The Swedish Myth: The Corporal Punishment Ban and Child Death Statistics

Sweden is widely believed to have an exceptionally low incidenceof child maltreatment deaths. Since Sweden is also the firstcountry to have outlawed all forms of corporal punishment, proponentsof a total ban on corporal punishment, in the UK and elsewhere,haveargued that this demonstrates that such a ban prevents fatalchild abuse. While not taking sides on the corporal punishmentissue, this paper demonstrates that the argument is misleadingon several counts. The available evidence suggests that Swedenhas a low, though not uniquely low, incidence of child maltreatmentdeaths. Widely cited statistics suggesting that Sweden is inan entirely different league from other countries are, however,seriously misleading. Nor does the evidence really allow usto conclude that Sweden’s relative success in this areais attributable to the ban on corporal punishment. Other countrieswithout a corporal punishment ban also have low or lower childmaltreatment death rates; the figures that are commonly citedin any case pre-date Sweden’s corporal punishment banand there are a number of other important variables, other thana ban on corporal punishment, that could account for internationalvariations. The article concludes with some thoughts about theselective use of evidence in debates of this kind.     

Implementation of Child Rights in the Children's Homes in Malaysia

The objective of this study was to examine the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in the Children Homes under the Social Welfare Department (SWD) in Malaysia. Data was collected from 402 registered children who were staying in six Children Homes across the country. This study employed self‐report surveys where multiple data collection methods, such as face‐to‐face structured interviews, key informant interviews (KIIs), and documentation survey, were used. The study found that the SWD failed to comply with most of the commitments of CRC in Children Homes at its implementation level, and it is still needs based. The findings of this study present important guidelines for government and policy makers in improving child welfare services in the Children Homes in Malaysia.     

Child Rights Practice among the Indigenous Communities in Bangladesh

The objective of this article was to explore the practice of child rights among the indigenous communities of Bangladesh. We used a mixed method approach to collect data from four ethnic communities in the Bandarban District of the Chittagong Division in Bangladesh. We questioned children, parents, community members, local leaders, and service providers of those communities on a number of child rights issues, for example, child education, child labor, child recreation and culture, parents' guidance to children for capacity development, and access to child rights at home and in the community according to Convention on the Rights of the Child treaty. The results showed that while the community was aware of child rights, financial vulnerability and a lack of social support meant that these rights could not be upheld in practice. The paper urges improvement of social support, including income generation activities for indigenous communities.     

Human Rights Abuse in Aspects of Child Protection Practice?

This article examines some aspects of child protection practice in various Australian states. It does so from a parent's perspective through the framework of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1990). Australia was a signatory to both the Declaration and Convention at their point of inception. Of particular interest are articles 5 and 12 of the Universal Declaration and articles 5 and 9(3) of the Convention. The tentative conclusion is that the states cited in this article are from time to time in breach of these articles. The potential Australian Charter of Rights offers a way forward as a guide to development of legislation and service systems that will ensure the rights of children and parents while maintaining child wellbeing as a top priority.     

Case Factor Selection in Physical Child Abuse Investigations

This study used a repeated measures design to determine the number, type, and order of factors selected for decision-making in physical child abuse cases when workers lack formal decision-making guidelines. The main findings were that, (1) given the referral source and existence of previous report information, subjects then solicited information regarding the injury, parent attributes, and environmental conditions, in that order, with decreasing frequency, (2) less information was requested prior to decision-making for high or low risk cases than for medium-risk cases, and (3) disposition choice in medium risk cases fluctuated between court and no-court dispositions.     

Parent–Child Emotional Communication and Children's Coping in Middle Childhood

Parent–child communication regarding children's negative emotions and coping were examined in a sample of 75 5th graders (53% boys) and their mothers and fathers. We predicted that emotionally open communication between a parent and his or her child would be related to children's use of constructive coping strategies. Parents reported on how they react to their child's negative emotions, and children reported on how much they share their negative feelings with each parent. Additionally, emotional communication was measured during a parent–child discussion task involving an event that was upsetting to the child. The results indicated that emotional communication, as reported by mothers, fathers, and children, as well as mother–child observed communication, were related to children's coping strategies. The findings point to a need to assess emotional communication using multiple measures that tap both the child's and the parents’ perspectives and that use different methodologies.     

The Privatisation of Punishment: A Review of the Key Issues

Both the New South Wales and the Queensland Governments have opened the door to the privatisation of prisons in Australia. The term ‘privatisation’ refers to a range of processes in the financing and provision of corrective ‘services’ to criminal offenders. This paper canvasses the theoretical and policy issues related to the privatisation of prisons. Through a review of the international literature, the author suggests key areas of concern for future policy development and evaluation. The paper concludes with a comparison between the privatisation and the deinstitutionalisation of punishment and outlines the theoretical implications of such a comparison.     

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and Canadian implementation efforts for indigenous children and youth

Since playing the role of co-host at the 1990 World Summit for Children in New York, Canada has promoted the adoption of the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of the Child at home and abroad. What impact has this unprecedented international human rights document had on Canadian First Nations, Inuit and other Aboriginal groups? This paper looks at Canada's implementation of this UN Convention, and specifically at Canadian initiatives for indigenous children and youth. The Indian Act, upon which the Canadian government has based its control over Aboriginals since 1876, is explained. Five national organizations representing various Aboriginal perspectives have reviewed the federal government's efforts to honour the World Summit's‘First Call for Children,’ and the emergent issues for at-risk children's programming on- and off-reserve are reviewed. The‘best interests of the child’ ideology that has guided the developed world's notions of children's rights has evolved in a cultural and value-laden context that must now be left for indigenous social scientists, children and youth around the globe to decide for themselves.     

