Child Protection. Freda Briggs

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СКАЧАТЬ further reading see Goddard, C & Saunders, B (2001) Child Abuse and the Media. AIFS Child Abuse Prevention Issues 14 and Saunders, B & Goddard, C (2002) The role of mass media in facilitating community education and child abuse prevention strategies. AIFS Child Abuse Prevention Studies No 16, both published by the National Child Protection Clearinghouse

      The development of child protection systems in Australia

      A social historical review of Australian legislation shows the gradual development of a complex system that has consistently been influenced by British initiatives. State intervention arose from the dire necessity of providing food and shelter for homeless and abandoned children⁷³. The state government of South Australia took the lead in social reform in 1845 with the Criminal Law Act which made carnal knowledge (sexual intercourse) of a girl under ten an indictable offence punishable by imprisonment. In 1876, the age limit was raised to 12-years; punishment for offenders involved whipping and a maximum seven-year prison sentence.

      In 1935, laws were introduced to protect Under 18s from sexual acts by their guardians and teachers; the abduction of children under 14-years and child abandonment became crimes punishable by imprisonment. However laws were only designed to protect girls, there being a mistaken assumption that either boys were not vulnerable or alternatively, that an early introduction to sex was harmless.

      Bearing in mind that unaccompanied children as young as five were deported from England, states built asylums and housed them with adult criminals, paupers and the mentally ill. Children received no education or training. Over-crowding became problematical in the 1850s when a large number of fathers abandoned their families to work in the Victorian gold-fields. The conditions in which children were herded were so unhygienic that the public demanded legislation to control living conditions in state institutions. It was concern that these neglected children were to become the next generation of parents that led to the realisation that the State had a duty of care. Child advocate Caroline Clark wrote to The SA Register in 1866 suggesting that disadvantaged children should be “boarded out” with rural families, pointing out that this had been used successfully in Edinburgh since 1858.

      The idea found favour with politicians because it had economic benefits. However, a year later, legislation supported the establishment of three separate types of institution: reformatories for juvenile criminals, industrial schools for neglected children and orphanages for the abandoned and destitute. This change came from recognition that children who broke the law needed rehabilitation as well as punishment. Hitherto boys were placed in adult jails. Conditions remained harsh however; punishments for boys included whipping and, for both boys and girls, a diet of dry bread and water for up to seven days⁷⁴.

      In 1872, complaints relating to overcrowding and unhygienic conditions led to the acceptance of foster-care, referred to as “boarding-out”. Untrained volunteers were made responsible for supervision and after 2-3 years, carers received notice that they must either adopt or lose their foster children. Those who chose adoption lost their allowances. This clearly demonstrated that the politicians were more concerned about saving money than providing stability in children’s lives.

      The development of child protection charities

      Western society has a very long history of child abuse. The first protection efforts began only in the late nineteenth century at a time of social deprivation and great hardship. The Reverend George Staite summed up the inhumanity of the era in a letter to the Liverpool Mercury (UK) in 1881: “… whilst we have a (Royal) Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (the RSPCA), can we not do something to prevent cruelty to children?”75

      It was the plight of an American child, Mary Ellen McCormack that showed the need for an agency to strive for children’s safety. Beaten daily, Mary had no protection under American law until her case was taken up by the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Its founder, Henry Bergh, successfully petitioned the US Supreme Court on Mary’s behalf, arguing that a “human animal” should have the same protection as other animals.

      British banker, Thomas Agnew visited the Society in 1881. He was so impressed by what he saw that he opened a similar charity in England known as the Liverpool Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. News of this reached the Reverend Benjamin Waugh who was concerned about children’s suffering in London’s impoverished East End. In 1884, he established The London Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. The influential Lord Shaftsbury was appointed president. Waugh’s priority was to draw public and government attention to the plight of abused children in Britain, given the lack of legislation to protect them. Waugh worked to raise awareness, lobbied the government and published reports of abuse and neglect cases to shock the public.

      By 1889 the London Society had thirty-two branches throughout the British Isles, each raising funds to employ uniformed inspectors who investigated reports of child abuse and neglect. In 1889 the Society changed its name to the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC). Waugh became director and Queen Victoria became their Patron. However, it has always been a concern that the society to protect animals is “Royal” and the society to protect children is not.

      The first legislation to protect British children was passed in 1889, popularly known as The Children’s Charter. This was the result of five years’ vigorous lobbying by the NSPCC. The legislation gave their inspectors the power to remove children from abusive homes with the consent of a Justice of the Peace (1904). Only police were involved in child sex abuse cases, which were rare. Amazingly it was not until 1908 that intrafamilial child sexual abuse became a legal matter instead of a religious/church matter.

      After the Second World War, NSPCC officers, women police, children’s social workers (known as children’s officers) and probation officers worked together on child protection cases in metropolitan London and police routinely shared information with team members.

      Since 1904 the NSPCC has been the UK’s only voluntary organisation with statutory powers to intervene and remove children from abusive homes and seek care and protection orders from courts. The NSPCC also supervises probation orders relating to child maltreatment. The organisation is now best known for its hard-hitting publicity campaigns, advisory service, and advocacy for children, research and publications⁷⁶.

      The Victorian Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children

      Waugh’s success in England led to the formation of the Victorian Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (1896) in Melbourne, later known as the Children’s Protection Society (CPS). Created on the London model, it aimed to publicise child abuse, co-operate with relevant organisations, enforce existing laws to deal with neglected children and juvenile offenders and protect children. It was one of few secular non-government agencies in the child welfare field and it operated on the philosophy of persuading or, in the last resort, compelling parents to fulfil their responsibilities. Changes to welfare policy and legislative reform in 1985 changed the Society’s role. A team of psychologists and social workers now provide therapeutic counselling for children and young people who (a) have been sexually abused and (b) exhibit inappropriate or sexually abusive behaviours.

      The CPS offers:

       assistance to children, families and caregivers to understand and overcome the impact and difficulties created by sexual abuse

       education and consultation to professionals and the community on matters associated with sexual abuse

       specialised training and education programmes tailored to meet the needs of organisations charged with the care of children such as schools, residential care services, and foster care77

      The influence of Dr Henry C. Kempe

      The СКАЧАТЬ