Sunday 17 March 2013

Child Abuse Statistics:

When you first read a statement of ‘Child abuse within Aotearoa’ what is your immediate reaction and thoughts? Do they sit along the lines of: no way, that’s not what we ‘do’ here! If this is you then you will be surprised to read that it DOES happen here and not just a small amount either. Ok, so child abuse does exist in New Zealand and from time to time we have all seen some of the cases that have been shown in the media. But how many other cases aren’t ‘extreme’ enough to hit the media and how far along the spectrum is New Zealand in terms of child abuse statistics?
 
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. 

*        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.

*        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.

*        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: 

*        Three out of five households in the high-risk group received income from a benefit in the last 12 months (p. 8).

*        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).

*        Households with six or more people make up 19% of the high-risk group (p. 10).

*        Nearly 43% of households in the high-risk group had a Māori respondent, compared with 8% in the no-risk group (p. 11).

*        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. (2013). Retrieved from http://www.stats.govt.nz/ 

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




1 comment:

  1. Hello Chloe,
    What a great start to your blog. You have accessed highly relevant reports to your topic. The blog has a logical flow and you have synthesised the information. The photographs are powerful reminders of young lives lost this past decade. We have a lecturer at EIT who has researched the reporting of abuse in the media and the bias of reporting involved. You might be interested in reading some of her work. I will give you her name next week. I love the background to your blog but it does make it a little difficult to read. Great start and I look forward to reading more.
    Cheryl

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