The Abuse Problem

The sexual abuse of children is not new, it's newly uncovered. The authorities are receiving more complaints. The media is showing interest. The public is becoming aware. Its details are not pretty, they can repel and disgust and bring on demands for retribution. The numbers are large, Patterns are beginning to take shape showing who the victims are and who the abusers, and why. The impact is becoming known and it is huge. What one father does to his three children can grow in geometric proportions as those children each do the same to their three children, and these to theirs. The impact on crime is just becoming known: sexually abused children are prone to criminal activities and may well be a major cause of crime. The impact of false reports is also becoming know. The Salem witch trials are always before us. The possibilities of false accusation out of revenge or on a dare, or in a pique are not new, accusations satisfy a child's need for attention and status, and other children may see the possibilities for themselves. But where the sexual abuse is within the family, a hard choice must be made: to punish the offender heavily or to work with the abuser and the family to prevent future abuse. You cannot do both. It appears that the courts can bring highly beneficial results: they can provide comfort for a child victim, but more, they can provide treatment for that child and reduce the pain and guilt and fears and for that child break the cycle of abused children abusing their children who abuse their children who abuse. The courts can provide comfort for a family, but more, they can provide rehabilitation for most families where there has been abuse, restoring their strength and security. The courts can prosecute the abuser and punish him, but more, they can instead often provide rehabilitation for the abuser which is a surer way of preventing a recurrence than the disgrace of a prison. Much needs to be discovered. But from what is now know, the courts and the police and the social agencies need to be sensitized to the problem in all of its aspects. The opportunities for positive accomplishment are great.     

Detection

Sexually abused children who are not treated will likely commit violent crimes and will probably abuse or condone the abuse of their own children. But the best of treatment programs are of no use if the abused children are not found. Reporting laws adopted in recent years, even though of somewhat limited scope, have greatly increased the number of children found and brought to treatment, and each child treated not only improves that child's pursuit of happiness, it also breaks a cycle of abuse to his children. Reporting laws can be strengthened. They can help more children. They can cast a broader net of those who must report abuse and of those who are protected when they report. They can clarify the procedures to be taken and the agencies responsible when reports are made. They can provide for confidentiality and protective orders to save the family a second trauma during judicial and administrative procedures. They can identify public policy as to when to treat and when to punish if both cannot be done. They can encourage research for determining the truth of reports and for improving treatment methods. There is resistance to reporting laws. Physicians are well aware that if they report an abuse they may well lose not merely that family as patients but also their friends and relatives which can be a severe economic hardship. Lawyers and physicians resist intrusions into the confidentiality of their relations with their clients and patients. Foster homes and residential care facilities know that even a hint of impropriety may end their arrangements for payment by the public and insurance carriers. Families often resist reporting because of its embarrassment and potential impact on their jobs and on their relationships with friends. Children resist because of guilt feelings or for fear of losing a parent. Mothers resist because they fear the breakup of their homes and loss of a breadwinner. Compulsory reporting laws may be the best means of helping sexually abused children and of breaking the cycle of sexual abuse by those who were sexually abused and even of reducing violent crime. It is not a simple solution. But just as we can do nothing about child abuse unless it is reported, neither can we do anything about abuse unless the reports are managed efficiently, with prompt investigation and prompt action when appropriate. A report allowed to gather dust may have cost a physician a part of his practice without protecting or helping the child.     

Protecting the Child

When there is an allegation that a child has been sexually abused, the first concern may be the protection of the child, not only from further abuse, but from the consequences of reporting the abuse. It may be necessary to take protective measures even before the credibility of the allegations has been sufficiently tested, but, of course, some evaluation of credibility must be made: draconian steps cannot be taken simply on a statement which may be patently exaggerated or imaginative. It may be necessary to remove the child from the home but such should be a last resort. It may be that the family's own controls will be sufficient or that protective orders will be adequate. And if removal is necessary, consideration should first be given to removing the abuser rather than the abused. In either case, as soon as removal is ordered, the prerequisites for return should be set out so that the child will not be out of her home longer than is necessary for her safety. Since rehabilitation of the family is always a primary objective, maintaining family contacts is desirable and thus visitation should be arranged, with appropriate protections. Protective orders are being increasingly found to be a quickly available and nicely flexibile tool for the security of the child with a minimum disruption for the family. Due process is required but the orders can be designed for the individual. But they must be enforced or they will quickly become ineffective and a child may again be at risk.     

