Sadly, the number of reported child abuse cases represents only “the tip of the iceberg” although in some Australian states, one in every five children is the subject of a report to statutory child protection services before the age of eighteen19. Child protection services are overwhelmed with escalating demands while staff retention problems curtail investigations and support for families, foster carers and foster children. In some states the annual staff turnover of child protection officers has been 40% and the average length of service has been as little as six months.
Child protection departments respond to reports using family support services, rather than through a formal investigation. This can lead to substantial decreases in the numbers of reports recorded, masking the statistics relating to the rates of child maltreatment.
Australian students are urged to refer to the most recent copy of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s Annual Report, Child Protection Australia.
Family support services
Many of the reports to child protection authorities involve parents not coping with their lives in general and their child-rearing responsibilities in particular. Some will be former state wards and survivors of childhood abuse who lacked good parenting models in childhood. Because of their circumstances, they are often poorly educated, unemployed, unwell, impoverished, victims of intergenerational violence and substance abuse. Child protection authorities focus on trying to help parents and most governments have increased funding for family support and early intervention services, which are seen to be effective in reducing the need for more intrusive actions. Strategies have been introduced such as “Families First” in New South Wales, “Child First” in Victoria, “Keeping Them Safe” in South Australia, “Referral for Active Intervention” in Queensland and “Common Assessment Framework” in the ACT. These strategies attempt to assist families in a holistic way, by providing better access to services and coordinating service delivery.
Australia has moved away from the identification and investigation of evidence and the removal of the child towards an assessment of whether a child has suffered harm and whether the family can be assisted. However, as shown in the next chapter, unless it is well supervised, children will fall through the gaps. When non-accidental child deaths occur, it is often revealed that the family was well known to the department but attention focussed on the needs of parents rather than the safety of children.
Children re-abused
Child protection services are now concerned about the increase in re-notifications and re-substantiations of abuse, indicating that large numbers of children continue to be victimised after reports have been made and investigated.
The Victorian Department of Human Services undertook a detailed analysis (2002) and found that the child protection system failed to deal with parents’ chronic problems20. The report noted that helping these families required more sustained and less intrusive support than was being provided. It highlighted the need for stronger prevention and early intervention services as well as improved responses for children. If intervention does not create a change in the parent’s behaviour and the plight of children is ignored, the consequences can be fatal. In 2011, the Premier of Victoria initiated a further inquiry into the failing child protection system.
Since the 1970s, child protection policies have emphasised family re-unification. Out-of-home carers complain that this often forces children to return to abusive homes against their wishes. When the family breaks down again, the child is sent to another foster home and the pattern is repeated. This practice was condemned by the National Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse (NSPCC-UK) as long ago as 1973 in a report entitled Yo-Yo children 21. Furthermore, the practice of moving children to foster homes without careful preparation was shown to be psychologically harmful by (London) Tavistock Centre’s Drs James and Joyce Robertson as long ago as 1967 in their Young Children in Brief Separation Film Series 22. While their work led to major and rapid reforms in the care of children in hospitals, it appears to have had little impact on child protection services.
There has been a recent push in some countries to seek greater permanency for children who are unable to live with their parents, through either adoption or long-term parenting orders. Both the United States and United Kingdom use adoption as an avenue for security, permanence and stability for children. Unlike adoptions in the past, these children can maintain contact with family members and their family histories.
Attitudes to child maltreatment
Child abuse is a highly emotional subject. The most commonly expressed emotions are as follows:
Denial: A major barrier to protecting children is the priority we give to our own feelings. A very common self-protective response is denial. Many people accept that sexual abuse occurs but they reject information that involves priests, paedophile groups, bizarre, satanic or ritual abuse or an offender they know. For years, police dismissed reports of satanic abuse as the imaginings of mentally ill people. Partial denial is referred to as “discounting”. This can interfere with responding appropriately to child victims. Discounters may say that:
child abuse doesn’t happen – children make it up
it happens but victims “ask for it” or “it does them no harm”
it may happen elsewhere but it doesn’t happen here (so I can ignore it)
media exaggerate it (so I don’t have to do anything about it)
I don’t know what the fuss is about; it happened to me and I’m all right (males only)
child abuse is a problem but it’s not my problem and there is nothing I can do
it isn’t nice so I don’t want to know about it
OARS, the organisation catering for families of prisoners, has concerns that the partners of jailed child sexual offenders are especially likely to deny that the men are guilty or did any harm. Blaming victims, they are unlikely to be able to protect them from further abuse23.
Shock: A common response is “No, I don’t believe it. You must be mistaken. S/he wouldn’t do that”.
Distress and anxiety: “What will happen to me/us if he is jailed?” … “What will people say?”
Frustration: because of our limited ability to protect children in our care
Anger: with the perpetrator, the justice system and parents who didn’t protect the child
Guilt and self-recrimination: looking back we realise that we ignored or misunderstood victims’ signals or placed children in harm’s way
Blame: adults attack victims illogically because they didn’t behave as adults and fight back, albeit without an adult’s strength or knowledg
Revulsion: intertwined with shock. We have to make an effort not to think about what happened as it can affect the way we feel about the child All too often, professionals and parents recall disclosures of sexual abuse that they ignored because they were “too embarrassed” or “didn’t believe it could be true” or “didn’t know what to say or do”. The tragedy is that it takes a great deal of courage for child victims to report abuse to trusted adults and when their reports are ignored or rejected, the children may resign themselves to victimisation, convinced that they are helpless. This has a devastating effect on their self-esteem and emotional and social development.
When we receive information suggesting that a child has been abused, we have to conceal our shock and horror. We have to remind ourselves that the child is the victim and the child’s needs must take precedence over our own uncomfortable feelings. If we ignore our responsibilities and victims’ cries for help, we coIlude with their abusers.
We are angry if we trusted offenders