The Role of the Social Work Profession in Facing the Problem of Violence against Children with Disabilities

Abstract

The issue of violence against children has received a lot of attention in all regions of the world as children are exposed to excessive violence in almost every aspect of their lives. Many efforts have been made and still are being made to confront this serious problem. It is noticeable through some observations, some statistics, and the results of some research studies that the rates of violence directed at a child with a disability are higher than the rates of violence directed at a non-disabled child. Perhaps this may be due to several reasons which will be explained in the current paper. This paper aims to shed some light on the problem of child violence directed at the child with a disability, in terms of definition, types, statistics, and factors leading. The paper also aims to clarify the role of the social work profession in facing or confronting this problem. Perhaps clarifying this provides social workers who are working in the field of disability a guide to help them know the professional roles required of them and to perform or exercise these roles. At the end of the working paper, a number of proposals and recommendations were presented that could be used in improving the process of effective confrontation of the problem of violence against children in general and violence against children with disabilities in particular.