Fatal child maltreatment in England, 2005-9

Objective: This paper presents comprehensive and up-to-date data covering four years of Serious Case Reviews into fatal child maltreatment in England. Methods: Information on all notified cases of fatal maltreatment between April 2005 and March 2009 was examined to obtain case characteristics related to a systemic classification of five broad groups of maltreatment deaths (severe physical assaults; covert homicide/infanticide; overt homicide; extreme neglect/deprivational abuse; deaths related to but not directly caused by maltreatment). Results: A total of 276 cases was recorded giving an incidence of 0.63 cases per 100,000 children (0-17) per year. 246 cases could be classified based on the data available. Of these the commonest specific group was those children who died as a result of severe physical assaults. Apparently deliberate overt and covert homicide was less common, whilst deaths as a direct consequence of neglect were rare. In contrast, some evidence of neglect was found in at least 40% of all cases, though not the direct cause of death. Conclusions: Class characteristics differ between the different categories of death and may suggest the need for different strategies for prevention

Least restrictive alternative - advance statements and the new mental health legislation

No abstract availabl

Commercial and sexual exploitation of children and young people in the UK: a review

This paper reviews recent information and data relevant to the commercial sexual exploitation of children and young people in the UK. Three main aspects of exploitation are addressed: abuse through prostitution; abuse through pornography; and the trafficking of children and young people to and through the UK for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation. Most published research in this area relates to young people exploited through prostitution. The review explores the range of vulnerability factors, the processes used to engage young people in prostitution and the types of support strategies for those being exploited. Rather less information is currently available on the scale of child pornography, or the links between the use of pornography and other forms of sexual abuse. The internet as a modern technology for proliferating child pornography is discussed, alongside its role in providing opportunities for paedophiles to access and 'groom' children for sexual purposes. Finally, the review provides a summary of research on trafficking of children to and through the UK for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and demonstrates the limited knowledge about this topic. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Emotional Isolation, Degradation and Exploitation as Correlates of Adolescents’ Self-concept in Nigeria

Emotional maltreatment of children and adolescents is a subtype of abuse. The magnitude at which children and adolescents suffer from emotional maltreatment of isolation, degradation and exploitation has been found to be very startling. While studies have shown the impact of several dimensions of emotional abuse on human behaviours, there is lack of empirical information on the combined and separate effects of emotional isolation, degradation, and exploitation on the self-concept of adolescents. Hence, the study examined the combined and separate effects of these variables on selfconcept of adolescents in Nigeria. Four hundred and eighty adolescents (215 males and 265 females) selected through purposive sampling technique from fifteen private secondary schools in Ota, Nigeria participated in this descriptive survey design of ex-post facto study. Questionnaires on Seven Dimensions Emotional Maltreatment at Home (QSDEMH, α = 0.84) and Adolescent Personal Data Inventory (APDI, α = 0.81) were used to generate data. Three research questions were tested at 0.05 alpha level and stepwise multiple regression was employed for the analysis. Results indicated that the three independent variables jointly accounted for 26.2% of the variance in self-concept (R2 = .262.) and separately predicted self-concept at different degrees (Isolating β= -.202; t=- 4.441; p <0.05; Degrading β= -.261; t= -5.354; p 0.05). There was also negative but significant relationship between the predictors and the criterion variable. It is recommended that psychological intervention programmes currently available in schools should be enhanced to identify and treat psychological maltreatmen

What happens when interviewers ask repeated questions in forensic interviews with children alleging abuse?

This study was designed to explore 1) the ways in which interviewers refocus alleged victims of abuse on their previous responses and 2) how children responded when they were refocused on their previous responses. Transcripts of 37 forensic interviews conducted by British police officers trained using the best practices spelled out in the Memorandum of Good Practice were examined. The instances in which interviewers asked repeated questions were isolated and coded into categories with respect to the reasons why interviewers needed to ask the repeated question (i.e., there was no apparent reason, to challenge a child’s response, clarification, no answer the first time the question was asked, digression, or compound question). The children’s responses to the repeated questions were further categorised into mutually exclusive categories (i.e., elaboration, repetition, contradiction, or no answer). On average interviewers asked children 8 repeated questions per interview. Most of the time interviewers asked repeated questions to challenge a previous response (62%), but they were also sometimes asked for no apparent reason (20%). Children repeated previous responses or elaborated on a previous response 81% of the time and contradicted themselves 7% of the time when re-asked the same question. We conclude that children did not appear unduly pressured to change their answers, and, more importantly, did not contradict themselves when interviewers attempted to refocus them on particular responses