Child Protection Issues: Detailed Case Study Report on Australia

This report delves into the critical issue of child protection, using a case study from Australia to illustrate the devastating effects of domestic violence, emotional abuse, and neglect on a young girl. The report examines the family background, highlighting poverty, single parenthood, and the mother's struggle to provide, which creates a vulnerable environment for the child. It assesses the care provided and identifies both the risks and protective factors associated with child abuse, referencing the Australian National Plan and the importance of risk assessment instruments. The summary of the situation emphasizes the lasting psychological impact of abuse and neglect on children, particularly within the Australian context, and the need for social awareness and intervention. The conclusion underscores the responsibility of all citizens and the government to ensure children's safety and well-being, advocating for increased awareness and effective implementation of child protection laws. This report serves as a crucial resource, providing a comprehensive analysis of child protection issues and their implications.

Running head: CHILD PROTECTION ISSUES
Child Protection Issues
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Family background..........................................................................................................................2
Assessment of care and present protection factors..........................................................................3
Summary of the situation.................................................................................................................5
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................8
Appendices....................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
It is seen that nowadays children’s exposure to the domestic violence is becoming a
significant policy issue. Over the last couple of decades, it is seen that the evidence regarding the
extent to which the children of Australia are getting exposed to domestic violence and how those
incidents affects their lives and becomes obstacles in the path of their overall development
(Nathanson, Woolfenden and Zwi 2016). The rights of children as explained in the convention of
United Nations, rightly recognizes that the children have the right to stay away from all types of
violence at home conditions and Article 91 demonstrates how the individuals should refrain from
any sort of violence against children by the social, legislative, educational and judicial measures
(Lang and Hartill 2014). This particular report explores a case study where a little girl gets
abused sexually and emotionally and remains confined in a small apartment in Australia. The
report sheds light on various aspects of these issues trying to find out the effects of these
malevolent practices which has become a social ill in the land of Australia.
Family background
As per the short film Polly and Me, it can be seen that a little girl who is 7 years old is
being raised by a single mother who is nearing 23 or 24 years. It is seen that there is no steady
source of income of the family of two and the mother has to take up odd jobs like even
prostitution in order to support the family (Daniel et al. 2015). They are currently living in a
small shabby apartment and there is no hope of the improvement of their conditions. The main
issues that can be raised in such environment are prostitution, drug abuse, neglecting a child,
child abuse and domestic violence (Buckley et al. 2014). Looking at the condition of the child,
individuals might become sympathetic towards the child, but in most cases the minds would get

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distracted by fits of anger and loathing towards the mother of the little girl child. The only thing
the girl child wants from the world is peace of mind and a joyful life. Her dream of going to a
picnic gets shattered by the dark world of her mother (Lang and Hartill 2014). It is seen that the
child is utterly neglected by her mom and leads a secluded life within the boundary of a small
apartment. A doll is her only friend and sometimes she peeps from a window and sees a small
park outside of that window. That is the only connection of the child with the outer world.
Assessment of care and present protection factors
There are some strong arguments regarding the terms used to explain violence
experienced by the children. Australia’s National Plan to Reduce Violence against Children
clearly states that any types of violence against the children are legally punishable offence and
individuals should refrain from such practices. Violence against women (especially children) is
becoming a huge issue of Australia and a burning issue day by day. In Australia, children are
mostly the victims of domestic violence and it is seen that the children of the broken family
gets affected more and gets exposed to these kinds of issues more frequently (Dawe, Taplin,
and Mattick 2017). Various authors opined that the effects of the exposure of the children in
front of violence might be burdened with methodological problems and urge caution in
drawing cause and effect assumptions relating to the exposure. Children’s exposure to
domestic violence takes place within constellation of risk and disadvantage (Daniel et al.
2015). The domestic violence brings in other factors of risks too, like family dysfunction,
parental substance abuse, poverty and negligence in raising the child. These are the factors which
were bluntly seen in the movie Polly and Me.

