Handbook on Sexual Violence (77 page)

Research commissioned by government (DoH 1995) was also highly influential as this showed that for the majority of families involved in formal child protection investigations no action was taken but neither were any supportive services offered. Maintaining a child protection system heavily biased towards formal processes and legal intervention was obviously costly. The guidance issued in 2000 (DoH, DfEE, HO) was to deal with all these concerns by directing state social workers to reduce ‘social exclusion’ by refocusing their work to support children and their families in the community. Protecting children from abuse was to be approached from an ecological rather than forensic perspective. Simultaneously the universal philosophy of health, education and welfare services provided by the Welfare State was being superseded by a ‘market’ model monitored through an increasingly complex array of performance indicators. I have argued elsewhere that the impact of ‘markets’ in welfare has constructed children as commodities to be exchanged between purchasers and providers for the lowest cost and for the shortest time (Petrie 2010). A long-term stable relationship with an experienced professional virtually disappeared as many child protection services became short-staffed or staffed by newly qualified or short-term agency staff. What has become increasingly evident is that without a consistent overview of a child’s health and development and the establishment of a trustful relationship, as the child S had with the Barnardo’s Lady Visitor in 1938, the sufferings of children can easily be overlooked.

Despite the increasing political importance of child protection policies and practices, flagship assessment tools (DoH, DfEE, HO 2000) and major policy programmes such as
Every Child Matters
(DfES 2005) child deaths from multiple abusive experiences continue. There have been systemic failures in child protection services in a number of local authorities in the UK, including Doncaster, Birmingham, Cornwall and the London borough of Haringey, where children known to professionals have died. In Haringey Victoria

Climbi´e

(Laming 2003) and Baby Peter
2
(Haringey Local Safeguarding

Children Board 2009) were seen by many professionals from many agencies in their short lives but remained invisible. Victoria was the responsibility of four social services departments, three housing authorities, two hospitals, two police child protection teams and one independent-sector agency, all of whom had responsibility for her in the 11 months she spent in England. Baby Peter was seen 60 times by health and social care workers in eight months. The recruitment and training of children’s services social workers has now become a major agenda for government in the UK (Social Work Reform Board 2010) but there are more fundamental fractures in adult/child relations in the UK than professional malaise alone.

Implications

Frosh (2002) defines abuse as the destructive manifestation of adults’ power over children. Returning to the examples outlined at the beginning of this paper, not only is this evident but the invisibility of the children and young people abused by adults is also clear. The ‘perpetrators’ were not the

wandering sociopaths of urban legend. All were located in communities and were known to neighbours and colleagues. In some cases the abuse was known. Wolfgang Priklopil’s colleague met the captive Natascha on more than one occasion, and abuses by Roman Catholic priests were confessed to their superiors who protected them and covered up their crimes. A deep-rooted disregard for children and young people in complex affluent societies is revealed by these examples and is especially evident in the UK. Three recent international studies of comparable countries show that children and young people in the UK, along with their peers in the USA, fare worse in most areas of ‘well-being’ than children and young people in other countries. Well-being is also a constructed term but is defined by the Child Poverty Action Group as: ‘the many different factors which affect children’s lives: including material conditions; housing and neighbourhoods; how children feel and do at school; their health; exposure to dangerous risks; and the quality of family and classmate relationships children develop’ (CPAG 2009: 2). Why do children and young people in the UK fare so badly? Policies and legislation promote their welfare, services are heavily monitored and inspected and, in comparison with other countries, are better resourced as the UK invests £90,000 per child from birth compared with the OECD average of £80,000 (OECD 2009).

On the one hand ‘childhood’ has been given an almost iconic status. At a time of concern about environmental disasters of global proportions children have become the symbolic, as well as generational, future (Atmore 1998) and adults construct ‘childhood’ as a social space free from loss, pain, separation and unhappiness of any kind. This construction does not match the actualities of the lives of large numbers of children. As outlined earlier, children and young people caught up in the juvenile justice or immigration systems are silenced. A child or young person who is simultaneously ‘victim’ and ‘perpetrator’ is not viewed holistically but falls into the category of being ‘born bad’. Since ‘desired’ sexual experiences of children and young people are little understood their sexuality is viewed primarily in pathological and often apocalyptic terms. They are not believed if they say they do not feel ‘victimised’ by sexual experiences and are not believed if they say a respected figure has sexually abused them. Adult/child relations in contemporary societies are often characterised by contradictions and incompatibilities. These are particularly evident when issues relating to violence and sex emerge. More than two million children under 15 years worldwide are living with AIDS and nine out of ten of these live in sub-Saharan Africa. According to the international AIDS charity Avert (2009), access to sexual health advice, condoms and treatments for mothers and their children is minimal. Some children are infected through sexual abuse, including rape, and involvement in the sex industry.

