(Shutterstock, n.d.-b)
Child abuse cases in Singapore have been on the rise. In 2019, the Ministry of Social and Family Development investigated 1,088 child abuse cases, the second-highest number of cases in the last ten years (Goh, 2020). Laws relating to families, children, and youths, such as the Personal Protection Order (PPO), plays a role in protecting children from family violence. However, PPO does not sufficiently address the social issue of child abuse as it does not include the sexual aspect in its definition of ‘family violence’. Through reported case studies and scenarios, this blog will discuss:
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How PPO is a problem-solving approach in addressing the social issue of child abuse
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The gap in PPO for not protecting children from sexual violence
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The workable solutions in preventing child sexual abuse
Child abuse takes many different forms
Physical
Emotional
Sexual
Neglect
(Babu, R., n.d.; eSchooltoday, n.d.; Kids Helpline, n.d.; The Guardian, n.d.)
It can be physical, emotional, sexual, or neglect. Physical abuse occurs when bodily injury is purposely inflicted upon the child, emotional abuse is injuring a child’s emotional well-being, sexual abuse is conducting any sexual activity with a child, and neglect is the failure to provide adequate care and affection (Mayo Clinic, 2018).
Child abuse is a major social issue
Physical health
problems
Poor mental and emotional health
Behavioural problems
Child abuse results in long-lasting negative consequences (Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2019). Childhood maltreatment is linked to a higher risk of long-term physical health problems such as diabetes, malnutrition, and brain damage (Bick & Nelson, 2016; Monnat & Chandler, 2015; Widom et al., 2012). Child abuse is associated with failure in brain forming, functioning, and growing in certain regions, such as reduced volume in overall brain size. (Bick & Nelson, 2016). It can also lead to psychological consequences such as poor mental and emotional health. Studies have found that adults with a history of adverse childhood experiences are more likely to attempt suicide than those who did not (Fuller-Thomson et al., 2016). Children who experienced abuse are also found to develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). They persistently re-experience the traumatic events related to the abuse, causing them to feel fear, horror, anger, guilt, shame, and experience other mood changes (Sege et al., 2017). Lastly, victims of child abuse often exhibit behavioural problems after the maltreatment ends. Behavioural issues include developing delinquent behaviours, substance use disorders, and future perpetration of maltreatment (Herrenkohl et al., 2017; LeTendre, 2017; Yang et al., 2018).
Personal Protection Order (PPO)
(Florida Law Advisors, n.d.)
The detrimental consequences of child abuse highlight the importance of having laws relating to family, children, and youth to adopt a problem-solving approach to address such social issue. Currently, the Personal Protection Order (PPO) under section 65 of the Women’s Charter can protect a child from physical abuse by restraining a family member, the abuser, from using family violence (Family Justice Courts, 2020).
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The court can also issue a domestic exclusion order (DEO) to exclude the abuser from all or part of the shared residence that both parties are staying if it deems necessary to ensure the child’s safety (Family Justice Courts, 2020).
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(Mitchell & Whale, n.d.)
The court can also refer both the abuser and child to a mandatory counselling programme at a family support agency (Family Justice Courts, 2020). The programme keeps families safe by teaching family members respectful ways to resolve conflicts and provide them with support and skills to ensure everyone’s safety (Ministry of Social and Family Development, n.d.).
(The Well International, n.d.)
(American Bar Association, n.d.)
The PPO is enforced with a criminal penalty. If the abuser breaches the PPO, he can be fined up to $2000, jailed for up to 6 months, or both (Family Justice Courts, 2020). Repeated offenders will have a harsher penalty.
PPO is a problem-solving approach
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Most child abuse victims are abused by someone they know, who are usually a parent, step-parent, or relative (Thong, 2020). This means that child abuse often occurs at home, where children are supposed to feel safe (Dedel, 2010). Child abuse occurring in a private space is an underlying problem as abusers can always abuse a child without being found out easily. Children are also vulnerable to the abuse as they live together with the abuser. This makes it difficult for the child to seek help, resulting in the abuse to happen continuously. The PPO addresses this problem as it prevents the abuser from laying his hands on the child even if they reside in the same apartment. If the court issues a DEO alongside the PPO, the abuser will also be prevented from being in the same room or flat as the child, providing the child with a safe space to stay.
(Fizkes, n.d.)
Furthermore, family members often abuse a child due to underlying problems such as a lack of parenting skills to cope with the pressures and struggles of raising a child, personal mental health conditions, or poor parent-child relationships (Holland, 2018). The PPO helps address this problem as the court can send both the child and abuser to the counselling programme where social science professionals are available to help support their individual needs, improve the family relations, and prevent further physical abuse. Thus, the PPO is a problem-solving approach in ensuring the safety of a victim of physical child abuse as it addressess the underlying causes of child abuse mentioned above.
Efficacy of PPO
Casestudy example:
A mum was granted a PPO against her husband after he abused her and laid his hands on her children (Tan, 2017). The Family Justice Courts also sent her children to PAVE, where professionally trained social workers provided counselling and emotional support for them (Tan, 2017). The counselling session includes trauma-focused counselling that helped them cope with post-traumatic stress symptoms from their physical abuse experiences (PAVE, n.d.-b). With the PPO, the abuser was restrained from using any family violence, preventing subsequent physical abuse on these children. The PPO has also provided a counselling session to help these children cope with their negative experiences.
