Child Torture Research Articles

Through the Shadows: Exploring Domestic Child Torture

Child torture is a severe form of child maltreatment. Children who are tortured are at high risk of death and/or re-traumatization. It is imperative both legally and ethically that health care providers recognize children who are being tortured in order to develop a safety plan to help prevent further abuse and trauma to the child. This article will define and address the following: child torture, intrafamilial child torture (ICT), common presentations of victims of ICT, risk factors of victims of ICT, and guidelines for healthcare practitioners working in the United States when they assess victims. Additionally, there will be a discussion on the importance of collaborating both on an interdisciplinary (e.g. medical, social workers, child protective case workers, psychology) and multidisciplinary (clinical and legal) level. and the utilization of self-care activities for clinicians, after treating a child who has been tortured.

Child torture victimization: Review of criminal statutes and medico-legal issues

A renowned group of pediatricians and an attorney with expertise in child abuse matters proposed a medical definition of intrafamilial child torture perpetrated by a caretaker in a landmark 2014 publication in the health sciences literature. Representing one of the most widely cited publications on non-politically motivated child torture to date, this medical definition encompassing physical abuse, psychological abuse, deprivation, and neglect characterizing child torture has been broadly recognized and accepted by multidisciplinary professionals across medical, child welfare, and criminal justice sectors. While the medical community's efforts aimed to compel legislative changes, including adoption of explicit torture-specific statutes that would enable criminal justice system responses reflective of abuse severity, subsequent legal analyses have revealed tremendous variability in criminal investigations, prosecution, sentencing, and case outcomes. In this discussion piece, medico-legal issues relevant to intrafamilial child torture case prosecution are reviewed. The impact of the established medical definition on jurisdictional legal approaches and unique case challenges related to longitudinal nature of abuse, frequent psychological injury, and victim-perpetrator dynamics are explored in depth. Utilizing available legal research platforms, investigative information, health sciences literature, and prosecutor self-report, existing child torture statutes and case outcomes were compared with focus on perpetrator, victim, socio-environmental, and community influence on legal outcome. Prosecutorial challenges facing jurisdictions lacking child torture statutes are discussed with emphasis placed on the critical role played by the medical community to support diagnosis of physical and emotional impacts to the child. Finally, the process by which states can establish a jurisdictional torture statute are suggested.

Asylum Policies and Forced Labour among Asylum Seekers and Refugees: The Results of a Two-Phase Systematic Review

ABSTRACT There is ample empirical evidence of destitution, or social exclusion of asylum seekers and refugees (ARs) in host countries. Still, few studies document their negative working experiences. Therefore, this review combines refugee studies with research on forced labor. The aim was to understand the relationship of forced labor among ARs, with migration and asylum policies. We undertook a two-phase systematic review, i.e., systematic mapping and in-depth synthesis. We screened 4241 records from 10 databases, mapped 73 publications and synthesized 22 studies. Most of the research was exclusively qualitative. A frequent shortcoming was poor methods reporting. Publications rarely considered ethical issues and limitations. Common themes identified included: vulnerability and precarity generated by migration and asylum policies, forced labor through the lens of socio-legal status, and exploitation as a continuum. Another finding is the problem of overly broad and superficial questions that do not provide detailed data on forced labor among ARs. We refer to this as the detail deficit. This systematic review addresses the U.N. Sustainability Goal 16.2 to end abuse, exploitation, trafficking, and all forms of violence against and torture of children.

“Save the #Talibés”: A State-Led Intervention to Remove Children from the Street in Dakar, Senegal

ABSTRACT Between July 2016 and May 2018, the Senegalese state implemented two phases of a project designed to remove children from the streets of Dakar, targeted at the talibés, or child students of the Qur’an, who beg. Based on qualitative research conducted in Dakar in 2017–2018, this article demonstrates the dynamics behind an uncoordinated and unplanned anti-trafficking intervention. It shows that the contradictions between two different explanations for talibés’ begging led to reward rather than sanctions for those responsible, who are framed variously as child traffickers and as legitimate Qur’anic teachers. It demonstrates the lack of coordination and cooperation among state structures, and between state structures and NGOs, which is then employed by the same actors to explain away the project’s minimal impact. It argues that the project was an example of the Senegalese state trying to adhere to international prescriptions to action to end child trafficking, while avoiding the political wrath of religious leaders domestically. By drawing attention to the distance between global discourse and local implementations, the findings of this article contribute to promoting nuanced policymaking under the Sustainable Development Goal Target 16.2: End abuse, exploitation, trafficking and all forms of violence against and torture of children.