Unintended and Unavoidable: The Failure to Protect Rule and Its Consequences for Undocumented Parents and Their Children

Parents without immigration status in the United States regularly face the threat of deportation and separation from their children. When an undocumented parent is brought to the attention of law enforcement through the child welfare system, they also face the potential of the loss of legal custodial rights to their children. The child welfare system and immigration enforcement mechanisms operate independent of one another with little regard for how actions in one can impact a parent's legal rights in the other, often permanently separating children from their parents. This article examines the particular issue of undocumented parents who are charged with the failure to protect their children from witnessing or otherwise experiencing abuse committed by a third party. It explores how such a charge, whether founded or unfounded, can result in loss of eligibility for immigration relief to which the undocumented parent would otherwise be entitled, as well as deportation of the parent and permanent separation of parent and child. These issues are situated within the larger context of the normative guideposts of both family and immigration law, namely, the best interests of the child and family unity. It identifies issues for further academic inquiry as well as tips for practitioners who may represent undocumented parents in either the family or immigration systems.

Key Points for the Family Court Community:
• Learn about the potential consequences under family law and immigration law when an undocumented parent's child is abused by a third party
• Gain strategies for planning with undocumented parents to avoid the loss of the custody of their children in the event of a sudden deportation
• Be able to identify and address particular concerns for clients who are undocumented victims of domestic violence

     

Exploring taboos: comparing male- and female-perpetrated child sexual abuse

The objective of this article is to compare male- and female-perpetrated sexual abuse in terms of victim and abuser characteristics, type of abuse, family structure, and worker information. Bivariate tests of significance were performed on the 1998 Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect, which included 308 male and 37 female abusers. Results show a prevalence rate of 10.7% for female-perpetrated sexual abuse. Girls were more likely to be victimized for both male- and female-perpetrated sexual violence and females tended to abuse younger children. The majority of children came from families with lower socioeconomic status although one in five victims of female-perpetrated sexual abuse came from middle-class homes. Referrals to child welfare agencies were more likely to be made by nonprofessionals when females abused.     

我国刑法中应当设立“暴行罪”——以虐待儿童的刑法规制为中心

在我国许多虐待儿童的行为,由于没有造成轻伤以上的后果无法以故意伤害罪评价,由于加害被害双方不是家庭成员不能定为虐待罪,也无法以其他罪名有效规制,至多由公安机关处以15日的行政拘留,这样未充分体现对暴力行为的打击以及对人身的特别保护.为了惩罚和预防虐待儿童一类的暴行,为了严厉打击暴力犯罪,全面严密保护公民的人身权利,我们应借鉴日本、英美刑法的立法理念及法律规定,将暴行罪引入我国刑法,将以殴打或其他暴行侵犯他人身体的行为纳入刑法的评价视野,从而更有效地保护包括儿童在内的公民的人身安全.     

Advisability of substance abuse testing in parents who severely maltreat their children: the issue of drug testing before the juvenile/family courts

The authors discuss the advisability of juvenile courts requiring urine testing for parents who severely maltreat (abuse and/or neglect) their children. While urine testing for substance abuse is not sufficient to ensure adequate treatment, it is important as part of the overall substance abuse treatment in a selected group of parents. An objective of this article is to offer specific urine testing guidelines in the context of child maltreatment cases in which the court considers removing children from parental custody to state custody. Although potentially useful, urinalysis to detect abused substances has limitations and is appropriate only in well-defined situations. Effective treatment of the substance-abusing, child-maltreating parent must be multimodal, with treatment of substance abuse as the first and most important step.     

The correlation of childhood physical abuse history and later abuse in a group of Turkish population

Domestic violence is passed from one generation to the next, and it affects not only the victim but also the psychological states of the witnesses, and especially the psychosocial development of children. Studies have reported that those who have been the victim of or witnessing violence during their childhood will use violence to a greater extent as adults in their own families. This research examines the relationships between a history of childhood physical abuse, likelihood of psychiatric diagnoses, and potential for being a perpetrator of childhood physical abuse in adulthood among women who received psychiatric treatment and in the healthy population from Turkey. Estimates of the prevalence of childhood physical abuse vary depending on definition and setting. The frequency of witnessing and undergoing physical abuse within the family during childhood is much higher in the psychiatrically disordered group than the healthy controls. Childhood physical abuse history is one of the major risk factors for being an abuser in adulthood. The best indicator of physically abusing one's own children was found to be as physical abuse during the childhood period rather than psychiatric diagnosis. There is a large body of research indicating that adults who have been abused as children are more likely to abuse their own children than adults without this history. This is an important study from the point of view that consequences of violence can span generations. Further studies with different risk factor and populations will help to identify different dimensions of the problem.     

