During Ukraine’s independence, the state has consistently taken measures to shape, implement, and strengthen policies in the field of protecting the rights and freedoms of children. The article provides a criminal-law characterization of domestic violence against children. Emphasizing that human life and health, honor and dignity, inviolability and safety are recognized in Ukraine as the highest social value (part 1 of Article 3 of the Constitution of Ukraine), and the rights and freedoms of individuals and their guarantees determine the content and direction of the state’s activity, and the assertion and protection of the rights and freedoms of individuals are the main duty of the state (part 2 of Article 3 of the Constitution of Ukraine), it can be confidently stated that the object of domestic violence is an absolute value, and encroachments on it have a socially dangerous nature. Ukrainian criminal legislation protects social relations involving children or in their interests, with the aim of providing criminal-law means to create conditions for the normal physical, mental, and moral-spiritual development of the child. The unlawfulness of parents’ actions is mostly associated with their child-rearing and stems from contradictions between the upbringing process in the actions of parents and permissible actions in legal norms. The nature of the family upbringing process requires formulating the issue of using physical force against the will of the child not as permissible but as a necessary measure. It is emphasized that physical punishments are recognized as violence based on the presence of signs of actions against the will of the child and those that degrade dignity based on causing harm to the feeling of one’s own dignity. The resolution of the issue of applying force to a child as a method of upbringing is based on recognizing the child as an absolutely autonomous subject, which contradicts the existing partial legal capacity and parental responsibility.
BACKGROUND: Preventing violence against children begins with current and accurate data on its scope and nature. Such information on violence against children in the United Kingdom (UK) was most recently collected nationally in 2011 and requires updating. A national research organisation in the UK has carried out a feasibility study on whether and how a national prevalence survey on violence in childhood can be conducted. OBJECTIVE: Phase two of this study includes the development of a questionnaire to collect information on childhood experiences of violence from participants aged 11-25. The aim of this paper is to report on the process of creating the questionnaire. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: Data collection was conducted with both UK-based and international child abuse and violence researchers and professionals, adults and children with lived experience of violence in the UK, and children and young people in the target age group in the UK. METHODS: The multistage development and validation process was extensive and thorough. It included a Delphi survey, focus groups, cognitive interviews, and individual consultations. Thematic analysis was conducted to identify feedback by violence type. RESULTS: The final questionnaire includes the following topics: physical abuse, corporal punishment, emotional abuse, neglect, witnessing domestic violence, sexual abuse, peer and sibling violence including bullying, criminal exploitation, community violence, and dating violence as well as factors associated with violence (risk factors, protective factors, outcomes). CONCLUSIONS: Relevance, comprehensibility, and comprehensiveness of items was established, and the questionnaire shows good content validity for use with the target age range in the UK.
Anna McCarthy, Julia I. Rudolph, Deborah Ann Fry et al.
ABSTRACT Although sports participation fosters children's well‐being, it also entails risks of abuse. Research has shown that violence against child athletes is a significant issue, yet data from Central and Eastern Europe, including Poland, remain scarce. This study is the first attempt to assess the prevalence of violence in Polish youth sports through a survey of undergraduate students ( n = 693) who participated in organized sports during childhood. Using the Polish adaptation of the Violence Towards Athletes Questionnaire (VTAQ), the survey examined various forms of abuse perpetrated by peers, coaches, parents and other authority figures. The results revealed that 89% of respondents experienced violence in sport at least once, with peer violence being the most common (83%). Abuse by authority figures affected 72% of respondents. Psychological abuse was the most prevalent form (78%), followed by physical and sexual violence. Alarmingly, only 29% of respondents sought help after experiencing abuse. Victimization was significantly associated with self‐destructive behaviours and suicide attempts. These findings underscore the urgent need for safeguarding measures in Polish youth sports, including bullying prevention, monitoring of authority figures and training for sports personnel. The article also compares Polish results with findings from international studies using the same research tool.
