How Media Affects Child Abuse - Case Study Example

To Suffer Thy Children: A Review of the United Kingdom’s Child Protection Policy The story of Victoria Climbie may simply be seen as the story of twocruel adults, one innocent child, and a breach of trust of savage, unimaginable proportions. Entrusted by her parents in the Ivory Coast to her great aunt Marie Therese Kouao so that she could be given a better life in the United Kingdom, little Victoria instead found herself in the hands of sadists --- Kouao and her boyfriend Carl Manning. When she died on 25 February 2000, she had 128 separate injuries on her body, cigarette burns, scars where she had been hit by a bike chain and hammer blows to her toes. The investigation also disclosed that she was forced to sleep in the bin liner in the bath. And yet, it is also the story of institutions that have failed our children, a bureaucracy that has neglected the most vulnerable members of our society, and individual officials whose individual omissions have resulted in collective negligence. In the hearings subsequent to the death of Victoria Climbie, it was discovered that she was seen by dozens of social workers, medical practitioners and police officers but all of them failed to either detect signs of abuse or failed to act on them until it was too late. The inquiry revealed that there were as many as 12 opportunities were the authorities could have intervened, but failed to. For example, when Dr. Mary Schwartz, a pediatrician, looked at Climbie’s cuts wounds, she dismissed it as scabies and sent her back home to her abusers. Police officer Karen Jones refused to inspect the home of the Kouao and Manning, where Climbie lived, because she was afraid she would catch scabies from the furniture. Bickering and backstabbing the child protection service in the Haringey area had also contributed to the failure to provide immediate and adequate response to the abuse. Despite a major tell-tale sign, i.e., Victoria was not enrolled in school, which is one of the indicators that an abuse could be taking place, social workers took the word of Manning and Kouao at face value and did not probe any further. Though Victoria’s abusers were eventually sent to jail and sentenced to life imprisonment, the hard questions still remain. How could this kind of abuse – so horrible and grotesque – to a child of tender years have gone undetected? Is the system so decrepit, so shot full of holes that despite many warning signs and many opportunities to save Victoria’s life, she still ended up battered and dead, with 128 injuries on her frail body? And perhaps the most troubling question of all: could this happen again? Dare we allow this to happen again? While many citizens have taken the approach of blaming the government and its agencies – certainly not an unreasonable approach – media responsibility (or irresponsibility, for that matter) has largely been ignored. This paper will examine the role that media plays in child abuse on three levels: First, it will examine how media has had a tendency to create distrust in the government and its intervention mechanisms, thus making it more difficult for government to perform its task in a more meaningful manner. Second, it will go deeper and examine how the images depicted in media have reinforced stereotyping and commodification, that could lead to child sexual abuse. And lastly, it will examine how media has been contributory in creating a culture of marginalization and alienation, which studies have shown, are factors contributory to child abuse. Evolution of Britain’s Child Protection Policies Indeed, child abuse is an issue of grave importance, and maltreatment, something more complex than we think (Gough, 1996). It has long been established that children’s rights are human rights and that it is the duty of every state to act in the best interests of the child and to provide a safe environment conducive to his development. 1889 was the first time that the United Kingdom acknowledged the necessity of intervention in cases of child abuse between parent and child. In a sense, it recognized the autonomy of the person of the child, and thus refuting the idea that the child is merely a property of his parents. The creation of the Children’s Charter expanded and added additional layers of protection for children and avenues for address. In 1974, following the death of Maria Cowell, there was a realization that the lack of coordination between child protection services imperiled the child. Hence Area Child Protection Committees (ACPC) were created for the purpose of ensuring greater coordination. In 1989, the Children Act came into force. One of its aims was to provide “a consistent framework for regulating all forms of substitute care” (Masson, 1992). In 1991, the “Working Together Under the Children Act” was passed, which granted investigatory powers to the ACPC to look into cases of child abuse. It would seem however that agencies only scramble to get their act together after another child has died at the hands of her abusers. Says Dingwall (1986): One of the conventional responses of the British state