Ethical Concerns and Issues in Child Protection and Juvenile Justice

This essay delves into the ethical considerations within child protection and juvenile justice, focusing on domestic violence and sex abuse. It emphasizes the importance of obtaining consent, maintaining confidentiality, and addressing potential manipulation of concepts by children. The essay highlig...Read More

Working with children can be demanding and rewarding at the same time. Many health
practicioners avoid working with children due to potential ethical and legal concerns. The aim of
this essay is to highlight a few ethical concerns that are experienced as a practitioner in the field
of child protection and juvenile justice. The two current social issues and ongoing debates in the
field of child protection and juvenile justice is domestic violence and sex abuse (Malchiodi
2014).
One of the major ethical considerations is consent. Working with children requires a
formal consent before engaging with them in the research. The practitioners may seek parental
consent where the child has experienced traumas related to abuse and violence. The practitioner
must consider children’s disapproval through non-verbal cues, facial expression or body
language. The children must be given sufficient time with the practitioner so that they can decide
if they wish to proceed with the practitioner (Roberts 2017).
Another ethical concern is confidentiality. Confidentiality means a promise to keep the
identities of participants private. The practitioner must ensure that the details and identities of the
children experiencing sex abuse or domestic violence is kept private. However, for the safety and
well-being of the child, it may be mandatory to report such abuse is necessary to the parents or
child protection services (Ferguson 2016).
An important ethical concern that must be taken care of is concept manipulation.
Children are limited to their own experiences and may have the ability to manipulate concepts.
The practitioner must give sufficient time to the children experiencing sex abuse and domestic
violence so that they understand the solutions to overcome the issue. The practitioner must
reason with the children in an effective manner (Glover and Justis 2015).

Distress and disclosure forms another ethical concern as children may become stressed
while talking about their sad and difficult experiences. The practitioners must ensure that they do
not directly ask about their bad experiences to increase the comfort level. The practitioner must
ensure that the children feel safe with the interviewer and that they can trust them. Creative and
play based methods may be used for addressing the concern of children that shall help in child
protection and juvenile justice (Glover and Justis 2015).
There is always a risk element related with the child safety after they go through the
trauma. The children who have experienced domestic violence with their parents may experience
further violence in case of disclosure. Therefore, the practitioner must ensure that he conducts a
details risk assessment and safety planning about the family for ensuring child protection and
juvenile justice (Ferguson 2016).
The ethical issues associated with domestic violence and sex abuse in children has been
discussed. The practitioners are required to address the above ethical concerns as these methods
are safe for children. Procedures like consent, safety and risk assessment, disclosure and
confidentiality can support safe and ethical research with children.

References
Ferguson, H., 2016. What social workers do in performing child protection work: evidence from
research into face‐to‐face practice. Child & Family Social Work, 21(3), pp.283-294.
Glover, J.J. and Justis, L.M., 2015. Ethics and the identification and response to child abuse and
neglect. In Mandatory Reporting Laws and the Identification of Severe Child Abuse and Neglect
(pp. 157-171). Springer, Dordrecht.
Malchiodi, C., 2014. Breaking the silence: Art therapy with children from violent homes.
Routledge.
Roberts, H., 2017. Listening to children: And hearing them. In Research with children (pp. 154-
171). Routledge.