20 Victorian Department of Human Services (2002), An integrated strategy for child protection and placement services, Melbourne: Community Care Division, VDHS.
21 NSPCC. (1974), ‘Yo-yo children, A study of 23 violent matrimonial cases by the NSPCC School of Social Work’, London: NSPCC.
22 Robertson, J. & Robertson, J. (1967-73), Young children in brief separation, Film series, Concord Video and Film Council. – (1967) Film: Kate, aged two years five months, in foster care for twenty-seven days. – (1968) Film: Jane, aged seventeen months, in foster care for ten days. – (1969) Film: John, aged seventeen months, for nine days in a residential nursery. – (1971) Film: Thomas, aged two years four months, in foster care for ten days. – (1973) Film: Lucy, aged twenty-one months, in foster care for nineteen days.
23 O’Keefe, Liz, personal communications with author, 11 August 2011, OARS Community Transitions.
2
POLITICS INVOLVED IN CHILD PROTECTION
There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children. —Nelson Mandela
Nigel Parton, NSPCC Professor in Child Care at the University of Huddersfield was one of the first to examine child protection as a political issue. In his book, The politics of child abuse 1, he linked child maltreatment and poverty, challenging the dominant medical model that traditionally used narrowly-defined forensic investigation methods that were isolated from the family unit. Poverty is, of course, linked to government policies and budgets, especially those that result in unemployment, inflation, high interest rates, inadequate welfare payments and housing shortages that prevent victims from escaping from child abuse and domestic violence. It is significant however that although the book was published in 1985, child sexual abuse merited only one mention.
Child protection is a political issue because governments create laws and regulations and allocate funds for the provision of child protection-related services. If governments fail to recognise their importance when annual budgets are decided, there may be cuts to family support agencies, care and education centres for preschool children, child protection curriculum in state schools and universities and in-service training for teachers. Without adequate government funding, there will be a shortage of child protection officers for responding to reports of child maltreatment. This can have fatal consequences for children. Politicians determine the budget for police to prosecute child abuse cases and the courts that hear them. Governments also determine whether prisons provide treatment for convicted child sex offenders.
Historically, child protection has had a low priority in politics. Few politicians have a professional knowledge of child abuse and its consequences and given that they may only be in power for a few years there is little incentive to consider the long-term consequences of ignoring these issues. Children are disadvantaged by the fact that they have no voice, no vote and no strong lobby acting on their behalf. Parents are seldom interested in child protection until their own children are affected. Most child protection professionals are employed by governments or government funded agencies and workers are banned from talking to media. Charities dependent on government funding may require staff to remain silent for fear that their contracts will not be renewed. Governments like to invest in projects that have highly visible outcomes, such as sports stadiums. By contrast, child protection is unpleasant, there is no quick-fix and taxpayers can see little for their money.
In The Politics of Child Abuse in America2, the authors argue that for child abuse to be taken seriously it must be seen as a public safety problem. This definition would make it congruent with other family-based social trends, including the crackdown on domestic violence. The authors said that children must have at least the same legal protection as women experiencing domestic violence. They recommended the creation of a Children’s Authority to make provision for investigation, enforcement, placement services, prevention and education, family support, and research and development.
Richard Krugman, an eminent American pediatrician, reviewed American political history and concluded that laws passed over a thirty-year period were in response to “the perceived crises of the moment”. Major political parties failed to recognise child abuse as a significant health or social issue reflecting (a) centuries of denial of the existence of family abuse; (b) antagonism towards media that exposes it; and (c) a lack of agreement and cohesion between the professions working with children. Krugman also noted that there were few political advocates for children. To change this, child abuse needed to be conceptualised as a “national health problem”3.
University of Melbourne psychiatrist Dr Bill Glaser4 left no doubt that child sex abuse is a major health problem that governments must address but have virtually ignored. In a paper for the Australian Institute of Criminology, Glaser, who works with both victims and offenders, described the problem as a “plague” that “while not immediately fatal, lurks in the bodies and minds of victims for decades, making them up to sixteen times more likely to experience its disastrous long-term effects”.
He described these long-term effects as:
“… life-threatening starvation, suicide, persistent nightmares, drug and alcohol abuse and a whole host of intractable psychiatric disorders requiring life-long treatment.” The latter include depression, anorexia nervosa, substance abuse, multiple personality disorder, suicide attempts, sexual difficulties, and general relationship problems including the acquisition of appropriate parenting skiIls. There may also be long-term physical problems such as chronic pelvic pain and irritable bowel disorder …
“Child sex abuse accounts for probably more misery and suffering than any of the great plagues of history, including the bubonic plague, tuberculosis and syphilis. Its effects are certainly more devastating and widespread than those of the modern-day epidemics which currently take up so much community attention and resources: motor vehicle accidents, heart disease and, now, AIDS. Yet the public response to child sexual abuse, even now, is fragmented, poorly coordinated and generaIly iIl-informed.”
Glaser pointed out that the child victims of sexual abuse have no equivalent to the National AIDS Council to advise governments on policy and research issues. They have no National Heart Foundation equivalent to promote public education. They do not have a Transport Accident Commission to provide comprehensive treatment and rehabilitation services.
“A massive public health problem like child sexual abuse demands a massive societal response … The majority of adults in prisons were victims of abuse; the majority of drug abusers use drugs to hide the pain left by childhood experiences; drugs relate to further child abuse and other crimes.”
Glaser suggested that the effects of child sexual abuse are more devastating and more widespread than the other health problems that take up government resources.
“There is now incontrovertible evidence of a firm link between childhood sexual assault and the development of many of these problems in later life, even after factors such as social disadvantage, family dysfunction and other forms of abuse are taken into account.”
Glaser described professional and political ignorance of child abuse and sexual abuse in particular, as “profound” despite data about its prevalence having always been available.
He pointed out that in eight years, three of London’s hospitals recorded 2700 cases of venereal disease among girls aged 11-16 years5. In the 1890s, children constituted over half of the prostitutes in Vienna and Paris6. A parliamentary committee (1859-1860), heard that girls as young as seven were being prostituted in Sydney. Furthermore, there was extensive knowledge about the identity of the abusers, the nature of the abuse and the effects upon vulnerable children7. Glaser attributed the denial of the problem to entrenched patriarchal values. In the short-term he wanted the government to change the legal system to permit hearsay evidence in cases of child sexual abuse, give broader judicial discretion to aIlow the hearing of joined charges where multiple victims are involved, eliminate delays in bringing