to the revelation of a major disaster, accident or scandal is to set up an inquiry under the leadership of a lawyer. A Child in Trust, the Report of the Panel of Inquiry into the Circumstances Surrounding the Death of Jasmine Beckford, under the chairmanship of Louis Blom-Cooper, Q.C. is a recent and well-publicized example. Xxx Blom-Cooper’s report stands in an honorable tradition of investigations into apparent failures in the state’s care and protection of children. The historic inquiry by Sir Walter Monckton, K.C. into the death of Denis O’Neill in 1945 contributed significantly to the demand for reform which resulted in the Children Act 1948. More recently, the report in 1974 on the death of Maria Colwell, from a panel led by T.G. Field-Fisher, Q.C. played a part in launching the present, continuing wave of concern about child care. Between 1973 and 1981, a DHSS review identified 18 other inquiries, of which 12 appear to have been chaired by lawyers. It is of little surprise therefore, that the death of Victoria has sparked a nationwide outrage that resulted in the Laming Inquiry, which in turn led to the creation of the 2003 Green Paper entitled “Every Child Matters”, which provides a wide range of measures for child welfare and protection. In order to address the bureaucratic defects that gave rise to the Victoria Climbie tragedy, the Paper provides for greater information sharing between responsible agencies with contact details of the professionals, and gives each child a unique identity number to better trace their whereabouts and conditions. Criticized by many for its deficiencies, for example the absence of a gender analysis (Daniel, et. al., 2005) and the failure to acknowledge the tensions between “entitlement and responsibility, protection and punishment, and in the scope of education” (Williams, 2004). Media as creator of a culture of distrust Beginning in the 1970’s mass media has featured the deaths of children in the hands of adults. These are horrifying accounts of child abuse that reveal not only the depravity of those who are supposed to look after their care and well-being, but also glaring defects in the system. Government agencies have been repeatedly demonized the media and thus have responded defensively, in a manner that might have been inimical to the interests of the children they are supposed to safeguard. (Ayre, 2001). For instance, government agencies have become less-than-eager to be transparent and have not been inclined to coordinate with other agencies. The Laming Report released in the wake of the Victoria Climbie incident made the following recommendations: The creation of a children and families board chaired by a senior government minister to coordinate policies and initiatives that have a bearing on the wellbeing of children and families. · A national agency for children and families, led by a children’s commissioner, should be established to ensure local services meet national standards for child protection and implement reforms. · Committees for children and families should be established by councils, with members drawn from social services, education, housing, the NHS and the police. · New local management boards – chaired by council chief executives with members from the police, health, social services, education, housing and the probation service – should be set up. The boards would appoint a local director of children and family services to monitor effective interagency working on child welfare and protection. · The creation of a national children’s database that keeps a record of every contact a child has with a member of staff from the police, health and local authorities. On the part of the greater society, studies have demonstrated the media contributes a great part in the cynicism of the public over the capacity of government agencies to look after their welfare. According to Cappella and Jamieson (1996), news reports affect the “quality of democracy” and the depths of “political alienation” and there is documented evidence to the effect that media can alter perceptions of people on the institutions of their community. When media reports that the agencies responsible for child protection are not efficient and do not deliver the goods, as it were, where their children are concerned, then the public backlash is imminent and expected. There is a distrust in the government and many believe that if they seek government intervention, then it might only aggravate the problem. One factor compound the issue further. First, in a 2000 study it was revealed that most of the violence perpetrated against children is committed in the context of the family and the home. To quote: The survey results have identified the extent to which violence towards children is primarily a family affair. The only arena outside the family where it occurs with any frequency is between age peers at school or in other settings where the young congregate. Violence by unrelated adults, including professionals, is rare. Within the family, it is primarily birth parents who mete out the violent treatment, though sibling violence and step-parent violence