Why New Zealand children are abused..

After previously discovering such an increase in child abuse I pondered on why these statistics were so high. I was curious to examine the risk factors of child abuse and understand the causes behind this issue.

Further research lead me to explore three main factors which result in child abuse. Child Matters, Educating To Prevent Child Abuse (2010), states these factors “Can be found in the background of parents, in the environmental situation and attributes of the child themselves.” Parental factors include things such as parent suffered child abuse themselves, young unsupported parent, low educated parent, unrealistic expectations of the child, unwanted pregnancy and parent suffers mental illness or addiction. Furthermore environmental factors include such things as overcrowded households, poverty, family violence, an unrelated member of the household and family stresses. It then saddened me to come across what is considered the child’s attributes relating to abuse and what is seen as a risk for an individual. Child factors involve a sickly, colicky or unwanted baby, disability and minimal attachment between parent and child such as an outcome of an abusive relationship.

The question this information raised for me was why these factors have become such risks of abuse. I was then curious to discover the evidence of these risk factors and examine different perspectives.

Firstly I decided to analyse family violence and wished to discover whether there has been an increase in statistics. This allowed me to explore a family violence statistics fact sheet released by New Zealand Family Violence Clearinghouse (2009), which proved a visible increase in the “Total recorded family violence incidents and offences where children were present” (p. 2) In 2005 the figure reported 30,137, in 2006 32,057, in 2007 34,812, and in 2008 36,450, which equals an increase of 6,313 cases over four years. Furthermore according to the Women’s Refuge (2010), who provide “New Zealand domestic violence statistics” on average police attend one domestic violence case every seven minutes which equals around 200 situations a day. They also declared that in 2009/10 3,867 family violence cases appeared in the family court involving either one or more child/children.  

Next I chose to look further into the reasons behind family stresses such as divorce and sole parent families with no other income or a maximum of $100 per week (Work and Income, n.d.).

The Ministry Of Social Development (2011), provides a table which allowed me to discover how many sole parents received the Domestic Purposes Benefit (DPB) from 2006 to 2010. In 2006, 93,348 parents received this benefit, in 2007, 87,601, in 2008, 86,695, in 2009, 93,404, and in 2010, 99,284, which equals an increase of 5,936 sole parents receiving the DPB.

Further reading encouraged me to look deeper into New Zealand’s divorce rate, questioning whether or not there is an increase in this area. Statistics New Zealand (2012), states that one in three marriages end in divorce. Although surprisingly I discovered that divorce rates had decreased since 2005 to 2011 with the biggest drop being in 2009. However I also discovered the general marriage rate which states in 2011 there were 20,231 marriages in New Zealand which was the lowest number of marriages since 2001 when there was 19,972. Consequently due to one out of three marriages ending in divorce this is still considered to be a factor of stress upon families.

The next risk I chose to briefly examine was poverty within New Zealand families. The Children’s commissioner (2004), explains that in 2006/7 230,000 (22%) of New Zealand children were living in poverty. According to the Expert Advisory Group on Solutions to Child Poverty (cited in Salmon, 2012) “approximately 270,000 New Zealand children grow up in poverty” which equals an increase of 40,000.  They also went on to explain that the poverty rate for children who are from a sole parent family is five times higher than children from a two parent family (differing from 49% to 9%).

This research has lead me to gain an understanding of why abuse statistics are so high, why New Zealand has one of the highest rates of physical abuse and one of the worst rates of child maltreatment within the family. Unfortunately even with an understanding of the reasons and risks causing such abuse in our society it is still disturbing that New Zealand, a place where I call home still has great room for improvement.

Next time..

Throughout this research I came across a video which provides multiple perspectives on a system that Paula Bennett, the Minister of Social Development, intends to put in place to protect at risk children. This has encouraged me to discover what policies the government puts in place, along with what organisations there are to protect our vulnerable children?

