Testimony On Behalf Of Victims Of Child Abuse

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Persuasive Testimony

Christian E. Duffy

University of New England

Testimony on Behalf of Victims of Child Abuse

I appreciate the opportunity to speak to the State Legislature’s Committee on Child and Family Services on behalf of the hundreds and thousands of children suffering from a hidden epidemic of child abuse. It is an abuse that runs the gamut from general neglect to psychological maltreatment, medical neglect, physical abuse, and sexual abuse (McLaren, 2007). The problem of child abuse is one of terrifying proportions. An organization called Child Help (2013) recently reported that every year there are 3.3 million reports of child abuse involving nearly six million children in the United States. More frightening still is the fact that the United States has the worst record among industrialized nations – losing five children daily due to abuse related deaths (United States Government Accountability Office, 2011).

As a member of the social work profession, I am concerned that conflicting obligations, regulations, laws, and ethical standards of professional conduct impose special burdens on social workers who must assist child abuse victims. Creating a consistent, uniform national approach to reporting and responding to suspected abuse is imperative.

Child abuse, as an umbrella term, refers to the physical, psychological, sexual, and emotional mistreatment of dependent minor children. It is often associated as well with neglect of the needs of such children. Child abuse is a term lacking in a universal definition (American Psychological Association, 2011). Physical and psychological abuse, sexual abuse, and neglect are all included in this umbrella term which is increasingly associated with both a growing incidence of reported cases and increased awareness of the long-term ill effects of the abuse (Finkelhoar, 1994). Crisis intervention services encounter the child at a critical juncture – when he or she is most damaged, fearful, in pain and frightened (Finkelhoar, 1994).

It is difficult, despite the best efforts of caregivers and law enforcement officials across the globe to determine accurately how prevalent child and adolescent abuse by adults or peers might be (American Psychological Association, 2011). Underreporting, coupled with the tendency in some societies to ignore the rights of children to be free of such treatment all combine to prevent researchers and clinicians from making an accurate determination of this problem (Putnam, 2003). It is a shortcoming that should reveal itself in supervision (Putnam, 2003).

Nevertheless, there is a growing awareness of the probability that child abuse is much more extensive than once believed and, correspondingly, that its effects upon children persist into adulthood and can be quite devastating. A growing body of information strongly supports the assertion that this is a problem of international significance that is difficult to eradicate and in many instances all but impossible to prevent. It represents what many see as a crisis requiring both intervention and prevention. The data regarding child abuse present a portrait of a problem that reaches epic proportions. Every ten seconds, a report of child abuse is made (Child Help, 2013). Of these reports, 78.3 percent involved neglect, 17.6 percent involve some type of physical abuse, 9.2 percent report sexual abuse, 8.1 percent involve psychological maltreatment and 2.4 percent involve medical neglect (Child Help, 2013). About 80 percent of these children’s lives end at the age of four while child fatalities are responsible for more than half of deaths due to maltreatment, yet do not reflect as such on death certificates (United States Department of Health and Human Services, 2009).

Social workers are among the group of caregivers who are most likely to encounter abused children or families in which abuse is commonplace (Chanmugam, 2009; Malugani, 2013; National Association of Social Workers, 2004). As professionals charged with intervening in the cycle of violence and neglect that damages young children, social workers are challenged by a conflicting set of obligations (Reamer, 2008). On the one hand, social workers have an obligation to respect the privacy rights of clients and are bound to hold information given to them by clients in confidence (Reamer, 2008). On the other hand, these same professionals are obligated in many jurisdictions to report knowledge regarding criminal maltreatment of individuals (The Daily Mail, 2010; Prior, Lynch, & Glaser, 1999).

The problem is significant because as the National Association of Social Workers (2012) reports social workers know that working with an abused or neglected child requires them to work with the whole family and with other environmental factors in a culturally competent manner. Social works are on the front line helping children and in assisting them in finding safe living situations. However, the social worker’s central role in serving abused children and their families is made more complex because it combines a statutory and therapeutic role (Prior et al., 1999).

Further, social workers must deal with contradictory regulatory systems (Kimberly, 2010). They may be required to report suspected or known child abuse to local authorities but prevented from doing so by confidentiality agreements with their clients or as part of the guidelines of an agency with which they are affiliated (Kimberly, 2010). Social workers are also often required to make a determination as to whether or not the risk encountered by a vulnerable child is of such substance that removal of the child from the home environment is needed; research suggests according to Kimberly (2010) that social workers and their employing agencies are vulnerable to legal action when parents contest a custody removal determination.

Other research suggests that social workers who are new to the field may not feel competent to make decisions regarding child custody in cases where abuse is suspected or reporting such abuse to law enforcement authorities (Barbee, Antle, Sullivan, Huebner, Fox, & Hall, 2009). The child welfare job is widely recognized as one of the core social work functions in society but it is only relatively recently that some but not all social work education programs have begun to add coursework in child welfare into the educational mix (Barbee, et al, 2009).

Many social workers have at best superficial knowledge regarding the best response to suspected child abuse or the legal and regulatory environment in which they are positioned (Prior, et al., 1999).

Frederic G. Reamer (2008) pointed out that many ethical issues faced by social workers involve legal issues but relatively few university courses prepare social workers for addressing such issues. In theory, social workers are oriented toward stopping child abuse before it starts (Coates, 2006). In reality, social workers are subordinate to a set of different legal regimes and standards which may or may not be consistent with the ethical standards of the field (Coates, 2006). For example, state laws "generally require social workers to disclose confidential information without a client’s consent when they have reason to believe that a client poses a serious, imminent, and foreseeable threat to an identifiable third party" (Reamer, 2008, p. 1).

