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Interactions of shame: violence against children in residential care
Marie Demant, Friederike Lorenz ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-sonnet-5-5This book chapter looks at the role of shame in violence against children in residential care. It draws on two empirical projects: survivor reports given at hearings of the German Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, and research on systematic violence by a team of professionals in a care home for children with disabilities. Both sources show that young people experience shame and humiliation as part of the institutional setting. The chapter says shame can make it harder for young people to be heard, seek help and disclose violence.
Key points
- Young people in residential care experience shame and humiliation as part of the institutional setting.
- Practices of humiliation form part of the violence itself.
- Shame has a negative impact on children and adolescents who are dependent, seeking help or disclosing.
- Shame can limit the chances of young people to be heard and to get help.
- The chapter draws on survivor reports from the German Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse and on research into a care home for children with disabilities.
Limitations
Only a short abstract is available, so the methods, sample sizes and detailed findings are not described. The work concerns Germany and may not apply to other settings, and it does not evaluate an intervention.
Abstract
Within their chapter Marie Demant and Friederike Lorenz discuss the role of shame in the context of violence against children in residential care. Their work is based on two empirical projects and includes reports of survivors of sexual violence, who reported their experiences in hearings conducted by the German ‘Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse’, which started its work in 2016. It furthermore includes empirical material from a research project on systematic violence by a team of professionals in a residential care home for children with disabilities. Both perspectives indicate how young people experience shame and humiliation as part of the institutional setting. Furthermore, it shows the negative impact these practices have on children and adolescents in situations of dependency, seeking help, and disclosure. It points out practices of humiliation as a part of the violence and shows to which extent shame can affect the possibilities for young people in these situations to be heard and to get help.