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Understanding the risks and the protective factors of child abuse is important while
developing an effective prevention and interventional strategies (Jud, Finkelhor and Fegert
2016). The authorities of Child Protection use various risk assessment instruments to detect
whether a child is at any risk of violence or not. The knowledge regarding risks and protective
factors those contribute to child abuse and negligence in raising them enables the specialists to
attain a holistic view of the family experience and to get engaged with various other services in a
multi-service system response (Lang and Hartill 2014).
It is important to keep in mind that when the risk factors might exist in the families where
the child abuse and negligence in raising them takes place, it would not be necessary that these
factors would lead to child abuse and negligence in raising them (Dawe, Taplin, and Mattick
2017). It should be a clear concept that the risk factors are not the causes of child abuse and the
presence of one, or more risk factors not necessarily bring in child abuse in domestic conditions
(Nathanson, Woolfenden and Zwi 2016). The protective factors are the conditions that can occur
at family, individuals, community or societal level. These protective factors regulate the
adversities and in a way promote positive developments of the children (Lang and Hartill 2014).
These factors serve as safeguards which can help the guardians to locate the supports and
encourage coping tactics that will allow them to do parenting effectively in the oddest situations.
Child abuse and negligence involves various acts of commission or omission by the
parents or the person who are in charge of parenting (Nathanson, Woolfenden and Zwi 2016).
Child abuse can have any form, like sexual abuse, physical abuse or emotional abuse. In this
particular context of the case study, it is seen that the little girl is the victim of both emotional
and sexual abuse.

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Cultural beliefs and values, neighborhood conditions, environment of the family and the
core characteristics of the adults of the family are the potential risk factors (Buckley et al. 2014).
Various research works have established the fact that there are numerous risk factors and it
would be beyond the capability of a single research work to point out and provide detailed
explanations of each factor (Jud, Finkelhor and Fegert 2016). However the most common risk
factors are family environment and the characteristics of the parents.
Summary of the situation
To summarize, it can be said that in most cases the literatures regarding child abuse are
quantitative and the research works assesses the views of those children in the Australian context
(Dawe, Taplin, and Mattick 2017). In most cases the children who are the victims of various
types of child abuse in the domestic environment gets deeply affected by the memory of that
horrible incidents (Nathanson, Woolfenden and Zwi 2016). If the children are getting victimized
by the members of the family, the pains they have to bear are excruciating and on the other hand
in most cases the children do not get the justice. If the children receives negligence in parenting,
that would definitely affect the development of them and leave them unfit for the outer world
(Daniel et al. 2015). It is seen that getting victimized by these factors in a frequent manner can
lead a child to lose their mental balance and might restrain him or her from living a regular social
life.
In this particular case, in the short film, it is seen that the little girl has no friend apart
from the doll she has and her mother does not spend adequate time with her. The life of the little
girl thus can be seen as the epitome of the negligence in raising a kid along with the perfect
example of a victim of child abuse in Australian context (Hebert et al. 2014). The mother of the

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little girl is a single mom and she does odd jobs and even takes up prostitution to support the
family of the two. The little girl faces various situations at home which are not at all something
that a child should witness. The girl sees various friends of her mom who are alcohol and drug
abusers (Dawe, Taplin, and Mattick 2017). She witnessed her mother to get beaten up by those
strangers and the little girl cries in absolute fear. There is one window in the apartment of the
family and that window is the only link between the child and the outer world. The little girls
look down the window and sees how other parents spend time with their kids in the park, they
play with their children, and on the other hand she has nothing in her life. She has to spend the
day alone by playing with her doll (Jud, Finkelhor and Fegert 2016). As the girl does not receive
a good parenting from her mother, a motherly instinct is present in her and she treats her doll like
her own daughter. There was a horrible day when one of her mother’s clients visited their house
and her mother was not home, the man abused the kid sexually in a drunken fit and the world of
the child just became topsy-turvy for her (Dawe, Taplin, and Mattick 2017). That can be said as
the final blow to the life of the little girl. This incident shook the pillars of the foundation of her
life (Nathanson, Woolfenden and Zwi 2016). The child got victimized of this brutal act when she
was only 8 years old and the memory of the incident would ruin the coming years of her life.
Had it been happened a few years earlier, the memory of that incident would have erased from
her mind (Daniel et al. 2015). But as she is eight years old, the horrible experience would haunt
her in future.
Thus, to summarize, it can be said that in the national violence survey in Australia it was
seen that the children o the age group between 9 to 13 years old were majorly victimized in
various sorts of child abuse. Twenty seven percent of these children sin a survey stated that they
have experienced various types of abuse in their life, be it from the members of their family or in

