Essay on Child Abuse Cases: Detection and Management

The number of child abuse cases has been rising at a mind-boggling rate, to say the least. Theresa Tan, in her article "Better Detection by unit" reports that in Singapore alone, the Child Protection Service handled more than 550 cases of high-risk child abuse compared to between 380 and 480 cases reported the previous year. She contends that child abuse cases have become more rampant recently due to factors such as stress (emotional or financial), cultural issues, and even educational matters (Tan, 2016). Those tasked with the responsibility of taking care of children have neglected their duties and instead resorted to causing emotional and physical harm to those under their care. With no apparent and clear detection measures put in place to identify such cases as and when they occur, extreme cases of child abuse that eventually result in death have been witnessed. With such extremities, it, therefore, becomes paramount to establish ways of detecting such cases when they transpire and devise means of managing them to ensure that every child enjoys their right to good parenting and stable homes (Cichetti, 1989).

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The detection of child abuse cases has become the biggest impediment to handling child abuse cases. It is always not easy to know if such cases of child abuse are transpiring in homes just by looking at a child. The children who undergo child abuse are usually not willing to open up about their experiences back at home mainly due to fear of the consequences that they stand to face in case their parents find out. Others are affected to levels where they cannot even mingle freely with their counterparts either at school or home. Without contact and conversations with these children, detection of child abuse then becomes an unfruitful undertaking. Nonetheless, the Child Protection Service with the help of social workers and teachers in schools have resulted in using of better and more efficient screening techniques to enable them be able to easily spot such cases and take the appropriate actions (Kaplan, Pelcovitz & Labruna, 1999).

The CPS has also advocated for the training of the teachers, social workers, and other stakeholders involved in the fight against child abuse so that they could be more empowered in identifying such cases. The training mainly focuses on children's behavior while in social places as schools to the relationships that they have with their peers. For instance, for a child who used to be jovial and playful in school, a sudden change of behavior would help raise the alarm on possible abuse at home. The training conducted has proven successful as many cases of abuse have been detected and proper management measures adopted to cater for the victimized children (Tan, 2016).

The CPS and other child protection agencies have also called upon the public to be vigilant on such cases and report them whenever they arise. Seow Yun Rong alleges that without other people such as neighbors and those who are aware of such cases getting involved, the aim of reducing and eventually getting rid of the abuse cases will remain far-fetched. He argues that those aware of such situations are supposed to open up to the relevant authorities without fear if the cases are to be detected on time and prompt measures taken (Rong, 2016).

In managing the detected abuse cases, the CPS usually conducts family assessments to determine the severity of the cases and provide appropriate recommendations. In cases where parents abuse their children due to financial or emotional stress, counseling services are extended to them to help them cope with the situation while being monitored. In high-risk cases, the children are usually taken away from their abusive parents and put under the care of relatives or foster parents to give their parents time to change. The children are then returned to their parents after the change portrayed by the parents is satisfactory (Cichetti, 1989).

Extreme cases have seen parents who abuse children physically by molesting, raping or even sometimes causing harm resulting to their death, jailed for years. In Singapore, for instance, a couple was jailed for years for abusing their child leading to his demise. Questions, however, arose as to whether jailing the perpetrators of such abusive acts for a few years was an adequate measure of handling such issues. Recommendations were later made to ensure that disciplinary actions that were equal in measure to the intensity of such actions of abuse be adopted to avoid such cases from recurring (Elliot, Brown & Kilcoyne, 1995).

The fight has, however, not been without challenges as critiques of such measures as reporting cases of abuse to the authorities argue that the security of those who decide to report the cases is put in jeopardy. People who decide to go ahead and report the cases receive multiple threats. Cases have been reported of people being attacked just because they got concerned with issues that shouldn't concern them. Others have argued that parents know what's best for their children and so should be left to deal with them in whatever way they choose to. Such ideologies have always been used to deter the efforts directed towards the noble action of ensuring the safety of children (Kaplan et. al, 1999).

It becomes the responsibility of every person to ensure the security of our children is upheld and efforts made to ensure that those affected are catered for. This means the development of appropriate detection and management measures tailored towards ensuring that child abuse remains a thing of the past. Everybody should, therefore, work towards creating safer homes and the duty should not only be bestowed upon child abuse agencies but every single person as we all have a role to play in this.

References

Cicchetti, D. (1989). Child maltreatment: Theory and research on the causes and consequences of child abuse and neglect. Cambridge University Press.

Elliott, M., Browne, K., & Kilcoyne, J. (1995). Child sexual abuse prevention: What offenders tell us. Child abuse & neglect, 19(5), 579-594.

Kaplan, S. J., Pelcovitz, D., & Labruna, V. (1999). Child and adolescent abuse and neglect research: A review of the past 10 years. Part I: Physical and emotional abuse and neglect. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 38(10), 1214-1222.

Rong, S.Y. Playing a part in stopping child abuse

Tan, T. (2016).Better Detection by Agencies-from schools to hospitals-results in larger numbers of serious cases provided by MSF unit