(PAVE, n.d.-a)
Gap in PPO
However, while the PPO is a practical problem-solving approach in preventing physical child abuse, it does not sufficiently address all child abuse issues such as sexual abuse. The current definitions of 'family violence' and 'hurt' stated in section 64 of the Women’s Charter appears to emphasis solely on the physical aspects of violence. Presently, 'family violence' is defined as placing a family member in fear of hurt, causing hurt to a family member, wrongfully confining a family member against his will, or causing continual harassment with intent to cause anguish to a family member. 'Hurt' is defined as bodily pain, disease, or infirmity (Family Justice Courts, 2020). The lack of sexual aspect of violence in the definition also meant that the PPO does not restrain a family member from putting their hands on the children and protect them from sexual abuse.
Sexual violence should be incorporated in the definition of 'family violence'
(Shutterstock, n.d.-c)
Apart from child physical abuse cases, there has also been a sharp increase in child sexual abuse cases by family members (Tan, 2019). Since physical and sexual violence both includes abusers laying their hands on a child, the PPO will be helpful in preventing both kinds of abuses from re-occurring since it restrains the abuser from exerting any kind of violence on the child or getting close to the child.
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Case scenario 1:
From 2017 to 2018, a 12 years old girl was sexually abused by her stepfather on multiple occasions over 15 months, where he molested and sexually penetrated her with his hand (Low, 2020). The stepfather often took advantage of her when they were alone at home together or when the rest of the family was asleep, sexually abusing her in the master bedroom with the door shut (Low, 2020).
(UT Health, n.d.)
Case scenario 2:
In another case, a 67 years old man molested his stepdaughter for over more than 20 years when the family members were asleep or out of the flat (Alkhatib, 2021). As the man often sleeps in the master bedroom alone, he could leave the room to go into the victim’s bedroom without being noticed by other household members (Alkhatib, 2021).
(IndianFolk, n.d.)
In both cases, sexual abuse repeatedly happened over a period of time, and the abusers were living together with the victim. Similar to physical child abuse victims, these children were vulnerable to such abuses when they live in the same flat as the abuser. When these children were questioned why they stayed silent throughout the abuse, they mentioned that their family is dependent on their stepfathers and were afraid that voicing out will break the family.
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As such, the PPO should include sexual violence under its definition of ‘family violence’. Suppose the PPO were to cover sexual aspects of violence. Together with DEO, the victims can continue living in their safe space without worrying that the abusers will get close to them. They also do not have to be afraid to break the family as the abuser can still stay in the same apartment. The PPO will serve as a strict reminder to abusers not to repeat the same act, preventing abuse reoccurrence. Children will also know that once the abuser gets close to them or enter a space that he was not entitled to, they can make a police report for the breach immediately, and the abuser will have to face the criminal penalty. Thus, the PPO can help to prevent and lower cases of child sexual abuse.
Legislation in other countries
Furthermore, the definition of ‘family violence’ in New Zealand’s legislation includes hurting a family member not only physically but emotionally, psychologically, financially, and sexually. Its protection order also prevents persons from sexually abusing the protected person (Ministry of Justice, 2020).
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(Wikipedia, n.d.)
Similarly, in the United States, the Michigan Supreme Court has a domestic relationship protection order covering sexual abuse. The protection order prohibits abusers from entering the home or places the same as the victim, preventing abusers from molesting them (WomensLaw, 2020).
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With New Zealand and the United States being one of the top global rankings in the rule of law, Singapore should learn from these countries and adopt its orders to enhance our law further (World Justice Project, 2020).
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(Al Anbat Newspaper, n.d.)
Teachers and schools play a part
(Understood, n.d.)
Besides, child sexual abuse regularly happens because victims do not voice out, fearing that others will not believe them (Thong, 2020). Thus, teachers play an essential role in detecting abuse as the school is the second place children most frequent. The government can make it compulsory for all pre-school, primary school, and secondary school teachers to attend programmes where social science professionals help equip them with knowledge on the early signs and symptoms of sexual child abuse, detection, interviewing, and reporting possible abuse. During assembly sessions or before classes starts, teachers can put aside 10 to 15mins to check on a student’s well-being, school work, family, and let the student know that they will always be there to support them should there be any problem. This will encourage and provide an opportunity for students who have been abused to voice out.
(Nadezhda, n.d.)
Additionally, schools can also conduct sexual abuse prevention programmes to teach children to recognise unsafe situations and inappropriate behaviours, build resistance skills, and build a safety network with peers and adults that they identify as safe. With such programmes, children will be equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills, decreasing their risk for abuse and encouraging them to report it. Children who have participated in a school-based sexual abuse prevention programme were found less likely to be sexually abused than those who have never participated in such a programme (Blakey & Thigpen, 2015).
Conclusion
To conclude, PPO adopts a problem-solving approach in preventing physical child abuse as it can restrain the family member who is an abuser from using family violence on the child, exclude the abuser from all or a part of the shared residence to provide the child with a safe space and provide mandatory counselling session for both the child and the abuser. However, PPO does not sufficiently address all abuse, such as family sexual violence. With child sexual abuse on the rise, PPO should incorporate the sexual aspects into their definition of “family violence” to protect child sexual abuse victims. To prevent more child sexual abuse cases, teachers should be trained to detect early signs and symptoms of such abuse. Schools should also conduct sexual abuse prevention programs to teach children to recognise unsafe situations and inappropriate behaviours.