Effectiveness of laws and policies governing permissive parenting in pursuit of the reduction of severe child abuse in Germany

Abstract

Abstract Laws and policies governing permissive parenting in Germany including provisional withdrawal of parental custody coupled with children taken preventively into custody (Inobhutnahme) by the German Youth Welfare Offices (Jugendamt) seem to uncover cases of severe child abuse in Germany from the dark into the light field but may not actually have a significant effect on controlling and decreasing such cases. In the year 2000, the German government enforced a series of prohibitive laws in Germany’s civil and social codes to preventively protect children from violence. The costs for processes including continuous monitoring of parental compliance to these laws reached 12.6 billion EUR in the year 2018 with an increase of 146% since 2001. The number of withdrawals of parental custody rose by 65% to approximately 11,000 cases in the same period. The number of children taken preventively into custody due to suspected child maltreatment, abuse or neglect increased by 29% to 40,379 cases in the year 2018. However, the actual number of cases of severe child abuse in Germany did not decline as anticipated, but rose by 39%, close to 3,500 reported cases in the year 2018. The European Parliament issued a resolution highlighting the large number of petitions received regarding the role of the German Youth Welfare Office involved in alleged discrimination. Parents in Germany may be unduly criminalized by preventive intervention in basic parenting rights. From an ethical and legal point of view, the German government may wish to revise the current legislation in the various codes so parents regain freedom to individually chose the most suitable parenting style similar to the Canadian model with proven outcomes regarding maintenance of child wellbeing, prohibition of severe child abuse and effectiveness of reducing family violence.