Monday, September 30, 2013

Children's Commissioner gets it wrong

An article from Stuff at the weekend described research into the increase in babies dying from head injuries.
The number of babies dying from deliberately inflicted head injuries increased almost four-fold since 1991, with damage seen akin to that suffered in car accidents, a new study says. In the first study of its kind in New Zealand, researchers examined data from Auckland's Starship Hospital and the Auckland city forensic pathology department, examined clinical records, autopsies, and police reports from 1991 to 2010.
At the end the Children's Commissioner comments.
Wills said over the 20 years studied, several factors could have led to the dramatic increase in inflicted injuries, including a sharp increase in teenage pregnancies, sole parenthood, and most likely an increase in domestic violence.
There was no sharp increase in teenage pregnancy or sole parenthood over 1991 to 2010


I'm not denying that teenage births and sole parenting are factors in child abuse, but it's the dysfunctional welfare lifestyle that often accompanies these circumstances that's the problem. There were more teen pregnancies and births before the DPB but back then society dealt with them in a way that improved the outlook for the babies. Not the opposite. The genie got out of the bottle in the seventies. The last twenty years have seen something of a stabilisation in numbers but intergenerational dependency has continued to increase.

4 comments:

Brendan McNeill said...

Hi Lindsay

Once again its great to see you with the facts at your fingertips. It would be reasonable to expect the Families Commissioner to be equally well informed, especially as he is paid to be.

As an anecdotal reflection, I wonder if we are becoming a more violent society, or at least one where in some sectors, violence is increasingly viewed as a legitmate expression.

Belinda Milnes, Families Cmmissioner said...

I would hope the Families Cmmissioner would be!

Brendan McNeill said...

Hi Belinda

I do apologize! I meant to say the Children's commissioner.

Nice to know that you are reading Lindsay's blog however. :-)

Kind regards
Brendan

Anonymous said...

I think we need to focus more on what we know to be true. Parents that kill their babies in NZ have a high chance of getting away with murder. What needs to change is the way these families are approached. Many of the families, immediate and extended who are involved have made a career out of falsifying documents, benefit fraud, lying to government agencies, hiding behind their cultural values and ripping off the tax payer so have many skills that allow them to negotiate a police interview without breaking into a sweat. Until these families feel they need to tell the truth they wont.