In order to solve the problem of child abuse, it is most important to identify the children being abused and thereby, report the cases to the authorities. In particular, as many children are entrusted with the public welfare facilities due to their pa...
In order to solve the problem of child abuse, it is most important to identify the children being abused and thereby, report the cases to the authorities. In particular, as many children are entrusted with the public welfare facilities due to their parents' divorce or runaway, those personnels working for the facilities are obliged to report child abuses to the authorities. Under such circumstances, this study was aimed at reviewing children's welfare facility personnels' perception of child abuses and counter-measures against the child abuses, and thereby, urge them to be more aware of child abuses to react to the abuses more positively.
The results of this study can be summarized as follows;
First, those personnels working for the children's welfare facilities perceived child abuses as 'very serious'. However, 80% of them perceived that children were abused at home but 87.5% of them perceived that there was no child abuse at the children's welfare facilities. Such findings suggest that they are less aware of the child abuses and that abuses of the children protected by the facilities cannot be easily identified because the facilities are closed.
Second, 40.9% of the personnels working for the children's welfare facilities answered that they did not take any measure against child abuses, which suggests that they have been very passive for child abuses. The primary reasons why they did not take any measure were because 'they could not intervene in family affairs' or because 'the problems were not much serious or there were no clear evidences'. On the other hand, 33.7% of them answered that when they find a case of child abuse, they would report the case to child abuse report center or police station, which suggests that many of them are determined to take appropriate measures when they identify child abuses.
Third, those personnels working for the children's welfare facilities were aware of child abuses enough to proceed to report any child abuse to the authorities, and most of them felt it necessary to prevent and treat child abuses. The reasons why the rate of report about child abuses were 'unclear evidence' and 'lack of information about report procedures'. Hence, in order to promote the child abuse report system, it seems to be necessary to arrange a child protection system, publicize or educate people on the child abuse report system, ensure the secret of reporter's details, etc.
Fourth, it was found that the personnels working for the facilities were most aware of child mal-treatment among various provisions specified in the amended 'Children's Welfare Code', followed by child mal-treatment report procedures, and establishment and operation of children's protection institutions. However, most of them were less aware of the code in overall terms. Only a few of them had participated in education programs or seminars on child abuse, because they had have no such opportunities in most cases. The content of education they desired most was counselling and managing of the children abuses, followed by procedures about child abuse reports and information about relevant authorities, and information service for the children abused, and methods of identifying the children abused in their order.
Based on the above findings, it is conceived that although the personnels working for the children's welfare facilities are much aware of the seriousness of child abuse, they are less informed of the new Children's Welfare Code and child abuse report system. Hence, it seems to be urgent to educate them on the new code and child abuses, while publicizing the code to the public. Such education and publicization will help to encourage them to report the cases of child abuse to the authorities and thereby, increase the rate of reports.