Child Abuse and Neglect

Child abuse includes all forms of physical and emotional mistreatment, sexual abuse, and neglect of a child’s basic needs, which results in actual or potential harm to a child’s physical, mental, and emotional health. Exploitation of children is also a form of abuse and includes trafficking for sexual or economic purposes, and recruitment of children into armed forces.

An abused child may experience many forms of mistreatment in any one incident or over time; for example, emotional harm is a pervading factor in all types of abuse. The abuser may be a family member, a stranger, another child, or someone responsible for a child's well-being, such as a teacher or caretaker.

Children in every society are vulnerable to abuse, gender based violence, and exploitation, however children without parental care and those in high risk environments such as conflict areas, refugee camps, on the street, or in institutions, are particularly exposed to violence, denial of their basic human rights, and deprivation. All abuse has its origins in power imbalance and therefore is typically associated with fear, secrecy, and control. This makes identifying and speaking out about abuse very difficult for children, family members, the community and social services, particularly when it is committed within the privacy of the home.

Child abuse can cause physical and psychosocial problems, including HIV/AIDS infection, and is particularly damaging when repeated over a period of time. Children may manifest abuse via destructive or withdrawn behaviours, developmental delays, injuries or other health problems. The effects of abuse will vary from child to child and depend on the source, type and extent of the abuse, the child’s developmental stage and their disposition or resilience.

The process of identifying and responding to abuse requires skilled interventions in order to prevent further harm to the child, and will typically include police, medical, psychological, and social services in order to address the safety, physical, and emotional needs of the affected children. Any care plan must be in the best interests of the child and protect them and their siblings from harm. This will include consideration of the additional risks of abuse that are present for children in institutions and care placements. Such closed environments are extremely susceptible to abuse since they are frequently isolated, insufficiently regulated, and lacking in adequate supervision and safe reporting procedures. It is the role of social services to screen and monitor all child placements, including institutional, kinship, and foster care, to ensure the child’s safety and well-being.

It is the responsibility of the whole community to protect its children. Education and community awareness for children and adults on the risks, signs of abuse, and responses is vital for children without parental care and those in high risk situations, such as during a conflict or displacement when sexual violence, exploitation, and recruitment into armed forces are prevalent.

The literature in this section describes the types of abuse in more detail, including gender based violence, and provides example child protection procedures, policy papers, and other intervention tools.

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The National Alternative Care Policy for Children in Sri Lanka

Ministry of Woman and Child Affairs and Dry Zone Development Department of Probation and Child Care Services, 2019

Sri Lanka's National Policy on the Alternative Care of Children outlines a comprehensive range of alternative care options and encourages the reforming of all formal structures that provide at-home and out-of-home services for children deprived of care and protection or at risk of being so. This policy also extends to children under care of the Juvenile Justice System. It provides policy solutions to programming for children at risk of family separation and facing deprivations such as child abuse, neglect, child labor, poverty, addiction, imprisonment, human trafficking, mental and physical disabilities, HIV/AIDS, domestic violence, orphanhood, abandonment and displacement etc. The policy also takes into consideration and encompasses provisions to children who are forced to live and work on streets.

Responding to Adverse Childhood Experiences: An evidence review of interventions to prevent and address adversity across the life course

Lisa C.G. Di Lemma, Alisha R. Davies, Kat Ford, Karen Hughes, Lucia Homolova, Benjamin Gray, and Gillian Richardson - Public Health Wales and Bangor University, 2019

To support innovation in addressing adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), the authors have undertaken a review of evidence on common approaches to prevent ACEs and/or mitigate their negative impacts in Wales.

Factsheet: Best Practices for Video-Recorded Interviews

Emil Flam, Indico Systems - PROMISE, 2019

This factsheet reviews best practices for conducting a digital interview recording (DIR) with children who have experienced or witnessed violence.

National Case Management Guidelines for Prevention of All Forms of Violence Against Children of Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka Department of Probation and Child Care Services, Ministry of Women and Child Affairs, 31 Dec 2018

The Sri Lanka The Department of Probation and Child Care Services created this national guideline to assist with providing collaborative intervention of Child Rights Promotion Officers and all government social workers to minimize vulnerabilities that lead to violence against children.

Wise and Honoring Representations of Children in Media: Protecting Vulnerable Children

Christian Alliance for Orphans (CAFO), 12 Dec 2018

This guide from the Christian Alliance for Orphans (CAFO) offers strategies for protecting children in creating and sharing digital media of children.

Children in immediate danger: Emergency removals in Finnish and Irish child protection

Tuuli Lamponen, Tarja Pösö, Kenneth Burns - Child & Family Social Work, 11 Dec 2018

This paper presents a qualitative analysis of front‐line practices regarding emergency removals in Finnish and Irish child protection.

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Stability and change of attachment disorder symptoms and interpersonal problems in foster children

Tabea Symanzik, Arnold Lohaus, Ann-Katrin Job, Sabrina Chodura, Kerstin Konrad, Nina Heinrichs, Vanessa Reindl - Mental Health & Prevention, 08 Dec 2018

This paper focuses on the longitudinal examination of perceived reactive attachment disorder (RAD) symptoms and indiscriminate, insecure and pseudomature behavior in foster children, many of them having experienced maltreatment and neglect in the family of origin.

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Parental Corporal Punishment and Child Temperament: Independent and Interactive Predictors of Child Emotion Regulation in China

Meifang Wang, Yuzhu Wang, Fang Wang, Xiaopei Xing - Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 07 Dec 2018

The goal of this study was to simultaneously examine the independent and interactive effects of paternal and maternal corporal punishment, and child temperament on child emotion regulation over time in China.

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Foster care placement instability: A meta-analytic review

Carolien Konijn - Children and Youth Services Review, 04 Dec 2018

For this study, ten multilevel meta-analyses were performed to examine factors that can affect instability of foster care placement.

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Gendered Practices in Child Protection: Shifting Mother Accountability and Father Invisibility in Situations of Domestic Violence

Beth Archer-Kuhn and Stefan de Villiers - Social Inclusion, 04 Dec 2018

This article illuminates current child protection services (CPS) worker practices in situations of domestic violence in Alberta, Canada where inclusion and exclusion decisions are made for service provision, and the ways in which documents reflect these day-to-day practices.