also occur. (Cawson, 2000.) The fact that most cases of child abuse take place in the home reveals that there is a greater danger that the issue is kept hush-hush. The secrecy of domestic affairs makes it imperative that someone – a well-meaning adult known to the child, for instance, like a neighbor – come forward and inform the State that a child is being abused or could be in danger of being abused. This requires a basic trust in the system, the same trust that is being eroded by an overzealous media. However, there is equal danger in shooting the messenger. In castigating the media, the danger is that we absolve the real culprits: uncaring institutions bogged down by bureaucratic red tape and paperwork, and not having a genuine commitment to helping the children who need their help. It cannot be gainsaid that by turning a spotlight on the issue of child abuse, media has made significant contributions in changing the landscape of legislation. Media and the creation of gender stereotypes with respect to child sexual abuse Another realm altogether is child sexual abuse. The tragedy is that child victims of sexual abuse tend to suffer in the long-term, even as adults. (Briere & Elliot, 1994). They have a higher tendency of getting pregnant as adolescents, of drug use and of child abuse to their own children (Boyer & Fine, 1992). Truly the scars left by child sexual abuse are deep. When one is raped or molested, it goes beyond the realm of the physical and constitutes a vicious attack on one’s psyche and self-perception. There can be no denying that media plays an important role in the molding of social values and in the legitimization of personal perceptions. It has been said that media is even more potent than formal education, in that its effects seep into the subconscious and accost individuals wherever they may be, whatever time of the day. In a study it was found that 98% have at least one television, 70% have more than one television, 70% have cable, and 51% of households with children have a computer. (Petrie, 1994) Gender stereotyping is a huge problem that must be addressed by the media, as it could lead to notions of male domination and female submission. Werner-Wilson, Fitzharris and Morrisey wrote a paper entitled “Adolescent and parent perceptions of media influence on adolescent sexuality” (2004) and suggested that women and people from traditionally underrepresented groups were rarely the source of stories; when they were featured, they were depicted unflatteringly. According to the Media Awareness Network: The statistics are startling. The average North American girl will watch 5,000 hours of television, including 80,000 ads, before she starts kindergarten. In the United States, Saturday morning cartoons alone come with 33 commercials per hour. Commercials aimed at kids spend 55 per cent of their time showing boys building, fixing toys, or fighting. They show girls, on the other hand, spending 77 per cent of their time laughing, talking, or observing others. And while boys in commercials are shown out of the house 85 per cent of the time, more than half of the commercials featuring girls place them in the home. Another troubling phenomenon is the eroticisation of young girls. For example, the fashion industry, a multi-billion dollar enterprise, has been portraying young girls not yet on the brink of womanhood in sexual ways. Smoky eyes on a child no more than fifteen distort notions of childhood and corrupt innocence – as do suggestive camera angles and the slightly gaping mouth. According to Conrad and Milburn (2001): Popular culture communicates a set of myths about sexuality that are so ubiquitous we hardly even notice them. These myths become so ingrained in people’s thinking – in the form of unexamined assumptions about the function of sex, how we should behave sexually, what is “normal” or “abnormal” – that we often respond automatically within the framework of these assumptions. Perhaps that is the reason why illnesses associated with body image, such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia, are particularly common among teen-age girls. They are forced to conform to an unreasonably high standard of ideal, without having the necessary emotional infrastructure with which to filter these images, if not outrightly reject them. At the end of the day, we have a generation of troubled young women with more questions and answers, still finding their way and not knowing whom to trust. This makes them vulnerable to sexual abuse, particularly if the abuser is also bombarded with images from media that depict women in an unflattering way or hew close to the realm of pornography. Media as Contributor to Marginalization and Alienation Parental violence against their own children is one of the more popular forms of child abuse. In a study, it was discovered that children from lower income brackets or social classes suffered a greater likelihood of becoming victims of parental abuse. (Cawson, et al. 2000). Perhaps a poor educational background and lack of exposure to new ideas contribute to the parents’ insistence on outdated forms of