EARLY CHILD DEVELOPMENT AND CARE SPECIAL ISSUE: Violence, Abuse and Neglect in Early Childhood YOUNG CHILDREN AT RISK OF VIOLENCE, ABUSE AND NEGLECT Throughout recorded history babies and young children have suffered acts of violence by parents, carers, and others. Today, levels of child violence, abuse and neglect in early childhood are reported internationally as having reached epidemic proportions, notwithstanding the diversity of descriptors used to describe these phenomena. Internationally, the prevalence of all forms of violence to children has been difficult to establish and this is particularly true in low and middle income countries. However, even in countries with high GDP, the sexual abuse of children and young people by predatory adults may continue undetected for decades as recent events in the UK has illustrated. In the United States – a country with high GDP – approximately 6.0 million referrals each year to Child Protection agencies are made concerning some form of alleged abuse of children. Of these nearly 3 million per year relate to child abuse and neglect reports. This is a source of major concern since physically abused children may die and such deaths are preventable. Moreover;
deaths from child abuse and neglect are significantly underreported and there is no national standard for reporting such deaths; many experts believe that the actual number of child deaths as a result of child abuse and neglect may be significantly more; nearly half of the number of children who die from abuse are under the age of 1, and more than 80% are under the age of 4;
In parts of Africa young children are mutilated and killed for sacrificial / religious reasons; physical beatings that injure and break bones are still common in countries of the western world; pornography and sexual abuse involving young children and babies knows no geographic boundaries and is propagated through the internet. Prevention of violence in all contexts will require substantial shifts in parental and public attitudes to children and the appropriate legislative frameworks to develop and support national systems of preventive legislation tied to relevant criminal law. It is apparent that the last 20 years has seen the emergence of a body of material which interrogates phenomena relating to early childhood violence and neglect in a wider range of global settings, particularly those countries with low GDP. The proposed Special Issue aims to reflect the imbalance of evidence based studies originating in countries with diverse GDPs and vastly different cultural settings. It aims to highlight important features of national and international initiatives which are rooted in findings from systematic research, as reported in the academic literature. Despite the imbalance in the source of literature available – that from countries with low GDP being especially sparse - the academic research evidence from industrialised or post industrialised settings can be of considerable value in informing the design of programmes and interventions in those countries which currently rely on external charitable efforts and NGOs to develop estimates of risk to young children and models of intervention. The continued abuse and neglect of children has been attributed variously to cultural social acceptance, lack of knowledge and understanding of the importance of reporting occurrences, limitations of child welfare systems and underdeveloped intersectoral communication. It is hoped that the Special issue will attract contributions from researchers studying the epidemiology of violence and abuse, practitioners in health care, education
and social work services faced with issues of evidence and definition and also from field workers implementing programmes to address all forms of abuse at family, community and national level. The Special Issue is intended to pose important questions for both policy makers and practitioners, based on the findings of academic research. The Special Issue aims to include, but is not confined to;
Issues of identification, case finding, and follow-up; Case-studies which highlight matters for reporting, service delivery, practitioner training, and follow-up; Dilemmas of definition, terminology and the conceptual frameworks utilised in reference to abuse, neglect and violence to children; Recognition of the extent of the problem and the evidential base for population estimates; Instrumentation for identifying populations and individuals at risk; Child abuse and the law in different countries; Preventive programmes and examples of primary prevention programming shown to be successful in reducing risk to children; Approaches to rehabilitation of victims of abuse; Evaluative studies to determine the efficacy and efficiency of intervention programmes; Action by the international community;
It is intended to include academic review articles, research papers and studies of programme practice where these raise issues for professional development and/or policy formulation.
TIMELINE FOR PAPERS It is proposed that the Special Issue is complete by mid October 2013. Towards this goal the following will apply: Proposals for contributions to the editor Prof Roy Evans by February 15th 2013. These should contain sufficient information to form a judgement about the scope and relevance of the paper to the topic of the Special Issue: 300 – 500 words will be sufficient. Please include the title of the proposed paper and full contact details for the author(s).The proposal may be submitted on-line through http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/gecd or by e-mail attachment to the editor. Contributors encouraged to develop their paper will be informed by February 20 th 2013. There is some leeway here but it is days rather than weeks. Each paper will be no longer than 6,000 words in length to include tables, diagrams and other pictorial material. The date for submission of final / draft papers will be 1st September 2013. This date is set so that suggestions for modification arising from the review process may be communicated to authors in good time for minor changes to be made. The Editor will happy to advise on matters relating to papers at any time. Final papers to be with the Editor by 15th October 2013. Papers received in advance of that date in final form will be published online within 6 weeks of receipt. All papers will be published online in fully citable form prior to print publication. Advice to authors on the preparation of papers is located on the ECDC Instructions for Authors page.
Editor’s contact e-mail to which all enquiries should be sent:
[email protected]