Child torture: A Washington state case series

AbstractChild torture is a worldwide problem, but there is very little research on torture as a form of child abuse. In 2014 Knox et al. reported the first case series on child torture and developed criteria to diagnose child abuse torture. Our objective was to describe additional child abuse torture victims and to determine whether they shared similar patterns, including types of abuse, duration and possible opportunities for early identification. This multi‐site case series reviewed 47 children identified as torture victims at three Washington State child abuse programs spanning 15 years. Data was collected through retrospective chart review. Simple descriptive statistics were utilised. Our study found that abuse occurred over months to years. All children experienced psychological maltreatment, 89 per cent had findings of physical abuse. Malnutrition and medical, emotional and educational neglect were common. Majority of torture victims had previously been involved with CPS or had seen a medical provider prior to diagnosis, at which time they had findings of torture, but received no protective intervention. It's important to develop criteria for recognition and early intervention since tortured children experienced sustained, systematic and escalating abuse.

Screening for Human Trafficking of Minors in Health Care: A Systematic Review

ABSTRACT Human trafficking is a form of exploitation that has significant consequences to trafficked minors. Many victims have accessed health care during their time of exploitation and are not identified. One of the greatest barriers to identification in health care is the lack of screening tools that are reliable, valid, and practical to workflow. The purpose of this manuscript is to provide a systematic review of current screening instruments for human trafficking including their performance measures and applicability to identifying minors. Forty-five instruments were reviewed in full to assess their applicability of identifying minors in the health care setting who are involved in human trafficking. A majority of the instruments reviewed are not peer reviewed nor have they reported performance measures to ensure accuracy of screening results. Only one instrument was validated and developed for the health care setting. Screening for human trafficking in minors should hold the same emphasis as screening for other types of abuse and maltreatment in health care. This article addresses the U.N. Sustainability Goal 16.2 to End abuse, exploitation, trafficking and all forms of violence against and torture of children. Recognizing and addressing the gaps in current practice such as increasing provider knowledge and working toward the development of valid and reliable screening tools will increase the efforts to identify exploited minors and assist in resource utilization to reduce the sequela from human trafficking.

AN OVERVIEW OF CHILD ABUSE BY PARENTS IN ONLINE LEARNING DURING THE PANDEMIC COVID-19 ERA AND IT’S IMPACT IN REALIZING THE SDGs 2030 IN INDONESIA

Background: The Covid-19 pandemic has forced the Ministry of Education and Culture to issue an online learning policy as an effort to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in the educational environment. This makes children have to carry out online learning activities from home and be accompanied by parents, especially elementary school students. The Sustainable Development Goals on target (4.a) build and upgrade education facilities that are child, disability and gender sensitive and provide safe, non-violent, inclusive and effective learning environments for all. Lack of pedagogical competence in parents makes them not have qualified teaching skills. Therefore, many parents do not realize that they have committed violence against their children, both in the form of verbal and physical violence. Method: This study uses a systematic literature review method by collecting various relevant previous studies to be identified, reviewed, evaluated, and interpreted. Result: The results show the occurrence of cases of violence committed by parents against their children during the learning mentoring process. The violence is in the form of verbal and physical violence, such as parents yelling, rebuking, hitting, and judging their children, this can also affect the decline in learning motivation in children and can even cause mental health disorders that have an impact on children's lives in the future. Conclusion: Therefore, efforts are needed from the government through schools in the form of socialization and workshops for parents of students to have basic teaching knowledge in order to reduce the level of violence in children during the learning mentoring process during the Covid-19 pandemic. This is in line with Sustainable Development Goals on target (16.2) which is to end abuse, exploitation, trafficking and all forms of violence against and torture of children, which is realized through effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels by the government. Keywords: Child Abuse; Online Learning; Quality Education; SDGs 2030; Covid-19 Pandemic.

