Johannesburg – A study published by The University of Cape Town Children’s Institute indicates children are less likely to come forward about abuse. This reluctance is brought on by several things and can be detrimental to a child.
According to a study, one of the reasons children don’t come forward is a fear of victimisation. Dr Shaheda Omar, from the Teddy Bear Clinic, confirmed that the study’s findings concur with what they have found with children at their clinic.
The reasons children are scared to come forward
The fear of being victimised is one of the reasons that children don’t come forward. Omar has found that children are typically coerced to keep quiet amongst peers and convinced that their parents won’t believe them.
“Eighty to ninety percent of the cases is somebody that’s usually known to the child or that has a relationship or there’s access and availability to the child. Another reason is that children are threatened, intimidated, coerced into not disclosing. Another reason one needs to factor in is that the child will often be intimidated and told that you will not be believed. That’s children’s greatest fear. Their relatives and immediate caretakers will not believe what they have to share.”
Omar has also noticed a lack of care when it comes to children talking to law enforcement. Oftentimes they are made to feel ashamed or are humiliated further. This response from law enforcement often makes a child feel worse about what happened.
“There’s also a lack of adequate, appropriate, and timeous responses by law enforcement agencies. The criminal justice system, health care facilities. The way they respond to victims they are often subjected to further humiliation and further trauma. There’s secondary victimisation where they often feel guilty and ashamed and feel that they are responsible for what has happened. These are some of the findings that the Children’s Institute have come forward with but also in our practice and responses and engagement with children.”
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The impact abuse has on a child
Every child is different and will respond differently to being abused. Omar has found that typically a child will start to become reclusive with noticeable behavioural changes.
“If we look at behavioural indicators, a child’s personality may suddenly change from somebody that enjoyed activities, laughing, playing [and] suddenly becomes withdrawn. Isolates his or herself. Is no longer concentrating at school. Lack of interest in interesting activities that they played in before or even just unable to perform at school.”
The physical impact that abuse has on an older child
These signs are typically found in younger children. However, an older child will typically lash out and may even physically abuse themselves, said Omar.
“Your older child will certainly suddenly start biting their nails, pulling their hair, pinching themselves and with adolescence we also see self-mutilation. The self-mutilation will not be visible to the naked eye because they choose parts of the body that cannot be seen. The inner thighs or the chest or the inner arms.”
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Behavioural changes that occur in a child
A child who is being abused may want to regain that sense of power and control. They may start to become aggressive or start bullying others. Their behavioural responses will change dramatically, and they may become overly compliant or stop following instructions entirely, said Omar.
“They may follow or fail to follow instructions and become non-compliant. Other children will become overly compliant to seek approval and affection. We also see low self-esteem. The self-esteem gets eroded, and they do not believe in themselves. They blame themselves saying that they are dirty, they are ugly, and they are not worthy of love.”
What can be done to solve the problem and create a safe space for children
The only way to help these children and reduce the cases of child abuse is to get all stakeholders on board to fight for one goal. To educate law enforcement and medical professionals on how to treat victims in a way they don’t feel victimised, said Omar.
“The important thing to appreciate and recognise is that one requires collective effort in this multi-level engagement. Bringing on all stakeholders … Every platform needs to be on some sense of synergy where everybody is striving towards a common goal. If we do not work collectively, we’re not going to see a shift or we’re not going to see any impact on the reduction of the cycle of violence. Right now, what we see is an intersectionality of violence against women and violence against children. Where there’s domestic violence or intimate partner violence, we see that children are at high risk of being violated.”
A collective effort is needed to break the cycle of violence. Law enforcement needs to be trained on how to handle these matters and parents need to be ready to listen to their children. By seeking help early, a child can get the closure they need and not feel trapped or immobilised.
