Protecting Children from Abuse in CALD Backgrounds

This article discusses the need to protect children from abuse in culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. It explores the limitations of the current criminal justice system and recommends implementing the 7 C's into organizational practices. The article also highlights the contributions of the Australian Royal Commission towards child safety and the need for children's participation in decision-making.

Running head: CHILD PROTECTION
Protecting Children from Abuse when they are from a CALD Background
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

1CHILD PROTECTION
1) Buckley, H., 2017. Service users as receivers of risk‐dominated practice. Beyond the
risk paradigm in Child Protection, pp.77-90.
Child abuse has remained a debatable topic for long due to risks it carries and
solutions that governing system have. The issue is so critical that it can destroy the lives of
children residing in various parts of the world. Such children would not be able to effectively
pursue their academics and job career. Few of those who are not very strong from within the
body, they are prone to suffer the most1. Australia is one of very few countries in the world
that is home to many foreign cultures. In this country, children with ‘culturally and
linguistically diverse (CALD)’ background do generally suffer.
In the article, Buckley (2017) says that child abuse is a serious offense and cannot be
controlled with current criminal justice setting known as the risk paradigm. According to the
author, there are needs to look beyond the risk paradigm. The author believes that child abuse
can be a part of homes, academic institutions, organizations, and other social gathering
places. Therefore, Buckley recommends to look beyond the existing criminal justice
framework and implement 7 C’s into organizational practices to bring in the reform works.
Those 7 C's are the commitment, collaborative community, congruence, critical reflection,
coherence, community and champions2.
1 Lamb, M.E., Brown, D.A., Hershkowitz, I., Orbach, Y. and Esplin, P.W., 2018. Tell Me
What Happened: Questioning Children About Abuse. John Wiley & Sons.
2 Rheingold, A.A., Zajac, K., Chapman, J.E., Patton, M., de Arellano, M., Saunders, B. and
Kilpatrick, D., 2015. Child sexual abuse prevention training for childcare professionals: An
independent multi-site randomized controlled trial of stewards of children. Prevention
Science, 16(3), pp.374-385.

2CHILD PROTECTION
2) Wright, K., Swain, S. and McPhillips, K., 2017. The Australian Royal Commission
into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. Child abuse & neglect, 74, pp.1-9.
In this article, Wright, Swain, and McPhillips (2017) discuss the contribution of the
Royal Commission towards child safety. The Royal Commission dedicated to responding to
‘Child Sexual Abuse' is the largest royal commission in the history of Australia. In Australia,
the Royal Commission has raised awareness among the public and promoted rule & policy,
practice, and the legislative reform. Internationally, it has its contribution in recent inquiries
and research works being taken towards protecting children from abuse3. One of the key
reasons behind highlighting this article is to show the contribution of the Royal Commission
and Australia's spending in response efforts and prevention from child abuse. The article is
highlighted hoping that this would encourage practitioners, researchers and on a broader note,
the interested public towards using materials provided by the Royal Commission. As
Australia is a small country in terms of population; hence, the international community might
ignore the contribution of the Royal Commission. Wright, Swain, and McPhillips have hoped
that this article would create awareness among people, public, national bodies, private firms,
NGOs and others towards child safety from child abuse4. The Royal commission’s work
towards controlling child abuse cases is worth noting.
3 Ward, J. and Smeeton, J., 2017. The end of non-consensual adoption? Promoting the
wellbeing of children in care. Practice, 29(1), pp.55-73.
4 George, E., Schmidt, C., Vella, G. and McDonagh, I., 2017. Promoting the rights and
responsibilities of children: a South Australian example. Global health promotion, 24(1),
pp.53-57.

3CHILD PROTECTION
3) Van Bijleveld, G.G., Dedding, C.W.M. and Bunders-Aelen, J.F.G., 2014. Seeing eye
to eye or not? Young people's and child protection workers' perspectives on children's
participation within the Dutch child protection and welfare services. Children and
Youth Services Review, 47, pp.253-259.
Authors Van Bijleveld, Dedding and Bunders-Aelen (2014) discuss the participation
of children within child protection and welfare services in Dutch. The article speaks about
participation roles of case managers, young people, and children. As of now according to
authors, there is still very limited dialogue between case managers and young people. They
do not have ample of opportunity to understand whether children should also be a part of the
discussion forum or should also be asked for their pieces of advice5. Due to low dialogues
between young people and case managers, children would still be encouraged for not
participating in the decision-making process. They believe that it is up to the children to have
feelings for their participation in the decision-making. There are a few barriers to the
participation of children in the decision-making. One of the barriers is the case managers'
perception towards participation as they believe that it is more important to protect children
from child abuse rather than thinking of children's participation in the decision-making
process6.
5 Turner, W., Hester, M., Broad, J., Szilassy, E., Feder, G., Drinkwater, J., Firth, A. and
Stanley, N., 2017. Interventions to improve the response of professionals to children exposed
to domestic violence and abuse: a systematic review. Child abuse review, 26(1), pp.19-39.
6 Garner, P.W., Mahatmya, D., Brown, E.L. and Vesely, C.K., 2014. Promoting desirable
outcomes among culturally and ethnically diverse children in social emotional learning
programs: A multilevel heuristic model. Educational Psychology Review, 26(1), pp.165-189.

4CHILD PROTECTION
Conclusion
In summary, it can be concluded that child abuse is an offense and needs to be dealt
with a much better setting of criminal and justice. There is a need to look beyond the risk
paradigm. It is being suggested in the first article that 7 C’s if applied and implemented on
organizations, this would produce results. Moreover, this would help to have a dynamic
approach towards resolving child abuse cases. The Royal Commission in Australia which
mainly deals with Child Sexual Abuse has raised public awareness towards protecting lives
of ‘Culturally and Linguistically Diverse’ children. It is busy designing policies and rules
needed to be implemented to bring in quick results. Case managers and young people have
been shown as not accepting children in the decision-making process. This is actually
because the focus is more on child protection rather on children’s participation in the decision
making. Child safety is indeed more important for case managers and young people. There is
a need to prioritize the works to work accordingly.

5CHILD PROTECTION
References
Garner, P.W., Mahatmya, D., Brown, E.L. and Vesely, C.K., 2014. Promoting desirable
outcomes among culturally and ethnically diverse children in social emotional learning
programs: A multilevel heuristic model. Educational Psychology Review, 26(1), pp.165-189.
George, E., Schmidt, C., Vella, G. and McDonagh, I., 2017. Promoting the rights and
responsibilities of children: a South Australian example. Global health promotion, 24(1),
pp.53-57.
Lamb, M.E., Brown, D.A., Hershkowitz, I., Orbach, Y. and Esplin, P.W., 2018. Tell Me
What Happened: Questioning Children About Abuse. John Wiley & Sons.
Rheingold, A.A., Zajac, K., Chapman, J.E., Patton, M., de Arellano, M., Saunders, B. and
Kilpatrick, D., 2015. Child sexual abuse prevention training for childcare professionals: An
independent multi-site randomized controlled trial of stewards of children. Prevention
Science, 16(3), pp.374-385.
Turner, W., Hester, M., Broad, J., Szilassy, E., Feder, G., Drinkwater, J., Firth, A. and
Stanley, N., 2017. Interventions to improve the response of professionals to children exposed
to domestic violence and abuse: a systematic review. Child abuse review, 26(1), pp.19-39.
Ward, J. and Smeeton, J., 2017. The end of non-consensual adoption? Promoting the
wellbeing of children in care. Practice, 29(1), pp.55-73.