The community
driven ‘It’s Not OK’ campaign
in New Zealand was
developed in 2007 to reduce family violence and to change attitudes and
behavior that tolerate family violence. In 2009 the
‘It’s Not Ok’ campaign gathered information from the following sources; New
Zealand Family Violence Clearinghouse fact sheets, Family Violence Statistics
Report (2009), rape prevention education, New Zealand statistics, and New Zealand
Police statistics. They compiled all of the information and launched some very
disturbing statistics to the New Zealand public.
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Child Youth and
Family received 49,063 reports of abuse that required further action in 2006. 239
children under 15 were admitted to hospital in 2006 due to assault, abuse or
neglect. About 10
children are killed every year in New Zealand by a member of their family.
*
Women’s Refuge
received around 50,000 crisis calls in 2007/08, and provided services to 11,295
women and 6,996 children.
*
There were 44 family violence
homicides in 2008. On average 14 women, 6 men and 10 children are killed by a
member of their family every year.
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Around 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 10
boys in New Zealand have experienced sexual abuse and 85%
of sexual violence is committed by someone known to the victim.
*
There were 863
prosecutions for assault on a child and a further 96 prosecutions for cruelty
to children in 2008.
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In 1994 the economic cost of family violence was estimated at
$1.2 to $5.8 billion per year by economist Suzanne Snively. In today’s figures
that would rise to around $8 billion.
The more I research into this topic the more I began to wonder, what are other factors that could be contributing to New Zealand’s high level of child abuse? On the New Zealand statistics website I came across the Vulnerable Children and Families report (2012). This report bases its data on the New Zealand General Social Survey: 2010. I found this very interesting to read in regards to looking at households with vulnerable children. The Vulnerable Children and Families report (2012, p. 7) states that there are “11 risk factors contained in the General Social Survey that are believed to adversely affect children’s development or well-being.” These risk factors relate to health, housing, income adequacy, neighbourhood, social connections, crime, and discrimination. They also show within this report that here in New Zealand there are roughly 67,000 children living in households that are considered as high risk, 268,000 children living in medium- to high-risk households, and 201,000 children living in medium-risk households. The Vulnerable Children and Families report (2012) also presents these facts:
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Three out of five households in
the high-risk group received income from a benefit in the last 12 months (p. 8).
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Of households in the high-risk
group, about half are sole-parent households. Two-parent-only households
dominate the no-risk and low-risk groups (p. 10).
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Households with six or more
people make up 19% of the high-risk group (p. 10).
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Nearly 43% of households in the
high-risk group had a Māori respondent, compared with 8% in the no-risk group
(p. 11).
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1 in 5 high-risk and medium-risk
households contain a young mother, compared with 1 in 20 in the no-risk group
(p. 12).
Are these statistics looking a little grim? Well I
am afraid to say that the more I research this topic the more it only seems to
get worse. In 2003 United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund
released the Innocenti Report Card ‘A
league table of child maltreatment deaths in rich nations’ which states “almost
3,500 children under the age of 15 die from maltreatment (physical abuse and
neglect) every year in the industrialized world [and that] the risk of death by
maltreatment is approximately three times greater for the under-ones than for
those aged 1 to 4” (p. 4). The New Zealand Ministry of Social Development’s
statistical report
(2011) shows that in 2010 the total reports of concern that required further
action were “emotionally abused 12,535, physically abused 2,886, sexually
abused 1,201, neglected 4,403” (p. 266). The statistics in this report also
shows a significant increase between 2005 and 2010 of the total number of care
and protection reports (p. 265). Although this does show that New Zealand’s
attitudes and confidence towards reporting their concerns is increasing, it
does also show how many cases the community has previously been turning a blind
eye to. Even though these statistics related to child
abuse, neglect, maltreatment, and death seem very scary, it is frightening to
also realise that many cases do go unreported (Hinchliffe, 2011). This means
that the actual statistics could be much higher. Did you know that the New Zealand police are called to around 200 family violence situations
every day and this is estimated to be only 18% of incidences that are brought
to their attention (Are You Ok, 2007). Maybe we are still turning a blind eye.
However it is important to note that although
poverty and child abuse seem to have many links to one another here in New
Zealand, this does not mean that every child growing up in a poverty stricken
area will become a New Zealand child abuse statistic. Child abuse is linked to
the social attitudes and beliefs and behaviours toward violence, hence the community
driven campaign “It’s Not OK” I mentioned earlier. There are many countries
around the world that are living in high poverty that have low child abuse rates,
for example Haiti. Haiti has “80% of the population living under the poverty
line” (Central Intelligence Agency, 2012) but yet the statistics gathered by UNICEF in 2010 show the under-five mortality rate is only 16.5%. This is a very low
percentage of children when considering the exceptionally high percentage of
the population living in poverty.
These statistics
lead me to thinking about the long term effects
abuse has on children. In my next blog I will be discussing the effects that
abuse has on childrens brain development. How does this impact on their lives
and determine the choices they may make? Could these choices be leading children to continuing
the seemingly vicious 'cycle' of child abuse?
References:
Central Intelligence Agency. (2012). Population below poverty line. Retrieved from https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/print_2046.html
Hinchliffe, J. J. (2011). Forensic
odontology, part 5. Child abuse issues. British Dental Journal, 210(9), 423-428.
doi:10.1038/sj.bdj.2011.33
It’s Not Ok. (2007). Retrieved from
Statistics New Zealand. (2012). Vulnerable
children and families: Some findings from the New Zealand General Social Survey.
Retrieved from http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/people_and_communities/Children/vulnerable-children.aspx
United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund. (2003). The league table of child maltreatment
deaths in rich nations. Retrieved from http://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/pdf/repcard5e.pdf
United Nations Children's Emergency Fund. (2010). Statistics. At a glance: Haiti. Retrieved from
Ministry of Social Development. (2011). The statistics report for year ending June 2010. Retrieved from
