The problematization of child sexual abuse in policy and law: The Indonesian example.

BACKGROUND: Indonesia has a strong national child protection policy. Yet significant limitations exist in laws, policy implementation, and coordination of services, especially regarding child sexual abuse. This is related to a lack of knowledge about child sexual abuse in Indonesia and associated taboos that constrain policy development. OBJECTIVE: To understand how child sexual abuse problems have been represented in national child protection policy. METHOD: 'What's the problem represented to be' (Bacchi, 2009) is an analytic approach that uses discourse analysis. This method was employed to examine how child sexual abuse problems in Indonesia are constructed and represented in six government documents (two laws and four national policies). RESULTS: Three overarching problem representations of child sexual abuse were identified: (1) children are a vulnerable, at risk, and disempowered group; (2) service access is limited and services are not coordinated; and (3) there is a lack of agreement and clarity across laws and policy in child protection. For example, inconsistencies of policy and laws regarding the minimum age for marriage can result in gender discrimination and limit a child's access to justice, protection, and services. CONCLUSION: Policy discourses play a crucial role in the construction and representation of child sexual abuse problems in Indonesia. Current inconsistencies constrain the implementation of effective intervention and prevention programs. Further work on policy harmony is needed as well as improving community understanding of child sexual abuse.

Child sexual abuse in Indonesia: A systematic review of literature, law and policy.

BACKGROUND: Like many middle-income countries, knowledge about child sexual abuse (CSA) is limited in Indonesia. The national government has stated a commitment to protect children from the worst forms of abuse, yet the sensitivity of CSA along with the complexity of culture and law, present substantial challenges. OBJECTIVE: This article reviews current knowledge about CSA in Indonesia, in the context of existing laws and policies that influence CSA prevention and intervention. METHOD: A systematic review of this research was conducted in the following manner: a review of scholarly literature and grey literature in English (19 papers) and in Bahasa Indonesian (11 papers), and a review of CSA-related Indonesian laws (4 documents) and policies (5 documents). RESULTS: This review finds that knowledge about CSA in Indonesia is still limited. The taboos on discussing sexual matters were identified as factors that impede reporting of CSA. Poverty also leads to increasing children's risk of sexual abuse. There was less attention to CSA occurring within family contexts and focus was more upon its occurrence outside of the family. The study identified that contradictory definitions of children within the law add to children's vulnerability to CSA; this is especially the case for girls. Current child protection strategies in prevention and intervention lack specific focus on CSA. CONCLUSION: Further research is needed to enable the development of evidence-based approaches to better harmonize the development of law and policy with contemporary knowledge about CSA.

Factors associated with child protection recurrence in Australia.

The aim of the current research was to advance understanding of child protection in Australia by examining the factors associated with recurrence of child protection notifications to the formal child protection system. Extant research has been primarily undertaken in the USA and it is important to understand whether similar factors associated with recurrence actually hold in the Australian context. Administrative data were obtained for a sample of 9608 children first subject to a screened-in report in 2011-12. Children were followed for 12 months. Cox Proportional Hazard models were used to measure associations between 26 independent variables and four types of recurrence: subsequent reports, subsequent investigations, subsequent substantiations, and subsequent intervention. Factors associated with recurrence in Australia were broadly similar to those identified in other jurisdictions, including reports and substantiation for neglect, younger age, prior child protection involvement in the household, and parental characteristics including drug use, mental health problems, and history of maltreatment as a child. As in previous studies, post-investigative service provision was positively associated with recurrence. In prior US research, race did not predict recurrence. However, in the present study, Indigenous Australian children were significantly more likely to be subject to all types of recurrence measured. Future research on recurrence should aim to disentangle the complex relationships between child protection recurrence, child maltreatment, and service delivery. Recurrence is not a good proxy indicator of child safety. The findings have implications for the equity of recurrence-based risk assessment tools as they are applied to indigenous populations.

A systematic scoping review of parental satisfaction with child protection services.

Obtaining parent views on child protection services is an essential part of evaluating service quality and effectiveness. It also promotes the principles of listening to parents and involving them in decision-making. The present review analysed published research that investigated parental perspectives on the child protection services they received. It identified 52 studies published between 2000 and 2016 on parent satisfaction. Most used qualitative methods, and eight standardised survey instruments were used in quantitative studies. Factors related to parent satisfaction or dissatisfaction related to the attitudes and skills of workers, the interventions provided, and aspects of the child protection system. The body of research provides guidance for policymakers and practitioners about strategies to measure and improve client satisfaction.

The complexity of child protection recurrence: The case for a systems approach.

OBJECTIVE: Research on child protection recurrence has found consistent child, family, and case characteristics associated with repeated involvement with the child protection system. Despite the considerable body of empirical research, knowledge about why recurrence occurs, and what can be done to reduce it, is limited. METHOD: This paper reviews the empirical literature and analyses the approaches of prior recurrence research. Four related conceptual challenges are identified: (1) a tendency to conflate child protection recurrence with repeated child maltreatment; (2) uncertainty about how best to operationalize and measure child protection recurrence in research; (3) inconsistency between prevailing explanations for the most frequently observed patterns of recurrence; and (4) difficulty in developing coherent strategies to address child protection recurrence based on research. RESULTS: Addressing these challenges requires a greater consideration of the effects of decision-making in the child protection system on recurrence. This paper proposes a methodology based in systems theory and drawing on existing administrative data to examine the characteristics of the child protection system that may also produce recurrence.

Working with youth in-care: implications for vocational rehabilitation practice.

PURPOSE: Youth in-care face a range of barriers that hinder their career development, not least of which is the high prevalence of mental health, emotional and behavioural problems among this population and lack of access to vocational rehabilitation services. The aim of this article is to provide an overview of the factors that impede the school-to-work transition of youth in-care from their perspective and that of the key stakeholders in their lives. METHOD: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 65 youth in-care, 27 carers, 14 caseworkers and 21 guidance officers in Queensland, Australia. RESULTS: There is a range of social, psychological and environmental factors that impact the career development of youth in-care, some of which are unique to this population. Factors include the effect of placement stability, negative in-care experiences, negative perceptions about them, limited access to caseworkers, lack of resources, poor educational planning and lack of vocational guidance and career exploration. CONCLUSIONS: These findings have a number of implications for practice, including the need for rehabilitation counsellors to understand and address the multiple barriers facing youth in-care, to provide vocational rehabilitation services throughout the school-to-work transition period and to coordinate support from carers, caseworkers and guidance officers.

Shaping child welfare policy via performance measurement.

Performance measurement is generally depicted as a neutral, technical exercise providing objective data for decision-making. But it also has a normative role in framing policy problems and solutions. This article explores the role of indicators in shaping child welfare, comparing stated policy with performance indicator regimes in England. It shows how indicators construct child welfare narrowly as investigation and placement, contradicting the more comprehensive family support approaches of policy and legislation.