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Prevention of Violence against Children: Challenges and Opportunities
Debotosh Sinha ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-sonnet-5-5This is the introduction to an edited book of papers by academics, practitioners and researchers on preventing violence against children. It describes violence as a multi-dimensional problem that includes physical and mental harm, abuse, neglect, maltreatment and sexual abuse. It notes that some groups of children are more vulnerable, such as children with disabilities, children in institutional care, children living in extreme poverty and children on the move. It argues that prevention should look beyond the individual victim and perpetrator to the wider social, economic, normative and institutional settings where children live.
Key points
- Violence against children includes physical and mental torture, injury, abuse, neglect, maltreatment and sexual abuse.
- Children experience certain forms of violence at various stages of life.
- Vulnerability is higher for children with disabilities, in institutional care, deprived of liberty, in extreme poverty, unaccompanied or separated, or on the move.
- Children living with HIV, facing discrimination for sexual orientation or gender identity, or belonging to marginalised groups are also more vulnerable.
- There is broad consensus that prevention should focus on wider social, economic, normative and institutional environments, not only on individual characteristics.
Limitations
Only the introductory abstract is available, so the individual papers, their methods, data and any intervention results are not described. No specific country or setting is identified.
Abstract
This book is a compilation of papers authored by academicians, practitioners, researchers who are the witnesses to increasing challenges in mitigating violence against children. Children are considered to be the backbone of human development. Violence against children is a multi-dimensional phenomenon which consists of all forms of physical, mental torture, injury, abuse, neglect, maltreatment and sexual abuse perpetrated on them. It is very evident that children experience certain forms of violence at their various stages of life. Global evidence suggests that girls and boys in certain contexts are more vulnerable to violence (UNICEF, 2017). For instance, vulnerability may be heightened for children living with disabilities, in institutional care and deprived of liberty; those living in extreme poverty, unaccompanied or separated from family; children on the move (migrants, refugees, asylum seekers and internally displaced children); and children living with HIV, facing discrimination for their sexual orientation or gender identity, belonging to marginalized social or ethnic groups, and those living with other social and economic disadvantages. While individual factors that increase the risk of violence are clearly important, there is broad consensus in the field that violence prevention and response must not focus too narrowly on individual characteristics of victims and perpetrators rather the focus should be enlarged to give more attention to broader social, economic, normative and institutional environments in which children and adolescents live.