Link below

http://www.3news.co.nz/Bennett-Poverty-doesnt-excuse-child-abuse/tabid/370/articleID/272358/Default.aspx

Keep posted! (:

References

Child Matters Educating To Prevent Child Abuse, (2010). Risk factors of child abuse. 
     Retrieved 23 March, from http://www.childmatters.org.nz/57/learn-about-child-abuse/risk- 
     factors

New Zealand Family Violence Clearinghouse, (2009). Family violence statistics fact sheet. 
     Retrieved 23 March, from http://www.nzfvc.org.nz/sites/nzfvc.org.nz/files/factsheet-
     statistics-2009-1.pdf

Salmon, K., (2012). Child poverty our biggest enemy. Retrieved 23 March, from 
     http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/7655339/Child-poverty-our-biggest-enemy

Statstics New Zealand, (2012). Marriages, civil unions and divorces: Year ended December 
     2011. Retrieved 23 March, from 
     http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/people_and_communities/marriages-civil-
     unions-and-divorces/MarriagesCivilUnionsandDivorces_HOTPYeDec11.aspx

The Children's Commissioner, (2004). Child poverty in New Zealand. Retrieved 23 March, 
     from http://www.occ.org.nz/home/childpoverty/about_child_poverty

Women's Refuge, (2010). New Zealand domestic violence statistics. Retrieved 23 March, 
     from https://womensrefuge.org.nz/WR/Domestic-violence/Statistics.htm

Work and Income, (n.d.). Domestic purposes benefit. Retrieved 23 March from,  
     http://statistical-report-
     2010.msd.govt.nz/main+benefits/domestic+purposes+benefits/number+of+recipients+
     %96+domestic+purposes+benefit
  

New Zealand Child Abuse Statistics..

Welcome back to my blog!

Since my last blog I have done some research over the Internet to gain knowledge on New Zealand's child abuse statistics. The appalling increase which shows yearly statistics getting higher and higher is what shocked me.

The first step I took in researching New Zealand statistics which was reading the “Statistical Report” for Child, Youth and Family (CYF) for the year ending June 2010, released by The Ministry of Social Development.

The report stated that there was a increase in reports to CYF from 2005/06 to 2009/10 due to “New Zealand's increased awareness of the need for the care and protection of children and a growing willingness by communities to contact CYF where there are concerns for a child's welfare” (p. 264). The question this raised for me was, how many reports of concern were received? With further reading I came across a chart that answered exactly that:

Number of reports of concerned received:

Outcome of initial assessment of report of concern	2005/2006 Number	2006/2007 Number	2007/2008 Number	2008/2009 Number	2009/2010 Number
Reports of concern requiring further action	46,541	43,845	40,739	49,224	55,494
Reports of concern not requiring further action	16,198	28,082	48,722	61,573	69,427
Total reports of concern received	62,739	71,927	89,461	110,797	124,921

I then discovered the age groups of children who were involved in these reports concerning further action. As stated in the report, from 2007 to 2010 between 48% and 50% were children aged between 5 and 13 years and between 34% and 36% were children under 5 years.

As I continued reading I came across the ethnic group of these children. I was interested in these findings as I had previously read that often society views child abuse as a cultural issue. Is child abuse a cultural issue? Harvey (2012), confirmed this is NOT the case when she explained "more and more New Zealander's believe child abuse is a cultural issue despite statistics showing that abuse does not discriminate between cultures" (p. 1)  Additionally, the CYF report stated, between 45% and 47% were Māori, between 32% and 34% were New Zealand Pākehā 12% were Pacific children.

Abuse or neglect was found in approximately two fifths of these investigations and between

37% and 41% of these investigations led to findings of abuse or neglect. The table below will give you further idea of the increase in certain areas. However, I did notice over the period between 2005 to 2010 in certain areas there was some minor decreases.

Findings from investigations of Care and Protection reports of concern requiring further action

Type of finding	2005/2006 Number	2006/2007 Number	2007/2008 Number	2008/2009 Number	2009/2010 Number
Emotionally abused	6,142	8256	8,664	10,938	12,535
Physically abused	2,336	2,274	2,321	2,855	2,886
Sexually abused	1,291	1,194	1,003	1,126	1,201
Neglected	4,199	4,486	4,302	4,677	4,403
Behavioural/relationship difficulties	4,657	4,461	4,154	4,256	5,007
Self-harm/suicidal	172	138	116	106	137
Not found	26,011	22,921	19,334	25,486	29,313
Total findings from investigations	44,808	43,730	39894	49444	55,482

After discovering these statistics I was curious to what has been happening in the last 2 years. Has there been an increase in these figures? Are child abuse rates getting worse?