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the hands of strangers in the house (Buckley et al. 2014). This has become a social ill in
Australia and these practices needs to be stopped immediately. In this context, the social
awareness regarding this issue should be enhanced among the citizens of Australia and they
should consider the children as the future of their nation (Dawe, Taplin, and Mattick 2017). It is
the duty of the responsible citizens to make the land appropriate so that the future generations
can thrive it that condition.
Conclusion
Thus to conclude, it can be said that, in recent years the issues of child abuse has become
a burning issue in Australia and due to this social ill, the future generation of Australia are in
danger. For the benefit of the country, the kids should thrive as they are the future of the country
and thus all the citizens should ensure that the children are safe. This is quite shameful that in
Australia, children in their own houses are not safe and this is something very concerning. The
government of Australia already has implemented various rules and regulations regarding this
issue and the federal government are doing their best to eradicate these sorts of malpractices. In
this context, it can be said that the parents should increase their awareness regarding these issues
and they should not trust someone blindly as that can bring in harms to their children. Thus, in
short it can be said that along with implementing various laws regarding child abuse, it would be
better if the federal government takes up initiatives to raise the social awareness regarding this
malicious act.

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References
Buckley, H., Tonmyr, L., Lewig, K. and Jack, S., 2014. Factors influencing the uptake of
research evidence in child welfare: A synthesis of findings from Australia, Canada and
Ireland. Child abuse review, 23(1), pp.5-16.
Daniel, B., Cooper, A., Tisdall, K., Hart, J., Spratt, T., Pösö, T., Arney, F., McDougall, S.,
Bromfield, L., Lorenz, W. and Montgomery, H., 2015. Challenging Child Protection: New
Directions in Safeguarding Children. Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Dawe, S., Taplin, S. and Mattick, R.P., 2017. Psychometric investigation of the Brief Child
Abuse Potential Inventory in mothers on opioid substitution therapy. Journal of family
violence, 32(3), pp.341-348.
Hebert, S., Bor, W., Swenson, C.C. and Boyle, C., 2014. Improving collaboration: a qualitative
assessment of inter-agency collaboration between a pilot Multisystemic Therapy Child Abuse
and Neglect (MST-CAN) program and a child protection team. Australasian psychiatry, 22(4),
pp.370-373.
Jud, A., Finkelhor, D. and Fegert, J.M., 2016. On the incidence and prevalence of child
maltreatment: a research agenda. Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health, 10(1), p.17.
Lang, M. and Hartill, M. eds., 2014. Safeguarding, child protection and abuse in sport:
International perspectives in research, policy and practice. Routledge.
Lonne, B. and Parton, N., 2014. Portrayals of child abuse scandals in the media in Australia and
England: Impacts on practice, policy, and systems. Child abuse & neglect, 38(5), pp.822-836.

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Mathews, B., Walsh, K., Coe, S., Kenny, M.C. and Vagenas, D., 2015. Child protection training
for professionals to improve reporting of child abuse and neglect (Protocol). Cochrane Database
of Systematic Reviews, 2015(6), pp.Art-No.
Mills, R., Kisely, S., Alati, R., Strathearn, L. and Najman, J., 2016. Self-reported and agency-
notified child sexual abuse in a population-based birth cohort. Journal of psychiatric
research, 74, pp.87-93.
Moore, S.E., Scott, J.G., Ferrari, A.J., Mills, R., Dunne, M.P., Erskine, H.E., Devries, K.M.,
Degenhardt, L., Vos, T., Whiteford, H.A. and McCarthy, M., 2015. Burden attributable to child
maltreatment in Australia. Child abuse & neglect, 48, pp.208-220.
Nathanson, D., Woolfenden, S. and Zwi, K., 2016. Is there a role for paediatric sexual assault
nurse examiners in the management of child sexual assault in Australia?. Child abuse &
neglect, 59, pp.13-25.
Salveron, M., Bromfield, L., Kirika, C., Simmons, J., Murphy, T. and Turnell, A., 2015.
‘Changing the way we do child protection’: The implementation of Signs of Safety® within the
Western Australia Department for Child Protection and Family Support. Children and youth
services review, 48, pp.126-139.
Stoltenborgh, M., Bakermans‐Kranenburg, M.J., Alink, L.R. and IJzendoorn, M.H., 2015. The
prevalence of child maltreatment across the globe: Review of a series of meta‐analyses. Child
Abuse Review, 24(1), pp.37-50.
Walker, G. and Ensor, J., 2014. Understanding the victims of child abuse. Precedent (Sydney,
NSW), (124), p.46.

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Appendices
Figure 1: 1 year statistics of child abuse
Source: (Walker and Ensor 2014)

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Figure 2: Child abuse and negligence statistics
Source: (Lonne and Parton 2014)