轻刑化研究

人们对于刑罚轻重的评价标准是以其对受刑罚侵害的利益的认识为转移的.随着人们对自身价值认识的提高,人们对受刑罚侵害的利益就会看得越重要,因而也就越能感受到刑罚的严厉.因此,轻刑化的呼声也将随着社会的发展越来越强烈.刑罚改革只有顺应这种要求,才能得到社会最大多数人的认同和支持.拟从轻刑化由来、必然性及我国刑罚体系中轻刑化的体现等几方面进行阐述,并提出一些建议.     

Chronic Child Abuse: The Characteristics and Careers of Children Caught in the Child Protection System

The introduction of the Quality Protects initiative in Englandand the focus on performance management has challenged socialservices departments to examine the systems, processes and outcomesfor children who have their name on a child protection register.Research indicates that approximately one-quarter of the situationsin which children are registered could be described as chronic—thatis, they remain on the child protection register for significantperiods of time, experience more than one period of registrationor suffer a further incident of significant harm whilst subjectto a child protection plan. In this article, the findings froma research study conducted into this group of vulnerable childrenare reported, focusing on the characteristics of the childrenand their families, and their careers in the child protectionsystem. The paper concludes with observations about the weakconceptualization of performance management and the need torecognize the complexity of the factors that influence children’scareers in the child protection system.     

Prior Agency Contact and Physical Abuse in Cases of Child Homicide

Correspondence to Ania Wilczynski: Faculty of Law, University of Sydney, 173–175 Phillip St, Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia Summary This article describes the features of child homicide offenders'previous contact with professional agencies and the incidenceof prior physical violence towards their victims. This is basedon an examination of 48 cases notified to the Director of PublicProsecutions in 1984 in which children had been killed by parentsor parent-substitutes in England and Wales. Professional agencieshad been involved with two-thirds of the offenders. Women'scontacts were usually with medical agencies, and men's withsocial agencies. Of those cases with prior agency contact, whilstalmost two-thirds involved a history of violence towards thechild, in only a third of the cases had the reason for agencycontact explicitly included concern about physical abuse. Infact, the most frequent reason for agency contact was concernabout the offender's mental health. Agencies had taken actionin two-thirds of the cases seen by them; this tended to be psychiatrictreatment for women and child protection measures for men. Aquarter of the offenders seen by professionals had been hostileto this intervention. The above findings run counter to thepopular stereotype (fostered by the child death inquiries) thatchild-killers will have had extensive contact with social agenciesand explicitly concerning physical abuse. Professionals needto be aware of more ‘subtle’ warning signals inidentifying potentially filicidal parents.     

A Comparison of Child Fatalities by Physical Abuse Versus Neglect: Child,Family, Service,and Worker Characteristics

ABSTRACT

In the field of child welfare, attention has been given to risk factors for child maltreatment fatalities with little attention to the difference between children who die from abuse versus neglect. As part of a larger study, child welfare workers (n = 104) from 14 different states responded to an anonymous online survey that described the child, family, and case characteristics before death and worker characteristics/experiences before and after death. Results supported that prior to death, neglectful families presented with less risk than abusive families, in the areas of parent–child attachment, child behavior problems, and changes in household composition while reporting that they received more services. With regard to child welfare practice, workers did not report any differences in how they handled cases before death nor did they report differences in their posttraumatic stress symptoms at the time of the survey. These findings can be used as a springboard for future research that focuses on fatal maltreatment.     

The Child and Suffering:

No abstract available for this article.     

东亚死刑废除论考

一、引言:人的尊严及相对无期徒刑联合国所通过的《旨在废除死刑的公民权利和政治权利国际公约第二款选择议定书》(IC-     

Parental Rights Assumptions, The Passage of Time and 'Natural Justice': The Use of Section 3(1)(d) of the Child Care Act 1980

Summary This paper reports a study carried out in two Social ServicesDepartments, of 63 children in care under Section 2 of the ChildCare Act 1980, in respect of whom parental rights had been assumedunder Section 3 on the ground that they had been in Section2 care for three years or more. Some of the arguments put inthe debate about ‘natural justice’ in relation toparental rights assumptions are briefly considered in the introduction;recent changes in such assumptions are then outlined. The studyand its main findings are then presented, with reference tothe findings of other studies of parental rights resolutionswhere appropriate, Finally, the implications of the study forthe ‘natural justice’ debate are discussed. Theauthor's main conclusion is that the existing procedure is anomalousalthough Departments' use of it may be acrupulously careful.The grounds for assuming rights should be revised and the procedureshould be carried out by a family court.     

Maladaptive Peer Relationships and the Development of Relational and Physical Aggression During Middle Childhood

This study examined the unique roles of peer rejection and affiliation with aggressive peers in the development of relational and physical aggression in a sample of 979 2nd through 4th grade children. Information about target children and their best friends’ aggression and peer rejection was gathered via peer‐nominations when the majority of children were in the 3rd grade, and again approximately one year later. Friendships were identified by having target children nominate their three best friends in their classroom. Path analyses conducted with children who had at least one reciprocated friendship revealed that peer rejection and friends’ aggression predicted changes in target children's aggression; however, the patterns of relations varied by gender and form of aggression. Higher initial levels of rejection and friends’ relational aggression predicted increases in relational aggression among girls only, whereas rejection and friends’ physical aggression predicted increases in physical aggression among boys and girls. The significance of these results for the application of peer influence theories to relational aggression, and to females, is discussed.