What is child abuse
What is child abuse?
By Lena Hellblom Sjögren, PhD, psychologist
Translation: Ruby Harrold-Claesson, lawyer
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It is quite obvious that adults should not apply repeated or cruel violence towards children.
But, is a slap on the face child abuse? In an
article in the newspaper, Örebro-Kuriren, of October 20, 2004, MP Helena Frisk
(social democrat) demanded that the stepfather who on one occasion had slapped
his step daughter's face on a parking lot should be sentenced for child
abuse. She wrote that the 15-year old
girl had spat on her stepfather when he refused to buy her a DVD-record.
Sentencing a father who has slapped a stubborn, spitting teenager's face for
child abuse does not in any way guarantee that girl's or any other young
person's legal rights, like frisk claims. Instead it sends signals that the
society gives the child/children the right not to respect their parents as
authorities. That very same society takes children into public care and places
them in foster homes and institutions where they can be exposed to both
physical and mental abuse, but reports of those incidents are not taken
seriously.
Can the reason for this be that children in
public care have the state, that is expected to be good and caring, as their
parents?
Which MP wants to give a thought to the lack of rights and the vulnerability of
the children in public care? Does anyone dare to address the cases of neglect
that are being administered by the social services in our welfare system, those
who at present have greater powers than any court of law to pass judgement on
what is most important in life, namely the right for children to live with
their parents?
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