Ms Macklin said more than 55,000 substantiated cases of child abuse and neglect were recorded last year. "We have to confront the reality that these numbers tell us that we are letting down far, far too many children in this country," she said.
Professor Fiona Stanley, a child welfare specialist and chairwoman of the research alliance that commissioned the report, described the level of abuse and neglect in Australia as an "epidemic".
The latest comparable statistic I have for New Zealand is from 2006. (Later statistics are available about the number of reports and those requiring further action but that is not the same as 'substantiated'.)
If we crudely multiplied 15,248 by a factor of 5 we would get 76,240. Putting aside that I have compared different time periods and there may be slight demographic differences, it is clear that our rate of substantiated child abuse is significantly higher.
I wonder what superlative Paula Bennett would use to describe our figures?
3 comments:
I would like to know what actually constitutes each category of child abuse in the figures you published Lindsay. Is yelling at your kid emotional child abuse if someone reports it?
It would have been under Nanny state Labour, that's for sure.
Brian, In the 2007/08 financial year there were 89,461 'notifications' but only 40,739 required further action. I am guessing less than half were substantiated so, no, I don't think just "yelling at your kid" would qualify. Also it appears that the large majority of these notifications come from the police and health workers.
Post a Comment