The philosophies underpinning international conventions such as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989 and UK domestic legislation discussed earlier support the rights of children and young people to express their views about matters that concern them and have them taken into account. But child development models that are largely constructed in age/ stage terms are embedded in policies and legislation. Some children within these age-constructed definitions of ‘child’ lose their status as children for

socially constructed reasons. When is a ‘child’ not a ‘child’? When their construction as the ‘Other’ eliminates their identity as ‘child’ – as in the case of young ‘perpetrators’ of abuse, ‘criminal’ activity, asylum seekers or those living in resource-poor countries. When is ‘abuse’ not ‘abuse’? When systemic violence by adults towards children and young people takes place in penal institutions, immigration centres or in war-torn countries. Being a ‘child’ in the twenty-first century in many countries, including affluent as well as resource- poor countries, can be unsafe despite the rhetoric in international and domestic legislation and policies. Without the active contribution of children and young people in all matters that concern them the actualities of their lives will go unrecognised and the avoidable abuse of children and young people will continue.

Further reading

Familial violence and sexual abuse against children have been dominant targets for state intervention in family life in the UK for many decades although legislation and policies have regularly shifted in emphasis in response to sociopolitical pressures. Corby (2006, 3rd edn) gives a useful historical analysis of the changing child abuse perspectives in the UK. Child protection services, however, are currently under scrutiny once more. The ‘Monro Review of Child Protection’ has produced three reports that critique the deficiencies in the current systems and propose alternative approaches:

Part One: A Systems Analysis (Sept. 2010)

http://www.education.gov.uk/munroreview/downloads/TheMunroReviewofChildProtection-Par- t%20one.pdf

Part Two: Interim Report: The Child’s Journey (Feb. 2011)

http://www.education.gov.uk/publications/standard/publicationDetail/Page1/DFE-00010-2011

Final Report: A Child Centred System (May 2011)

http://www.education.gov.uk/childrenandyoungpeople/strategy/laupdates/a0077242/munro-re- view-final-report

Whether these recommendations are to be adopted or not remains unclear in light of the proposed sea change in UK health and welfare services and eligibility. From a psychological perspective Crittenden (2008) draws on many decades of family therapy practice and research to offer an understanding of child abuse in complex affluent societies such as the USA and the UK.

As far as the perspectives, experiences and opinions of children and young people are concerned UK legislation now requires a children’s commissioner in all four countries. Commissioners are tasked with promoting the rights and establishing the views of their young citizens:

England

http://www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/

Scotland

http://www.sccyp.or
g.uk/
Wales
http://www.childcom.org.u
k/
Northern Ireland
http://www.niccy.org/

Franklin [2002] (2005) gives an overview of children’s rights not only in the UK but also in European and Pacific Rim countries and in relation to global issues. For current insights into the violence and exploitation facing children and young people worldwide the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) website is a useful source: http://www.unicef.org/.

Archard [2004](2009), however, offers a note of caution and provides a critical commentary on the ‘rights’ agenda, reflecting on the theoretical approaches to childhood, the ethical contradictions embedded in the notion of the rights of the young and the complexities of relationship between children, their families and the state.

Notes

1. Victoria Climbie´ was a seven-year-old child from West Africa who had been sent by her parents to live with her great-aunt Marie-The´re`se Kouao to get a better education. They lived initially in France and for less than a year in London, England. In those months Victoria was neglected and physically and sexually abused by Kouao and her lover Carl Manning. She was referred to many health and welfare agencies but died in 2000 after spending the winter bound and left in a bin bag in an unheated bathroom. She had 128 separate injuries to her body. Her death led to the Laming Inquiry (2003) and subsequent Children Act 2004.
   

2. Peter Connelly was 17 months old and living in Haringey, London, England when he died in August 2007 after suffering more than 50 injuries, including a broken back, at the hands of his mother and her boyfriend. His death led to further inquiries, a national review of children’s social care resulted and the Director of Haringey Children’s Services, Sharon Shoesmith, was removed from her post.
   

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