However, statutory law, case law, regulatory law, and constitutional law along with executive orders may prevent social workers from reporting or make reporting quite difficult. The ethical issue itself is compelling. Social workers are trained to believe that confidentiality is the cornerstone of trust, that trust is essential to the creation and maintenance of effective relationships, and that trust is fundamental to facilitating client recovery (McLaren, 2007). However, absolute confidentiality cannot be offered in social work and an ethical and practice context. Encouraging a wide range of human service workers to report or refer any reasonable belief that a child is at risk of harm to their child protection agencies is something we can substance we can grow from.

Besharov and Laumann (1996) stated that "for 30 years, advocates such as social workers, program administrators, and politicians have joined to encourage even more reports of suspected child abuse and neglect" (p. 592). They claim that "their efforts have been spectacularly successful, with about three million cases of suspected child abuse having been reported in 1993" (Besharov & Laumann, 1996, p. 596). Enormous numbers of at-risk children still go unreported-unrecognized. "Upon investigation, as many as 65 percent of the reports now being made are determined to be "unsubstantiated," raising serious civil liberties concerns and placing a heavy burden on already overwhelmed investigative staffs" (Besharov & Laumann, 1996, p. 600). Besharov and Laumann (1996) state that these two problems; "non-reporting and inappropriate reporting, are linked and must be addressed together before further progress can be made in combating child abuse and neglect" (p. 604). To lessen both problems, there must be a shift in priorities, away from simply seeking more reports and toward encouraging better reports (Coates, 2006). This is why I am calling on your assistance in creating a national reporting system.

One might wonder if this vast increase in reporting signals a rise in the incidence of child maltreatment. Unfortunately, so many maltreated children previously went unreported that earlier reporting statistics do not provide a reliable baseline against which to make comparisons (Besharov & Laumann, 1996). One thing is clear, however, Besharov and Laumann (1996) confirm that the majority of reports now received by child protective agencies would not be made but for the passage of mandatory reporting laws. Credit has to be given where it is due as this increase in reporting was accompanied by a substantial expansion of prevention and treatment programs. Yet, even at this level, maltreatment is the sixth largest cause for children under fourteen (Child Help, 2013).

The numbers estimated for underreported abuse and neglect in children are devastating as studies have shown that professionals have been failing to report many of the children they saw "who had observable signs of child abuse and neglect" (Adler & Adler, 2002, p. 102). It is saddening that our children are measured and weighed by the systems we all create. The ideology created from our system is basically, "the more serious the case, the more likely to report" (Coates, 2006). For example, "surveyed professionals reported over 85 percent of fatal or serious injuries were reported… in contrast they only reported 24 percent of the emotional neglect cases" (Adler & Adler, 2002, p. 102). Nevertheless, there is no reason for complacency in any profession. Alder and Alder (2002) state that obtaining and maintaining a high level of reporting requires a continuation of the public education and professional training begun 30 years ago.

The determination that a report is unfounded can only be made after an unavoidably traumatic investigation that is inherently a breach of parental and family privacy (Reamer, 2008, p. 2). To determine whether a particular child is in danger, social workers must inquire into the most intimate and personal and family matters and it is often necessary to question others who know the family (Besharov & Laumann, 1996). Laws against child abuse are an implicit recognition that family privacy must give way to the need to protect helpless children.

Mandatory child abuse reporting laws have given rise to a situation in which some human service associations, employing social workers, require social workers and others to inform clients of the parameters of confidentiality including their child abuse reporting obligations at the outset of worker-client relationships (McLaren, 2007). This is a policy advocated by the National Association of Social Workers (2004, 2012) which has also called upon governments at the local, state, and federal levels to strengthen child protection services and to provide support to social workers dealing with vulnerable children.

Dixon (2010) noted that despite mandatory reporting laws, many professionals have decided not to report suspected cases particularly when sexual abuse is thought to be involved. This is because of the difficulties of differentiating between learning difficulties and the effect of sexual abuse on children, difficulties in bringing suspects to justice, and convincing witnesses and family members to testify and otherwise cooperate with law enforcement (Dixon, 2010). In order to survive, and to keep alive any good feelings in relation to parents who abuse, some children have learned to develop behaviors needed to protect themselves: they "have to smile or become stupid or blind to what is happening" (Adler & Adler, 2002). Social workers confront similar problems and are vulnerable to legal action should they put in motion events that ultimately damage non-guilty individuals.

The problem, said Dixon (2010), is that many parents or adult caretakers of suspected abuse victims find it difficult at best to trust the social work, police and/or the criminal justice system and many, particularly in minority communities, are overtly hostile to police officers as well as child welfare agency staff members. This may be due, said Dixon (2010), to factors that cannot be controlled; however, increasing the capacity of police officers to effectively investigate and resolve child abuse cases is highly desirable.

As I have noted, there are some very real differences in the reporting requirements across the states and this certainly complicates the issue. In California, social workers are required to report suspected abuse to the Child Protective Services division of the California Department of Social Services (2007) or, alternatively, to call the police or county sheriff. In Washington State, as note by the Washington State Coalition against Domestic Violence (2008), social workers are advised to refrain from requiring a protective order while avoiding mandating actions that could further compromise the safety of victims. These nationwide conditions help explain why from 25 to 50 percent of child abuse deaths involve children previously known to the authorities (Adler & Adler, 2002). They state that "in 1993, the NCPCA reported that of the 1,149 child maltreatment deaths, 42 percent had already been reported to authorities" and tens of thousands of other children suffer serious injuries short of death while under child protective agency supervision (Adler & Adler, 2002, p. 104).