Sexual Violence against Children and Vulnerable People - Essay Example

?ANALYSIS SEXUAL VIOLENCE AGAINST CHILDREN AND VULNERABLE PEOPLE REPORT By Introduction Sexual offencesoccur everywhere in the world. Most notably, it has been encouraged by a situation of dependence to individuals and groups which make some people to be very vulnerable. Even the authorities that have been tasked with prevention of the offenses have been noted to equally take part in breaking the law. Many groups have come up to develop strategies that would oversee a stoppage, if not a drop to this vice. The Sexual Violence against Children and Vulnerable People (SVCVP) report has shown that the violence has gone a notch higher in creating a situation where it becomes very difficult to stop. This paper seeks to analyse the SVCVP report as it was presented in July 2013. In view of this, it will highlight main features and the trends that have been realised in the operations as per the concerns of the different stakeholders involved in its implementation as well as future proposals. A few groups have been noted to champion the liberation of children from sexual pests. Some of these are; The National Group, Department for Children, Local Safeguarding Children Boards (LSCBs), Department of Health (DH) and other trusts that make sure that the children would be safe. Ministerial Statement The statements as were addressed by the Minister of State for Policing and Criminal Justice indicates that the government was truly involved in the operations on implementation of the act. His statements on the severity and obscenity of the violence meant to insinuate that it affects everyone in the society. Much as different societies have different cultural beliefs, issues relating to sexual matters are purely universal. The statement that political issue can never handle the matter fully sends the idea that this is an issue that should be handled at the ground levels. The ground levels as proposed by Leach (2003) include all the socialization agents namely the family, school, church, mass media and peer groups. This is because sexual violence takes place in different forms and should therefore be understood by the different social groups in the society. Other violence oversight groups as indicated above have a role to play in mitigation of the rights of young children in the society. Sexual matters are of grievous concern and they also have a historical bearing meaning that the different agency groups mentioned may try to reach the grounds upon which these vices are created and developed. From an analytical perspective, it is therefore sound to intertwine the knowledge observed by the ministerial statement to the works of Friere (1998). It was indicated that lack of a co-ordinated and inclusive action by the society will render the actions of stopping the unethical practices void. Review of the National Group The national group was a collection of experts in policy making that was brought together and tasked with the work of looking into the history of matters related to child abuse. Why was formation of this group necessary? According to the observations of Francis, Skelton and Archer (2002), every matter that touches on a need for social change requires a homogenous approach. It would be better, in their perspective, if this approach is a co-ordination from the national centre. The co-ordination would create an integrated approach to the matter bearing in mind the different socio-cultural differences. From the report, there are other programmes that had been set over the years to try and tackle the issue at hand. This means that the national group had a very important uniformity in responding to the distress calls from the different parts of the country. From the works of the group as indicated in the report, big progressive steps have been taken in addressing matters of sexual violence from the traditional perspective to the emerging issues in the same field. The emerging trends, as has been recently stipulated by Bauman (2001) refer to the perpetrators devising repulsion methods to handle authorities. This includes going to the far trend of holding the victims as hostages and possibly prisoners of sex. Analysis of Review of Progress The report by SVACV National Group indicated very vicious concerns that have been realised over the years in violence against children and vulnerable groups. These actions require a very comprehensive learning by the society and appropriate action taken to avert them. The report indicates that the group made up an action plan that would see different stakeholders brought together to address different ideas as relevant to solving the case. Action was to be taken in the key areas that were elaborately directed at the different spheres as adapted by the perpetrators. The major areas as indicated by the report can be summarised in the table below: Action Party/Action Targeted Risk reduction from authorities and power Offenders Institutions Cyber Creation of a maximised system and accountability and effectiveness Local implementation Criminal justice system Police systems Reduction of victims’ vulnerability Reduction Change of culture Victims’ support The group recognised that action across all these parties would cover a wider area in trying to combat the vices. It can however that an overboard action would clearly cover some critical areas which would result in the above actions and stakeholders being acted upon. The identification of these areas was related to the effects that are caused by their very existence. These critical areas identified were the cyber, policing and operations of the criminal justice system. If these areas are