VIRTUAL ISSUES DISCUSSION (VID)

Cultural Competence in Child Maltreatment Prevention and Intervention

27 May - 5 June 2008

[Purpose]   [Background Material]   [Timeline]   [Registration & Instructions]   [Discussion Forum]

ISPCAN is pleased to present the 10th Virtual Issues Discussion (VID). This discussion will focus on "Cultural Competence in Child Maltreatment Prevention and Intervention "

Some of the topics to address include:

• Accommodating the needs of cultural minority groups (in your country or region)
   
• Language minority issues
   
• Religious exemptions & issues
   
• Differing legal jurisdictions (e.g. On reservations or tribal lands, in areas where religious law is practiced but is not the law of the land)
   
• The relevance of culture to specific types of abuse & related prevention/intervention
   
• Statutory Rape and Culture - Cultures and nations vary in terms of the ages when they think a young person is able to give consent for sexual activity. In the United States right now, there is a trend to decriminalize or lessen the penalties for consenting peers of the same age who engage in sexual activity, and to stiffen the penalties for much older adults who engage in sexual activities with young teens. questions related to this:
  1. How can we understand subcultural groups’ right to self-determination, at the same time as we protect children from all groups from sexual exploitation?
  2. How should psychotherapists, social workers, physicians and others who work with young women and their families convey their concerns about relationships in which one of the parties (usually the woman) is quite young, when the girl and her family are from a cultural group that might condone or at least accept the practice?
  3. Sometimes “culture” is used as an excuse to perpetuate practices that exploit women. Is that the case here?
      
• Religion, child abuse & culture - What is some of the potential—and what are some of the pitfalls—of partnering with religious leaders in the prevention and recovery from child abuse? Please convey stories of times that it has worked and not worked.
   
• Cultural Competence in Child Maltreatment Prevention and Intervention - In developing countries like India, culture plays a significant role in cases of child development. In India, more than 70% of the population live in the rural areas where communication is not well established. Children are discriminated against in terms of both education and nutrition due to a lack of rural educational facilities, unemployment problems, and poverty. Male children receive better attention in terms of education and nutrition since they continue to live with the parents and are expected to take care of them during their later years. Since female children will go to other families after marriage, they do not receive the opportunities of a male child.
      In some communities in India, early childhood marriage is a common practice. This happens when the children are still mentally and physically immature, and lack the experience to make healthy judgments and decisions. As a result, their education is poor – making it difficult to aspire for a higher quality of life. A large number of children from these communities remain unskilled labor for life and lead poor qualities of life.
  1. Can child marriage be prevented in the developing countries like India?
  2. How to stop gender discrimination in terms of nutrition and education?
      
   
• Laws specific to cultures/religions - Example: the minimum age of marriage is 12 years for muslim girls in Sri Lanka. Although it is hardly practiced it is still in the law books.
   
• Trafficked children to areas where they do not speak the language - In India, a large number of impoverished children from rural areas are being trafficked every year into urban areas for commercial sexual expolitation (as well as other kinds of labor). They are transferred from one red light area to another. Since these girls do not know the local language in different places, they undergo tremendous isolation, mental torture and harassment.
   
• How can the field reconcile cultural pluralism with equity in child protection? - Cultural competence in child protection presents the challenge of recognizing cultural diversity in child care beliefs and practices while also ensuring equitable standards of protection for all children. Does this mean that a similar injury, like a bruise, should be responded to differently depending on the culture?
   
• Should immigrant groups be required to accept new models of child protection? - If a behavior is permissible in the original cultural context, but not in the new, which standard should immigrant populations be required to adhere to? If the old, how does child protection manage different standards? If the new, what measures need to be taken to ensure that parents adhere to these new standards?
   
• Family, community and society response in areas of armed conflict -In case of child abuse [physical, psychological, sexual] and opposed interests, is child safety or family structure more important? (reference i)
   
• Gender and age - How can social marginalization of women and adolescents increase the risk of child abuse and neglect [eg in the MENA region: FGM, Honor killings, early marriage, bullying, corporal punishment] among social groups? (reference ii)
   
• Culture, religion and differences - Poverty, racism, interparental violence, school and social violence, harassment… and their impact on the rights and development of the child. (reference iii)
   
• Cross-cultural tools and cultural specificities - How can we bring them together and forward the evidence of efficiency [examples may include: data collection, definitions, training of professionals working with children, capacity building of families, rehabilitation, monitoring and child observatories, legislation and implementation]. (reference iv)
   

The discussion will be facilitated by:

• Lisa Fontes, PhD
  ISPCAN Councillor

Several panelists will also join the discussion, adding their knowledge and experience of the topic. Panelists include:

• Bernard Gerbaka, Dr. - Lebanon
• Harendra de Silva, Dr. - Sri Lanka
• Jill Korbin, Dr. - USA
• Shanti Raman, Dr. - Australia
• Sibnath Deb, Dr. - India

BACKGROUND MATERIALS:

Addressing Shame with Latino Victims of Child Sexual Abuse and Their Families
-Lisa Aronson Fontes

Anthropological contributions to the Study of Child Abuse
Jill Korbin, Department of Psychiatry - University of California, Los Angeles

ArabSPCAN and the UNSV:
A global movement, with ISPCAN, towards protecting children from violence in the MENA region
Bernard Gerbaka, MD

Barriers to Effective Child Protection in a Multicultural Society
Child Abuse Review Vol. 11: 411-414 (2002)
DOI: 10.1002/car. 770

