Child abuse on rise in Australia
September 13th 2007 by Megan Bayliss in Child Abuse-
Is child abuse on the rise in Australia or are we now better at recognising and reporting it? The following news article (Source: Southern Courier Tue 11 Sep, 2007 , Author Nick Moncrieff-Hill) suggests that the incidence of Australian child abuse has indeed increased (below emphasis by Megan):
A University of NSW child protection expert has called for immediate action to address a disturbing rise in the incidence of child abuse and neglect in Australia over recent years.
Speaking last week during National Child Protection Week, Associate Professor Carolyn Quadrio said statistics showed reports of child abuse in Australia had doubled in the past five years, with almost 700 new reports each day in 2004-2005, which translates to one new case every two minutes.
Assoc Prof Quadrio, from the University’s School of Psychiatry, said that a tendency to turn a blind eye to the possibility of child abuse was common in Australia, but procedures to report such incidents were uncovering the true extent of the problem.
“We know about 10 per cent of children experience some sort of physical abuse. About 10 to 15 per cent of boys and 20 to 25 per cent of girls experience sexual abuse. About one in seven Australian children witness domestic violence and then there’s psychological abuse,” she said.
A paediatrician with Sydney Children’s Hospital Child Protection Team, Kieran Moran, said that he had noticed a “significant increase” in the number of child abuse cases referred to the hospital in the past couple of months.
Dr Moran said the hospital dealt with hundreds of cases of child abuse each year, ranging from incidents of severe head and abdominal injuries and sexual abuse, right through to bruised babies.
“In the last couple of months we’ve seen quite a significant increase in the number of severe head injuries in babies. In general we would see six to eight of those a year but we have seen about seven cases in the last two months,” he said.
Assoc Prof Quadrio attributed the trend to an increase in the number of parents who had multiple short-term partners, drug and alcohol abuse and “other new danger areas like paedophiles preying on the internet“.
“We no longer worry about the dirty old man in the park as much; instead we worry about predators on the internet,” she said.
The national media spokeswoman for Advocates for Survivors of Child Abuse, Dr Cathy Kezelman, said: “Just about every social ill that society is battling can be related back to child abuse.”
Experts called for a more unified societal effort to stem the rise of neglect.
There exists a “major stigma” surrounding child abuse “and a general sense that adults should get over their issues”, Dr Kezelman said.
Assoc Prof Quadrio said that surveys on community attitudes had “found that child sexual abuse was seen as less important than being able to meet mortgage repayments“.
“Children are extremely vulnerable creatures, so we have to do what we can to protect them, because letting them be damaged means they will grow up to be damaged adults,” she said.
The above news reports begs the following questions in me:
Has child abuse really increased in Australia?
Is child sexual abuse less important to you than paying your mortgage?
Do you know the difference between the incidence and prevalence of child abuse?
Are you aware of the major stigma around child abuse and what can you do to help tear it down?
Let us get some discussion going around these questions. Comment below or join us over in the Safety Talk forum and have your say about child abuse, not only in Australia, but all over the world. Together we can end the abuse of children and liken child protection to bread and butter - something that everybody has.
Related items on Australian Child Abuse:
Victoria putting children first
Stumble it!