Young Children Exposed to Intimate Partner Violence Describe their Abused Parent: A Qualitative Study

The negative impact of intimate partner violence (IPV) begins early in the child’s relationship with a caregiver. Children’s relationships with, and internal working models of, abused parents have rarely been documented. The aim of this study was to collect and interpret young children’s accounts of their abused parent. Interviews were conducted with 17 children aged 4 to 12 years who had witnessed IPV. Thematic analysis identified three main themes and seven sub-themes: “Coherent accounts of the parent” (sub-themes of “general benevolence”, “provision of support, protection, and nurture”, and “parental distress”); “Deficient accounts of the parent” (“vague accounts” and “disorganized narrations”); and “The parent as a trauma trigger” (“avoidance” and “breakthrough of intrusive memories and thoughts”). The results indicate these children may hold integrated, deficient, or blocked internal representations of an abused parent, and they illustrate the benefit of including young children as informants in research.     

An Objective Measure of Splitting in Parental Alienation: The Parental Acceptance–Rejection Questionnaire

Both clinicians and forensic practitioners should distinguish parental alienation (rejection of a parent without legitimate justification) from other reasons for contact refusal. Alienated children—who were not abused—often engage in splitting and lack ambivalence with respect to the rejected parent; children who were maltreated usually perceive the abusive parent in an ambivalent manner. The purpose of this study was to assess the usefulness of the Parental Acceptance–Rejection Questionnaire (PARQ) in identifying and quantifying the degree of splitting, which may assist in diagnosing parental alienation. Results showed that severely alienated children engaged in a high level of splitting, by perceiving the preferred parent in extremely positive terms and the rejected parent in extremely negative terms. Splitting was not manifested by the children in other family groups. The PARQ may be useful for both clinicians and forensic practitioners in evaluating children of divorced parents when there is a concern about the possible diagnosis of parental alienation.     

The influence of personal history of abuse and gender on clinicians' judgments of child abuse

Two extra-legal factors were examined for their influence on professionals' decisions to report child abuse: having been abused as a child oneself, and the gender of the child, the parent, and the professional. One hundred and one men and women who worked regularly with children in mental health settings rated a series of scenarios presented as cases from a protective service agency. Participants made several judgments regarding the case including the severity of the parent's behavior, the likely effect on the child, whether the situation was abusive, and whether the case should be reported to a social service agency. Despite some interpretive limitations, the results generally support the hypothesis that extra-legal factors influence the perceptions of professionals who are mandated to report a suspected incident of abuse.     

Pseudoabuse--the misdiagnosis of child abuse

When a patient's problem is judged to be the result of child abuse and it is not, considerable harm may be done to the child, his parents, and the doctor-parent relationship. The case histories of 15 children who were thought to be abused are reviewed and their correct diagnoses are presented. Overdiagnosing the battered child syndrome can be as harmful as failing to consider it.     

Patterns of influence and response in abusing and nonabusing families

Behaviors of influence and response during a conflict negotiation task were examined in eight physically child abusing, substance abusing families in which the father was the primary abuser and eight demographically matched nonabusing families. Abusing fathers displayed more coercive patterns of influencing behavior and more negative patterns of response to other family members, including both mothers and children. Fewer differences were observed between mothers in the abusing and nonabusing families or in the children's behavior; however, mothers in the abusing families criticized their husbands more and abused children exhibited less agreement and more criticism toward their fathers. In support of Patterson's theory, abusing families exhibited relatively more reciprocated sequences of criticism and relatively fewer reciprocated sequences of agreement as compared to nonabusing families. Findings are discussed in terms of their implications for understanding interaction in child abusing families.     

ASSESSING AND MANAGING ALLEGATIONS OF CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE

This article examines the procedures involved in the assessment and management of allegations of child sexual abuse in courts exercising custody and access jurisdictions. The author discusses the various options available to the court when confronted with such allegations, noting that, in the contex: of access disputes, the issue for the court is not whether a parent has sexually abused a child but whether, in all the circumstances of the case, access should take place or custody should change. In all matters involving access between parents and children, the overriding principle is the paramountcy of the welfare of the child. It is also argued that supervised access, although an increasingly popular alternative for the court when faced with allegations of abuse, is problematic and may not be in the best interests of the child. The author suggests that the emphasis must be on children's rights find parental responsibilities.     

