demanded prompt attention were catered to (Chief Secretary to the Treasury, 2003). The fact that the Baby Peter case occurred even after these measures were put into place indicate that not much has changed in the system even after changes were suggested and effected. We can only learn from it and aim to seal the loopholes that exist in the system. One such way is the increase of social care workers since the increased work load has a detrimental effect on the time and quality of service afforded to each case (Munro, 2011). The workers would also benefit from an allocation of clear lines of accountability for each case (H. M. Government, 2013). This measure would increase the attention that each social worker directs towards the cases in their inbox and ensure that each case is handled with utmost attention with the blowback being directed towards individuals with low performance ratings in terms of successful cases. Some other propositions suggest the treatment of cases in accordance with the specific details of the case such as the early treatment of cases that require immediate attention (H. M. Government, 2013). This ensures that the children are not subjected to such treatment for long periods of time and helps maintain their psychological balance. Other changes could include the assessment of families depending on a multitude of factors such as ethnicity and neighborhood among others (Sinanan, 2011). Cultural differences account for the different modes of child abuse with some versions being more common in a specific ethnicity. This will ensure that future cases are accorded the importance and individualism that they deserve and thus increase the effectiveness of the entire system. Conclusion The increase of media and social awareness has led to the increased attention that child abuse cases have received in this decade. The reations that the government and public have shown have also been a motivating factor behind the change that is currently being experienced in child welfare. We are, however, a long way from ensuring that incompetent individuals such as social workers, their bosses, paeditricians and the police are replaced with people who actually care about the welfare of their assigned charges. A complete overhaul of the way these agencies operate and communicate is vital if we are to ensure that cases such as Baby P’s and Victoria Climbié’s do not occur again. We need to remember that the children are indeed the future and treat them as such by ensuring that they go through fulfilling and wholesome childhoods free from abuse and neglect, if they are to become productive members of society. References Chief Secretary to the Treasury 2003, Every Child Matters, The Stationery Office, Norwich. Committee, H., 2003, The Victoria Climbié Inquiry Report, The Stationery Office Limited. London. Douglas, E. & McCarthy, S., 2011, Child Fatality Review Teams: A Content Analysis of Social Policy. Child Welfare, vol. 90, no. 3, pp.91-110. H. M. Government, 2013, Working Together to Safeguard Children - A guide to inter-agency working to safeguard and promote the welfare of children, Department of Education, London. Marinetto, M., 2011, A Lipskian Analysis Of Child Protection Failures From Victoria Climbi´E To ‘Baby P’: A Street-Level Re-Evaluation Of Joined-Up Governance. Public Administration, vol. 89, no. 3, pp. 1164-1181. Munro, E., 2011, The Munro Report of Child Protection: Final Report - A Child-centred System, Department for Education, London. Phillips, M., 2013, From Baby P to this hospital of horrors, the Welfare State is protecting callous and incompetent staff. Daily Mail, 1 July. Accessed 3 August, 2013 Sinanan, A. 2011, The Impact of Child, Family, and Child Protective Services Factors on Reports of Child Sexual Abuse Recurrence. Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, pp. 657-676. Read More