Szymon Wójcik, Natalia Organista, Joanna Kopycka et al.
The article provides a legal analysis of the legislation directly aimed at combating sexual violence against children and the legislation regulating the activities of the police in the field of combating sexual abuse of children. The author notes that the comprehensive protection of the rights and legitimate interests of children, including the protection of children from sexual abuse, is one of the priorities of our state policy, which is implemented through an extensive system of state bodies, including the National Police of Ukraine. In accordance with the tasks, the police is entrusted with a wide range of responsibilities to ensure and protect human rights and legitimate interests, ensure public safety and public order, prevent, detect and suppress criminal and administrative offenses, prevent and combat domestic violence or gender-based violence, etc. The effectiveness and quality of the implementation of the tasks assigned to the police to combat sexual violence against children primarily depends on the regulatory and legal support of such activities.
The current article presents the results of the first comprehensive prevalence study focusing on interpersonal violence against children in the context of sports in Italy. Utilizing a dedicated online questionnaire, our survey encompassed a cohort of over 1.400 adults who had engaged in organized sports activities before reaching the age of 18. The inquiry sought to elicit information regarding their experiences with childhood psychological, physical, and sexual violence within the sporting milieu. The survey outcomes revealed noteworthy statistics, with 30% of all respondents reporting incidents of psychological violence, 18% disclosing experiences of physical violence, 14% reported neglect and 14% indicating encounters with sexual violence during their participation in sports. Some of this data and their discussion has already been included in the Change the Game project's final research report. These findings can be used as a fundamental foundation for monitoring and assessing current and future protective measures in the context of sports in Italy.
Stefano Ferracuti, Benedetta Barchielli, Mike Hartill et al.
Background: The current short article is about intervention possibilities of violence against children in interdisciplinar teamwork using simulation and e-learning methods. Based on cooperation of Tallinn Health Care College and Security Science Academy, Estonia. All forms of violence are deplorable, especially violence against children. In Estonia the legal framework of intervention for police and the healthcare has been developed, but the cooperation between the institutions is still weak, and therefore a victims support is too low and not effective Purpose: To describe how students of two higher education institution (Tallinn Health Care College & Academy of Security Sciences) learn to intervene possibilities of violence against children in interdisciplinar teamwork using simulation and e-learning methods. The emphasis is on common learning of healthcare students and police students. Method: Descriptive method. Creation of learning subject using simulation and e-learning methods. Conclusion: Students learned better to understand the cooperation between the police work and healthcare. The knowledges and skills they acquired will allow them to offer for victims and family members the effective complete solutions. Students were satisfied with the subject and made some proposals to improvement.
Emotional violence is believed to be the most common form of violence against children, both internationally and in Finland. It often has multiple negative, long-lasting effects on the child. Nonetheless, professionals working with children do not always recognise emotional violence in their work. This paper examines how emotional violence perpetrated by parents against their children emerges in Finnish child welfare records and how this violence is reflected in care order decisions. The research data consisted of the child welfare records and care orders for 30 children, in total 742 pages. The data was analysed using abductive content analysis moving between the theory and data. In total, there were three rounds of analysis, each containing several data-reading rounds. The study findings demonstrated the presence, diversity, and cumulative nature of emotional violence. Emotional violence was recognisable in approximately half the cases in the data set. It included both active abuse and neglect, and individual children often experienced it in multiple forms. Most children in the data set displayed behaviour or symptoms that can be linked with the effects of emotional violence. As time went by, the violence gradually dissolved in the child welfare records. Based on our study results, we conclude that child welfare professionals should pay more attention to the risk factors of emotional abuse, to children's participation, and to a child's behaviour and/or symptoms that may indicate emotional violence and detrimental living circumstances. • Emotional violence against children comes to the attention of child welfare services most often through child welfare notifications. • The emotional violence described in the notifications is clear, well-articulated and often cumulative. • Gradually the violence dissolves in the child welfare records, and care orders are often justified by the child's own behaviour or symptoms. • Professionals, parents and children need more information on emotional violence and its effects, and tools for professionals are also necessary to detect emotional violence and provide effective support for families.