Children and young people accused of child sexual abuse: A study within a community

This paper reports on a study of 227 children and young people, all living in a West Midlands city in the UK, who between November 1993 and December 1999 were accused of having sexually abused a child. The study had two main objectives: first to examine the alleged behaviours, family backgrounds and personal characteristics of the young people; and second to discover what factors, if any, may be associated with recidivism later in adulthood. It is still too early to draw firm conclusions regarding recidivism, because half of the sample has not yet reached adulthood. However, preliminary findings contradict the notion that many young people who display sexually abusive behaviour will grow into adult sex offenders.     

A CASE FOR REFORM OF THE CHILD WELFARE SYSTEM

There are more than half a million children in our nation's foster care system. While foster care is intended to provide a temporary safe harbor for abused and neglected children, too many of these youth spend years in foster care limbo—experiencing a turbulent life in motion as they move from placement to placement, community to community, and school to school. Youth in foster care commonly fail to receive basic health and psychological care, and nearly 20,000 youth age out of foster care every year to an adult path of homelessness, unemployment, and despair. Our entire community must work together to more responsibly parent these youth. This article will address how lawyers and child advocates can advocate for new approaches and enhanced support on behalf of the voiceless and most vulnerable members of our community. It will address existing hurdles and systemic challenges that have helped to create the current disheartening status quo. The article will then discuss strategies that advocates can employ to turn the corner on behalf of these youth at risk.     

WINNING ESSAY: 1998 LAW SCHOOL ESSAY CONTEST

Courts are frequently confronted with children who, regardless of court orders, refuse to visit their noncustodial parents. This article examines the possible alternatives to holding a child, or parent, in contempt for such behavior. Furthermore, solutions and ideas that better serve the needs of children and parents in these highly volatile family situations will also be explored .     

Societal views of justice for adolescents accused of murder

Examines citizens' views about when juveniles accused of homicide should be tried and punished as adults. Responses from two randomly selected samples of adult Georgia residents suggest that these views are strongly influenced by whether adolescent defendants have been victims of abuse. Laypersons prefer juvenile court for juveniles who kill abusive parents (76% for first time offenders. 77% for those with one prior adjudication). Respondents are split concerning how to punish abused juveniles who have two prior adjudications (49% recommend juvenile court) and abused juveniles with one prior offense who kill a neighbor (48% recommend juvenile court). Most respondents, however, prefer adult court for repeat offenders who kill and have no history of child abuse. These findings suggest that legislative automatic transfers are overly simplistic compared to the contextual sensitivity of community sentiment. Policymakers may have serious misconceptions of societal views of fairness in this area.     

Federal Family Drug Treatment Courts: Providing Positive Possibilities

Due to the lack of family drug treatment courts, families are often torn apart when a parent has a substance abuse problem. Children of substance abusers are often abused and neglected. However, children in these tough living situations fear seeking help because they do not want to be the reason that their family is torn apart and they are placed in the foster care system. This Note proposes a federal statute that requires all states to implement family drug treatment courts. These courts allow families to stay intact while providing the parent with the help that he or she needs.     

Medical Treatment of Children with HIV Illness and the Need for Supportive Intervention: The Challenges for Medical Providers,Families, and the State

Human immuno‐deficiency virus (HIV) illness in children poses tremendous challenges to medical providers and families to work together to deliver optimal care. An alternative to filing “neglect” reports with the Department of Social Services is necessary to provide support and appropriate intervention to families and medical providers caring for HIV‐positive children. The creation of a neutral entity that could intervene and identify barriers to treatment and communication between the medical providers and the family would benefit all the parties involved. Knowledgeable mediators could help facilitate communication and identify appropriate support for the child and family. Intervention would not be delayed until it is demonstrated that a child has been “neglected” or is at substantial risk of harm. Assistance could be made available without a finding that a parent was guilty of wrongdoing. Involving parents as full partners in medical decision making and monitoring would benefit children living with HIV now and in the future. The creation of an alternative process will also prove valuable in assisting providers and families caring for other medically at‐risk children, e.g., children with asthma, diabetes, or mental illness.