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Charles Pragnell -
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Numbers of reports of child abuse have increased dramatically
ByCharles Pragnell June 6, 2007
Mandatory reporting of allegations of child abuse has been introduced in Britain, America, and Australia over the last decade but already, research is showing that it is having extremely harmful effects on children and families in direct contradiction of its intended purpose. The State government in Minnesota [U.S.A.] has already repealed the legislation requiring mandatory reporting of child abuse in little over a year after first enacting that legislation.
What research is showing is that many hundreds of thousands of children and their families are being drawn into the Child Protection system for little or no reason, subjecting them to the fear-invoking processes of a child protection investigation and the accompanying stigma in their neighbourhood leading to their isolation. Many families report that such needless investigations have devastated and destroyed their lives and other research has shown that children suffer serious and long-lasting emotional harm from such investigations.
Although the numbers of reports of child abuse have increased dramatically since the introduction of mandatory reporting, more than doubling in some of these countries, only an average of approximately 20 per cent of these reports are substantiated, even to the low-level standard of evidential proof of a social work investigation. In Australia for example, “of the quarter of a million notifications (reports) Australia-wide in 2006, only 21% were substantiated…..”. In effect four in five reports of child abuse are false accusations for mistaken, mischievous, malicious, or monetary reasons.
One of the particular areas of social problems to be brought into the child protection arena has been the mandatory requirement of police to report any incident of domestic violence as a concern of child abuse but one of the unintended consequences of this has been that many women are no longer reporting incidents of domestic violence because they feared the intrusion of child protection workers which inevitably made a bad situation even worse, in some instances leading to the removal of the children although the mother may have caused them no harm, merely that she did not prevent them witnessing her being beaten. So if a woman is being beaten senseless by a husband or partner she is required to ask the assailant to stop the assault for a moment while she removes the children from the scene. Many women are therefore enduring extreme violence in silence and children are often witnessing such violence or are similarly exposed, because of a system which should be protecting them. In effect, a system which is leading to over-reporting of low risk cases and massive numbers of false allegations, is also responsible for the non-reporting of many high risk cases.
Research studies are also finding that mandatory reporting is leading to a massive increase of cases of children in need of statutory services and requiring provision of those services. In Minnesota the increased expenditure for those services was reasonably estimated at $30 million for expanded services for those children and this was the principal reason for repealing the legislation, to avoid such expenditure. Similar situations have been reported in Britain and Australia.
Of all the statutory services, the child protection system must have the record of self-created calamities for all time, but the harmful effects to children and families of the requirements of mandatory reporting must surpass all others in both its extent and degree of chaos and pain and suffering it is inflicting on children.
It is a grossly unethical practice to be causing such harm, it is inefficient, and it is ineffective. Far from making our children safer and protected, it is inflicting even greater harm on them and is destroying families.
ByCharles Pragnell
June 6, 2007
Diploma in Social Work and Letter of Recognition in Child Care
Expert Witness – Child Protection and Social Care Consultant and Child/Family Advocate..
Please read...
Family Law and the Dire consequences for Children Petition answered with Spin and Sophism The Silence of the Media Lambs! Doctors in a Dilemma Are you an `Appropriate’ person? Childrens Plan State Terrorism The Seriously Unhealthy State of Paediatrics RAD – the Return of a Nightmare Persecution of Children and Families Why I am Petitioning the Prime Minister Vaccines and Child Abuse Accusations Why did Sally Clark Suffer and Die? Perverse Reversal of Child Custody Child Protection in Kangaroo Courts Fabricated and induced illness in Children A History of Man’s Inhumanity A System out of Control Forced Adoption
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