Peer-reviewed article
Violence Against Children
Jace Pillay ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-sonnet-5-5This literature review looks at violence against children using a social-ecological perspective. It covers global, regional and South African research on the risks and causes of violence and on factors that protect children. The author organises these factors into four levels: individual, relationships, community and society. The review reports that many risks and causes are similar across countries, though violence is more common in African contexts.
Key points
- Children exposed to violence in families, communities and schools in early years are likely to continue the cycle of violence in youth and adulthood if nothing is done to break it.
- The social-ecological perspective examines violence at four levels: individual, relationships, community and society.
- All risk and causal factors found in the literature can be placed in one or more of these four levels.
- Many risks and causes of violence against children are common across countries, though violence is more prevalent in African contexts.
- The preventive measures discussed are likely to have global value.
Limitations
The abstract describes a literature review, so it gives no new data, prevalence figures or tested results for specific prevention programmes. The claim that prevention measures have global value is a suggestion, not something shown by evidence in the abstract.
Abstract
Violence against children (VAC) is a global phenomenon that needs deliberate attention. Children exposed to violence in their families, communities, and schools in their early years are likely to maintain this cycle of violence in their youth and adult lives if no efforts are made to break this cycle. Taking this into consideration the author adopts a social-ecological theoretical perspective in exploring global, regional, and South African literature on the risks and causes of VAC as well as the protective factors that can prevent VAC. Embedding VAC within a social-ecological perspective warrants the need to explore it at four crucial levels, namely individual, relationships, community, and society. The literature review embodies the relevance of these four levels since all risk and causal factors of VAC are easily categorised in one or more of these levels. As such, the author provides a social-ecological perspective comprising all four levels that holistically address the prevention of VAC. The literature review indicated that many of the risks and causes of VAC are a common trend across countries even though it is more prevalent within African contexts. This suggests that the preventive measures discussed are likely to have global value.