to operate effectively, then there would be a sound step that will have been taken to prevent the gross spread of the vice. However, prevention was taken to be the most important weapon that would end the vice. How is this possible? Colclough (2003) noted that prevention is better than the cure for these. How ‘prevention’ works to prevent further actions takes a collection of stakeholders to action. Prevention means getting these children and vulnerable groups from the ways of their molesters. It means that the safety of these is safeguarded with utmost care. Given that these groups must always socialize as normal human beings, how is the prevention possible? Does it mean keeping them away from their assailants? This is not possible because some of the culprits are immediate parents and close family members and teachers in schools. The report noted that this is one of the barriers that prevented efficient implementation of the proposals of the National Group. Still in this prevention, the report noted that the best way was to change regulatory frameworks that govern the children’s homes, safeguard children that run away from home and then strengthen the safeguards that are given to children that are looked after by any guardian. This can be implemented by a simple strategy that was proposed by Brome (2004). She adapts what she called a Public Health Approach as follows: This is the method that can be used to reach out to the society especially those that are very close to the vulnerable groups. By getting the knowledge accepted in the families and close-knit groups, it can be accepted to a close level that each person will take care of the victims at all levels. Since it is however impossible to prevent it at 100% level, Brome suggested that all the victim must be taken care of at three levels so that there can be a further reduction of the effects even if there is a victim. She did this by stating that the time of intervention is probably very vital in making sure that there is absolute prevention. She proposed three methods which are part of the report although not presented directly as such; Primary prevention This refers to all the Approaches put in place to prevent the acts from occurring. Secondary prevention Immediate response to the victim immediately the act occurs to the victim and the perpetrator. This helps deal with the short term impacts of the act. Tertiary prevention These are the long term measures that can be adapted to prevent the long term consequences and furtherance of the actions by more perpetrators. Therefore, to prevent the act, the report’s idea of effective intervention and inclusion as per the proposals by the national group is a very critical idea in preventing further victims. Policing was also part of the report as a way of preventing sexual violation of children. The report indicates a few issues about sexual violence against children and vulnerable groups. In policing, there is a connection between the law reinforcement groups and the victims (Dahlberg, Moss, & Pence, 1999, p. 88). The national group has made sure that the victims are listened to. Some of the presented actions towards the policing issue involve moving away from the police testing the victims’ credibility and the importance of the reported allegations to the victims being listened to. Secondly, there was to be a test of service offered by the police from the victims and the recommendations made for a worthy course. This policing, by the standards of the works of Jackson (1999) are indicative of a prior lapse in the implementations of the strategies to end the vice. It is expected that the recommendations will work well at implementing the course for which it was established. Once the police are directly involved, the work of preventing as presented earlier becomes easier to implement. The Criminal Justice System (CJS) was another strategy that was presented at the forum by the report. If measures are taken to police and prevent without involving the CJS, then the procedures involved in prosecution of the criminals may not be clear. There have been justice systems in other countries that do not have some provisions making it hard for justice to be done especially if the perpetrator is a person that can “buy himself” out of the cases. The report recommended publication of guidelines on the interim basis for prosecutors. The provisions as per the report presentation to the CJS had a high support for the victims. Challenging of the myths and stereotypes ground rule hearings and cross examination were to be included in the system. These are very important sections of the provisions insinuating that there had to be sufficient information that would link the criminals to the violence that has been done. All in all, the CJS system was an out-dated one and, as stated earlier, the criminals have a way of getting out of cases and also escaping from such allegations. The last part of the report delivery is the issue of the cyber. The internet, through the cyber has contributed highly to the pollution of the minds of the youth (Edwards, 2004, p. 23). This issue was noted by the minister as noted by the report. Children expose themselves to literature that look interesting and, given their spirit of adventure tend to try practicing these. Spread of pornography on the internet stimulates the desires of the youth to try and implement the same. The report also noted that The Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have a role to play in elimination of the cyber-crimes through the spread of these pornographic materials. The resolve to track the spread of these images on the cyber, as noted by Hughes (2002) is the first way to