Child Abuse and Culture: Working with Diverse Families
-Lisa Aronson Fontes

Child Discipline and Physical Abuse in Immigrant Latino Families: Reducing Violence and Misunderstanding
-Lisa Aronson Fontes

Child Protection and Cultural differences 2008: It takes more than one?
Bernard Gerbaka, MD

Culture and Child Maltreatment
The Battered Child, Fifth Edition, Chapter 2
Jill E. Korbin

Cultural Competence in Child Maltreatment Prevention and Intervention
Shanti Rama, Sydney South West Area Health Service
Deborah Hodes, Camden PCT and University College Hospital London

Cultural Competence in Child Maltreatment Prevention and Intervention
Dr Shanti Raman, Area Community Paediatrician-Child Protection, Department of Community Paediatrics, Sydney South West Area Health Service, NSW, Australia
Dr Deborah Hodes, Consultant Community Paediatrician, Islington Primary Care Trust, London, United Kingdom

Ethics in Violence Against Women Research: The Sensitive, the Dangerous, and the Overlooked
-Lisa Aronson Fontes

Interviewing Clients across Cultures: A Practitioner's Guide
-Lisa Aronson Fontes

The 2007 Lebanese report on the prevention of child abuse and neglect [CAN] and violence against children [VAC]
Bernard GERBAKA
Sana’ AWADA

The Child Protection Handbook: The practitioner's guide to safeguarding children - Issues of Culture
Wilson and James, 2007
Jill Korbin

The Importance of Culture in Treating Abused and Neglected Children: An Empirical Review
CHILD MALTREATMENT, Vol. 6, No.2, May 2001 148-157 © 2001 Sage Publications, Inc.
Judith A. Cohen, Allegheny General Hospital
Esther Deblinger, University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey School of Medicine
Anthony P. Mannarino, Allegheny General Hospital
Michael A. de Arellano, Medical University of South Carolina

MEDICINE AND SOCIETY ????
EXCERPTS OFTHE 2007 LEBANESE REPORT ON THE PREVENTION OFCHILD A B U S E AND NEGLECT [CAN] AND VIOLENCE A G A I N S T CHILDREN [VAC]
Bernard GERBAKA
Sana AWADA
Elie MIKHAEL

Neglected Children, Research, Practice, and Policy
Cultural Competence and Child Neglect, Chapter 4
Jill E. Korbin
James C. Spilsbury

Regional Report: Middle East and North Africa Region
Excerpts from the UN Study on Violence against Children, June 2005
Bernard Gerbaka, MD

Derezotes, D. M., Poertner, J., Testa, M. F., Testa, (2004). Race matters in child welfare. Child Welfare League of America.

Dunkerly, G. K., & Dalenberg, C. J. (1999). Secret-keeping behaviors in black and white children as a function of interviewer race, racial identity, and risk for abuse. Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma, 2, 13-35.

Fontes, L. A. (1993). Disclosures of sexual abuse by Puerto Rican children: Oppression and cultural barriers. Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, 2, 21-35.

Fontes, L. (1995). Sexual abuse in nine North American cultures: Treatment and prevention. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Fontes, L. (2000). Working with Latino families on issues of child abuse and neglect. The National Child Advocate, 3, (1), pp. 1, 4-7.

Fontes, L. A. (2004). Ethics in violence against women research: The sensitive, the dangerous and the overlooked. Ethics and Behavior, 14, 141-174.

Fontes, L. A. (2005). Child abuse and culture: Working with diverse families. New York: Guilford.

Fontes, L. A. (2007). Sin vergüenza: Addressing shame with Latino victims of child sexual abuse and their families. Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, 16, 61-82.

Fontes, L. A. (2008). Interviewing clients across cultures: A practitioner’s guide. New York: Guilford.

Fontes, L.A., Cruz, M. & Tabachnick, J. (2001).Views of child sexual abuse in two cultural communities: An exploratory study with Latinos and African Americans. Child Maltreatment, 6, 103-117.

Fontes, L. & O’Neill-Arana, M. (2008). Assessing for child maltreatment in culturally diverse families. In L. A. Suzuki, J.G. Ponterotto & P. J. Mellter (Eds.). Handbook of Multicultural Assessment (3rd edition) (pp. 627-650). New York: Jossey-Bass.

Korbin, J. E., Spilsbury, J. C. (1999). Cultural competence and child neglect. In Dubowitz, H. (Ed.). Neglected children: Research, practice and policy, pp. 69-88. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Lewis, A. D. (ed.), Cultural Diversity in sexual abuser treatment. Safer Society Press.

Low, & Organista, Latinas and sexual assault: Towards culturally sensitive assessment and intervention. Journal of Multicultural Social Work, 8, 131-157.

Maiter, S., Alaggia, R., & Trocmé, N. (2004). Perceptions of child maltreatment by parents from the Indian subcontinent: Challenging myths about culturally based abusive parenting practices. Child Maltreatment, 9,309–324.
Roberts, D. (2002). Shattered Bonds: The Color of Child Welfare. New York: Basic Books.

Sattler, J. M. (1998). Clinical and forensic interviewing in children and families. San Diego: Sattler. (contains two chapters on cultural issues)

Springman, R.E. & Wherry, J.N. (2006). The effects of interviewer race and child race on sexual abuse disclosures in forensic interviews. Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, 15, 99-116.

Suzuki, L. & Ponterotto, J. (eds.) (2008). Handbook of multicultural assessment: Clinical, psychological, and educational applications (3rd edition). New York: Jossey-Bass. 

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