discipline, like corporal punishment. More insidiously, it can also be theorized that parents who experience marginalization and disempowerment from their community or social network take it out on their children to derive whatever little sense of power and authority that they can. Hence, one particular field where discrimination should be especially guarded against is the field of social work, wherein social workers are there precisely to assist those individuals who are, in some way, marginalized and in need of assistance due to a particular infirmity (Barr, 2004). Often already disempowered and vulnerable as they are, they are most susceptible to discrimination by the society they find themselves in (Alcock, 2003). Hence, social workers must take extra care in ensuring that discrimination does not permeate their practice and that they are equipped with the necessary tools to combat discrimination, whenever and wherever it exists within their realm of accountability. Another issue is neglect, which essentially means the absence of adult supervision required to provide children with basic needs, such as food, shelter, clothing and even education. In a sense, it is more difficult to quantify neglect for unlike physical violence which can manifest itself immediately in the presence of wounds and bruises and cuts, as in the case of Victoria, there can be cases of neglect with no immediate visible signs. Neglect is not as easily quantifiable as abuse, although the effects of neglect are equally long lasting – physically, psychologically and emotionally. In many instances, neglectful parents are those who live in the fringes of society, are most likely poor, and most of all, have felt a sense of neglect as well from the community that that belong to. There can be no denying that factual and fictional media portrayals have a propensity to activate culturally shared racial and gender stereotypes and affect judgment involving those who belong to stereotyped groups. Even news reports, for all its declarations of impartiality and objectivity, may be guilty of racial stereotyping. In his landmark study, Ungerleider (1991), states that a news report has the implicit agenda of “casting” characters as heroes, victims or villains. Members of minority groups end up either ignored or cast in the role of villains. Since these stories are repeated over and over with this same angle, they become the "accepted understandings among those to whom alternative interpretations are not evident." Conclusion There certainly are efforts that are being made to improve on the regulations pertaining to child protection. (Parton, 1997) There is too a greater recognition that child protection must be the result of a synergetic effort among institutions and players in society. By and large, however, it cannot be gainsaid that the real and lasting solution is a change in mindset to accompany changes in policy. It is difficult to forget that the reason one police officer refused to enter the house of Victoria and her abusers was because she was afraid to catch rabies. The social worker and the other officials responsible for child protection must be cognizant of the milieu in which he operates and keenly aware of the vulnerabilities of the individual he is tasked to protect. The sense of disenfranchisement, the lack of access to institutions and state infrastructure, the lack of redress mechanism, the lack of participation in policy-making (Drake, 2001) – these are more present in children than in adults. At the end of the day, we must be united in our goal to provide a better world for our children, where they can grow to the fullest of their potential and contribute to society as productive and well-rounded citizens. References Alcock, P. Social Policy in Britain. London: MacMillan. 2003. Ayre P (2001) Child protection and the media: Lessons from the last three decades, British Journal of Social Work 31(6), 887-901. Barr N. The Politics of a Welfare State. Oxford University Press. 2004. Boyer, D. & David, F. “Sexual Abuse as a Factor in Adolescent Pregnancy and Child Maltreatment”. 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Masson, J. “Implementing Change for Children: Action at the Centre and Local Reaction” Journal of Law and Society, Vol. 19, No. 3 (Autumn, 1992), pp. 320-338 Murphy, S. “The Impact of Factual versus Fictional Media Portrayals on Cultural Stereotypes.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 560, The Future of Fact (Nov., 1998), pp. 165- 178. O’Neill, “O. Childrens Rights and Childrens Lives”. Ethics, Vol. 98, No. 3 (Apr., 1988), pp. 445-463 Paik, H., & Comstock, G. (1994). The effects of television violence on antisocial behavior: a meta-analysis. Communication Research, 21, 516-546. Parton N. (ed) (1997) Child protection and family support: tensions, contradictions, and possibilities, London: Routledge Williams, Fiona. “What Matters is who Works: Why Every Child Matters to New Labour. Commentary on the DfES Green Paper Every Child Matters.” Critical Social Policy, Vol. 24, No. 3, 406-427 (2004). Ungerleider, C. 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