make this information not to reach the youth. Sometimes, as was noted, the youth are the ones that drive elderly people into these acts of violence against them by trying to expose the knowledge that they cannot practice. For instance, if there is a sexual contact between a young child who is well informed about pornography and a relatively older person, the child would want to showcase her experience making the older person get involved sexually with her. This utterly contravenes the provisions of the constitution and creates room for molestation. Actions for the Future The society has become more dynamic than it was yesterday. The rule of law must also change depending on the prevailing complexities in the circumstances realised (Gill & Rehman, 2004, p. 21). The report as was presented in July 2013 has propositions for the immediate future (secondary prevention) and the later future (tertiary prevention). The United Nations Cultural and Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) report on sexual issues and children produces stunning revelations about sex and children in different societies. Therefore, going by the recommendations for future planning as presented in the report, there is absolute cohesion on matters concerning the challenges of different societies. A given number of thematic issues had been identified in both historical and current issues affecting the implementation of the propositions of the National group. The end idea however is to try and create a situation where there is a reduced gap between the justice system and the victims. Starting July 2013 to given times in 2014, the report recommends a collection of duties to be undertaken for the good of the victims. The immediate action starting same July 2013 was to publish a report on multi-agency working and projects on information sharing. The detailed information regarding this was that the agencies were supposed to deliver information from the primary foundations regarding the barriers that are encountered in delivery of the working based on the multi-agency approach. This also was to include the information sharing deterrents and use of case studies to deliver information that was very accurate. Why was an immediate action necessary given that the report was released in July? Going by the challenges that had been realised earlier on, as well as the core issue that this violence is a historical issue, immediate action was required. A look at the government response to this report, which was presented in a different forum, indicates that this is a grave issue and has an everyday effect on all people in all societies. The response, which was presented to parliament in September 2013 by the Secretary of State for the Home Department on behalf of Her Majesty, the government notes this as the first issue that is to be tackled in creation of the right way forward in handling this issue. In fact, the first recommendation as quoted from the response was that “Those cases of children at risk identified by the Office of the Children’s Commissioner must be monitored by local authorities who have overriding responsibility for the welfare of those children” (Home Office, 2013). The issue of ‘local’ authorities is surfacing very clearly. It means that the government supports the idea of localising the operations of preventing the vices of sexual violence. This support can only be done if the support is done with immediate effect. This creates a situation of urgency and seriousness and sends out a picture of clarity on the position of the government. Another issue comes up in the proposition recommended by the government as par the provisions of the report; the authorities with overriding responsibility for children. On this, UNESCO proposes that the implementation as seen starting from the ground must be implemented, monitored and evaluated (UNESCO, 2004, p. 10). In September, the objective was to have published information on sexual violence. This was called a ‘communication pack’. This was a practice guide. The practice guide was to be a pilot scheme in trying to demonstrate how effective grassroots information can be important in trying to disseminate information about the violence. Referring back to the works cited by Bromes (2004), every person at every level has a role to play in helping disseminate the information and hence eliminating the vices that occurred in the historical times. Inept reasoning here indicates that historical events usually have indicative value to the running of the current institution. For instance, if there is a case showing mass rape of children and other forms of sexual molestation, it would create an alarm about the dangers of the same vice. A father would not like to see his young daughter. This would create responsibility to the neighbour’s daughter and the care would spread. Therefore, spreading of the information is very important especially through the publications available so that every person takes responsibility. This same issue is supported by the second recommendation as per the report presented in parliament in September the same year. Culture has been mentioned in the previous information as one of the causes of the continued sexual violence against children and vulnerable groups. One of the action plans by the report was the implementation of the action plans through enhanced measures aimed at preventing Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE). This is intertwined with the attitudes of the people. Do attitudes prevent the control? Where do these attitudes come from? Are they a cultural issue? In some African communities, it is believed that having sex with a virgin cures the HIV/AIDS