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