The next article I read was a PDF article which showed recent police statistics. This allowed me to discover that Child, Youth and Family, received 150, 747 notifications throughout 2010/11 which was horrendous increase from 71,927 in 2006/07. Providing my mathematical skills are correct- I was able to calculate that in just three years the statistics for these notifications increased by 78, 820. Why are these numbers so high? This article stated that the increases are largely due to family violence.

This article also allowed me to detect that on average 9 children under 14 are killed in New Zealand every year by a member of their family and babies under the age of one are most at risk. These numbers made my heart ache and left me thinking- why family members? How could you harm somebody who is connected to who you are and where you come from? Somebody that you are “supposed” to love? This is something I am curious to discover whilst researching this issue.

Further reading by Shanahan (2011), also helped me gain further knowledge within this issue. Margot Shanahan who works for UNICEF explained that “child abuse is a systematic problem in New Zealand” (p. 1). Throughout her article she explains it is estimated that approximately 15% of children are born at risk of abuse. She explains that more than often people perceive the perpetrator as a male but she explains that in 2 out of 5 instances this is not the case.

I then chose to look at the 2012 statistics, questioning whether or not there had been another increase?

Surprisingly, after reading a New Zealand Herald article by Collins (2012), I have come to learn there has been a 4% decrease in the findings of neglect and abuse as reported by CYF. Collins then explains that this is the first drop in the past 8 years and Nixon (cited in Collins, 2012), CYFS Chief Social Worker states it is to soon to tell weather this will become a long lasting effect but he says “the drop was encouraging” (p. 1). Nixon, went on to explain throughout the article that even though there has been a 4% decrease CYF still received 152, 800 notifications within the last year which is a 2053 increase from the previous year, however, he clearly stated that they “found slightly less child abuse” cases (p. 1).

Next time..

I wish to discover how New Zealand got here, discussing risk factors and reasons behind abuse which relate to the increase in high abuse statistics.

References

Collins, S., (2012). Fall in abuse case figures raises hopes. Retrieved 9 March, from 
     http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10836273

Harvey, S., (2012). Child abuse stats. Retrieved 9 March, from www.kiwiblog.co.nz

Ministry of Social Development, (2010). The statistical report for the year ending June 2010. 
     Retrieved from, www.msd.govt.nz

Shanahan, M., (2011). Child abuse stats make sobering reading. Retrieved 9 March from,   
     http://www.3news.co.nz/Child-abuse-stats-make-sobering  
     reading/tabid/423/articleID/223052/Default.aspx

Abuse within New Zealand Society

Kia Ora and Welcome to my blog,

The social issue I have chosen to explore and research is child abuse within New Zealand society. I chose this issue because it was a shock to me when I discovered that New Zealand has one of the highest rates of physical abuse and one of the worst rates of child death by maltreatment within the family. Therefore, this has brought me to researching this issue drawing on information from databases and websites to discover how New Zealand got here and why abuse is such a vicious cycle.

Child abuse is defined in the Children, Young Persons and their Families Act as: “the harming (whether physically, emotionally, or sexually), ill-treatment, abuse, neglect or deprivation of any child or young person.” (Women's Refuge, 2010). This is an issue that happens too often throughout New Zealand, my question is, why are some people so ignorant towards it?

I am curious to discover why this is happening and how New Zealand got here? I am curious to examine the evidence and discover the facts. An area I hope to explore is the difference in this issue between New Zealand society and other societies. I aim to highlight the areas of concern within this issue and discuss the pedagogical implications for practice in the early childhood setting.

Next time..

I wish to research and discover New Zealand's child abuse statistics. I want to discover weather or not there has been an increase in previous statistics and what our current statistics show?

References

Women's Refuge, (2010). Child abuse: Violence in the home harms children. Retrieved 5 
     March, from https://womensrefuge.org.nz/WR/Domestic%20violence/Child%20abuse