This article is dedicated to find out the impact of social changes and their crisis manifestations on the dynamics of family relations, which is manifested in situations of child-parent interaction in the learning process, as well as to analyze the impact of social changes on manifestations of violence against children. A comparative analysis of joint learning situations in junior grades during the COVID-19 pandemic and under martial law was carried out. The article analyzes the dynamics of changes in parents’ assessment of the learning process and results, the behavior of parents and children in the learning situation. An important task of the research is to identify the dynamics of changes in the risks of violence and the level of violence against children by parents in the joint learning situation. These social changes affect family dynamics and manifestations of parental violence against children.
Early detection of and response to the domestic violencenagainst children, provision of security and necessary assistance, remain major challenges for children’s rights protection systems in various countries, including Ukraine. The lack of a systematic interagency collaboration between the institutions responsible for combating domestic violence against children is the most obvious problem in this regard. The article presents the results of data analysis of four focus groups with the participation of 45 employees of different professional institutions, which reflects the main problems and obstacles that hinder effective interagency collaboration. Systematization and generalization of data demonstrate 6 general types of problems within the interagency collaboration: competence of employees; communication and interaction between departments; normative regulation; prevention; level of trust
The article substantiates the necessity of unified standards for interdisciplinary collaboration among law enforcement officers, forensic experts, medical professionals, and psychologists in documenting violence against children. Specific pathways for improving such collaboration through the implementation of the "Green Room" methodology are proposed. Objective. To substantiate the necessity of unified standards for interdisciplinary collaboration among law enforcement officers, forensic experts, medical professionals, and psychologists in documenting violence against children using the "Green Room" methodology. Materials. The research materials comprised official data from the Cyber Police Department of the National Police of Ukraine, the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, the Juvenile Police of Ukraine, the National Social Service of Ukraine, alongside 24 archival expert conclusions from the State Institution "Institute of Forensic Psychiatry and Forensic Medicine of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine." Standard methods of variational statistics were employed. Results. The necessity of unified standards for interdisciplinary collaboration among law enforcement officers, forensic experts, medical professionals, and psychologists in documenting violence against children has been substantiated, prompting the proposal of the following measures: 1) mandatory implementation of the "Green Room" methodology both within the law enforcement system and across multidisciplinary teams—comprising law enforcement officers, a forensic medical expert, a psychologist, and medical specialists (e.g., pediatric gynecologists, proctologists, and others, depending on the injury type)—when documenting violence against children and adolescents; 2) mandatory reporting by medical professionals to law enforcement authorities regarding identified cases of violence against children; 3) inclusion of a forensic medical expert in the multidisciplinary team operating within the "Green Room." Conclusions. The implementation of the "Green Room" methodology in investigating violence against children and adolescents, in accordance with European standards, can enhance the effectiveness and quality of interaction among law enforcement agencies, social services, medical institutions, forensic experts, and other relevant bodies. The involvement of forensic medical experts is crucial for improving the timeliness and quality of recording and documenting cases of violence against minors in a "child-friendly room." Establishment of a child-friendly space based at the Center for Forensic Examinations of the State Institution "Institute of Forensic Psychiatry and Forensic Medicine of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine" represents a promising advancement. Through the engagement of in-house forensic medical experts, psychologists, psychiatrists, law enforcement officers, alongside specialized medical practitioners when necessary, interviews and examinations can be conducted can be conducted in a safe environment tailored to the child's needs. It is advisable to develop and adhere to unified standards of interagency cooperation among law enforcement officers, medical professionals/forensic experts, and psychologists during investigative actions with minors in the "Green Room" setting.
O. P. Babkina, Volodymyr Dem’ianovych Mishalov, Marta Garazdiuk