virus. An attitude is formed from here and it is not easy controlling a vice in such a society. Therefore, there was supposed to be awareness that would touch on issues related with different stakeholders in the different industries in the market. It is a factual issue that the industry that highly promotes the sexual violence and molestation to young children is the hospitality industry. Reaching out to this industry by any means through this education would highly reduce the spread of the vice. Education of children and the society as a whole was mentioned as one of the plans to alleviate the vice. Brome (2004) presented what she called ‘An Ecological Model’ that would try and explain how a vice moves from one person to the other. She used the sociological agents; individual peers, relationship, community and societal. In peer, she asserts that the idea of sexuality comes in based on experiences on issues related to sex. Such include attitudes and beliefs and witnessing sexual violence at some point in life as well as being a victim. Relationship comes in the picture by virtue of the victim having been in a relationship with sexually aggressive peers. Community is involved in the case as it accepts sexual behaviours and tolerates them as part of the society norms (Humm, 1992, p. 31). Societal influences come in as there may be some inequalities that may be associated with some race or gender and this may be a sexual issue. The report therefore promotes education to individual peers. This is supposed to take place when these kids are still very young so that they grow up with the knowledge. This issue is supported by the Education for all Monitoring Report of 2003/4. When the children are informed about the direct issues, they will help spread the information to other members of the community and social group. Referring back to the UNESCO report, there is an emphasis on child education especially the 2004 report in the subsection quoted as ‘The Commitment to Gender Equality in Dakar, April 2000’. The report indicates that by 2015, all children and especially girls must have achieved the goals of the free and quality education. This is just a support material to the 2013 report indicating that an educated child is less bound to be a victim of sexual exploitation. The last bit of the action plan refers to the reprisals for the culprits as well as treatment for the victims. This is through introduction of the Care Bill. Once a bill has been enacted, then it means that it becomes part of the government campaign to fight the vice. This is an activity that is supposed to mature in April 2014 and would require the consent through signing of the Royalty. The indication here is that it is going to be handled by Her Majesty and therefore the laws will be binding to the operations of the whole government. The care bill will, by accent by The Royalty for the first time safeguard adult boards. The adult boards here mean all the boards that will be involved in the operations related to sexual violence against vulnerable groups and children. Conclusion and Recommendations Sexual violence is a concern of all in the society. Taking advantage of the positions and situations of the less privileged and children in the society is as grievous as killing them (Hughes, 2002, p. 12). Other vulnerable groups have also borne the brunt of the vice by being subjected to extreme tortures, sometimes other people succumbing to death. This analysis has analysed Government’s Sexual Violence against Children and Vulnerable People Report in July 2013. By integration of other literature, it has come to the final issue that the efforts are under a lot of challenges in implementing them. By recommendation, there is supposed to be an inclusive community policing policy implemented from the foundations of the sociological levels of these children and vulnerable groups. There is also a loophole in its implementation. This implementation starts from the national level going back to the people as opposed to the need to start from the people going to the national level. Therefore, it is highly recommended that the implementations start with the people on the foundations of these children and vulnerable groups to the national level. Keeping in mind the challenges realised, the government also requires investing heavily in protecting the future that is these children. References Brome, M., Saul, J., Lang, K., Lee-Pethel, R., Rainford, N., & Wheaton, J. (2004). Sexual Violence Prevention: Beginning the Dialogue. Atlanta: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Colclough, C. (2003). EFA Global Monitoring Report: Gender and Education For All – The Leap to Equality. Paris: UNESCO. Dahlberg, G., Moss, P., & Pence, A. (1999). Beyond Quality in Early Childhood Education and Care. London : Routledge. Edwards, T. (2004). Cultures of masculinity textbook. London : Routledge. Francis, B., Skelton, C., & Archer, L. (2002). A systematic review of classroom strategies for reducing stereotypical gender constructions among girls and boys in mixed–sex UK primary schools. Retrieved 12 8, 2013, from EPPI-Centre, Social Science Research Unit, Institute of Education: http://eppi.ioe.ac.uk/EPPIWeb/home.aspx?page=/reel/review_groups/gender/review_one.htm Friere, P. (1998). Pedagogy of Freedom: ethics, democracy and civic courage. Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. Gill, A., & Rehman, G. (2004). ‘Empowerment through activism: responding to domestic violence in the South Asian Community in London. 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Guidelines for implementing, monitoring and evaluating: Gender Responsive EFA Plans. Bangkok: UNESCO. Read More