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Violence against children is - and also creates - a sad legacy of abuse

By Arthur Chesterfield-Evans - posted Monday, 7 July 2003


I had reached the end of a 4 year old's understanding.
William is quite a big boy in size, but a bit younger and more baby-like in skills and temperament.

Some inquiries, (which may have been construed as gossip) turned up the situation that the mother in question had married young, quickly got pregnant and left her husband because he beat her. He also beat the child "when he got cross". She had custody, but had not been able to stop the father getting access visits, though the son no longer wanted to go on them. She was employed in quite a good job and had spent a small fortune on legal fees, as the father was quite wealthy.

The point about the story is that this is happening in a well-run, model day-care centre. The day-care centre has to manage the issue, and socialise little X. The alternative is to kick him out, and then what would happen to him? Would he get worse? And who would it affect later? His dad might lose custody, but he has a new girlfriend - and perhaps more little ones soon? One might ask about the rest of the world. If an affluent man with a problem cannot be reached - who can? One might speculate that a poorer person who is aggressive is more likely to come in contact with the law and go off to prison, but this is hardly helpful to the child.

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Clearly the behaviour of the parents is the major determinate of the behaviour of the child, and there is very little way of stopping domestic violence that is not visible, or not complained about. The NSW Upper House Social Issues Committee is almost finished a report, entitled Early Intervention for Children at Risk of Learning Difficulties. This shows, much as the Committee of Inquiry into DoCS (Dept. of Community Services) did that between leaving hospital and starting school, kids problems may be more or less invisible to society. DoCS gets the ones with conspicuous troubles, but as the situation has worsened, acts on only about 4 per cent of all reports. Preventive work is not getting done.

The Committee heard evidence that what is needed is a universal service, with more concentration on kids who are at risk. It is necessary that everyone is visited, otherwise, intervention services are seen as stigmatising. The affluent abuser discussed above may take considerable work to convince him that he needs help, particularly if his aggression is related to an alcohol problem, which is a common situation.

There is some dispute about how successful "anger management" counselling is for males. Many women's groups believe that this endeavour merely takes money that could be used for refuges for mothers and kids. Perhaps this argument is important because the area gets so little funds that the most basic "band aid" services are the only ones that can be considered. But even if counselling's major effect is to make it clear that violence in the domestic situation is unacceptable, it may still be worthwhile. And even if the counselling is only partially successful, this is not an argument against it. Many treatments in medicine which are very much more expensive than counselling are only partly successful. If counselling sets a new norm and gets behaviour change in hard to treat cases, it is worthwhile. It may also be important for women, and for children's violence. A child's immediate danger is the most obvious thing to address, but the long-term psychological damage to the child, and the values they take into their future behaviour and relationships must also be addressed.

The answer is to take as a core value the quality of relationships between people in society, and think about policies that will improve these. Abusive and violent relationships that set bad norms for children is the tip of a larger iceberg of poor relationships. The systematic way to start would be to look at the amount of abuse and its effects, and then discuss how it can be addressed. At present, relationships tend to be looked at only in terms of whether crimes have been committed, and if so, how long the gaol terms should be. We must do better. The problem should not have to be just solved by the better quality day care centres, though these will be a part of it.

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Article edited by John Carrigan.
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About the Author

Hon. Dr Arthur Chesterfield-Eans is an Australian Democrats member of the NSW Legislative Council. He was NSW President of the Doctors Reform Society from 1996 - 1998.

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