АНТИЛЮДЯНИЙ СМИСЛ РОСІЙСЬКОЇ «СПЕЦОПЕРАЦІЇ ЗВІЛЬНЕННЯ»: СПРОБА КОНЦЕПТУАЛІЗАЦІЇ АКЦІЇ ВИНИЩЕННЯ УКРАЇНСТВА БЕЗ ОБМЕЖЕНЬ

Any war, the war of aggression in particular, brings countless suffering: There is nothing worse than it, says the captured, the character of the novel by J. -P. Sartre "Iron in the soul", and it seems "chameleon", reminded Karl Clausewitz of the appearance of its new modules, always changes its color, i.e. nature. Today, when the first socio-cultural shock caused by the unprovoked attack of the Russians on Ukraine faded, it became clear that the so-called humandimensional side of the war, as well as the political side, has radically changed, "noble wars by rules" have gone in the past. With all the greed of destruction and suffering in the wars of the past, there was a rational aspect – to force the enemy’s troops to suffer defeat and take advantage of the “fruits of victory” on the seized territory. Aggressive attack by Russian federation on Ukraine since February 2022 in its anti-human essence surpassed all previous wars, because the weak regulators, which had the aim to limit brutal violence, were rejected. They refer to humanitarian law, noble morale, universal conscience, rules and traditions of the conduct of wars, according to which civilians and buildings are not the object of attack. The targeted murder of people for their belonging to Ukrainians, the torture of children, not only of the prisoners and hostages, the shooting of priests and doctors (not combatants), the threat to use nuclear weapons have shown the meanness of the aggressor, who as T. Adorno noted, established "the pure identification of Ukrainians and death in torment". Philosophical logical and rational tools do not allow expressing the moral depth of existential threats, so it is better to use symbolic form. In particular, the symbol "Auschwitz" was used by the culturologists and philosophers of Europe after the end of the Second World, and now the names of the Ukrainian cities "Buсha", Mariupol (Azovstal) are being used to mark the Ukrainian unrivaled fight against the aggressors and the impersonal pain of thousands people tortured by Russian soldiers. The military and political authorities of the aggressor state and its silent performers have given birth to the “banality of evil” characteristic of the Nazis, fascists of Europe and the East’s militarists in the Second World War, which lead to the millions of murders and the transformation of a persona into the smoke of Auschwitz. The new symbols "Mariupol" and "Azovstal" engraved the unprecedented cruelty and anti-humanity of the enemy, as well as the imminent punishment of his crimes through a common human judgment, the operation of the International Criminal Tribunal, the revenge of a just and comprehensive resistance to Russian invaders.

Am I not a child? Palestinian child rights’ violations in Cathryn Clinton’s A Stone in My Hand (2002)

Taking the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) as a framework, this article tackles the numerous violations of children’s rights in Palestine that are reflected in Cathryn Clinton’s young-adult (YA) novel, A Stone in My Hand (2002). The article aims to illustrate how Clinton’s novel, like other contemporary YA fiction, explores major child rights violations in Palestine, such as arbitrary death, violent treatments, mental violence, illegal detention, torture of children, restrictions of movement, lack of health insurance, denial of good education, and poverty and unemployment. For this purpose, the article is divided into two parts. The first sheds light on the genre of YA fiction and the reasons behind its present interest in children’s rights worldwide, in general, and Palestine in particular, with examples of such literature. The second part discusses several articles of the UNCRC including, but not limited to 6, 19, 24, 27, 28, 31, 37, 38, and illustrates how Clinton’s novel elucidates the ways in which these articles are clearly violated.

Cluster analysis of child homicide in South Korea

BackgroundThere has been an insufficient in-depth analysis of the nature and prevalence of the typologies of child homicide in Asia, particularly in South Korea. ObjectiveIn the current study, we sought to determine the prevalence and identify the heterogeneity of the child homicide phenomenon in South Korea. Participant and settingsAll 341 original case files (i.e., hospital, police, and autopsy reports) of homicide incidents involving children aged 0–18 in 2016 were obtained from the forensic autopsy archives of the National Forensic Service (NFS), which handles 100 % of the medico-legal autopsies in South Korea. These were examined and reclassified based on our definition. MethodA cluster analysis using Gower’s distance was applied, which has rarely been utilized in this field of research. By performing a qualitative analysis, we first extracted 70 (numerical, logical, categorical) crime, victim, perpetrator, and household relevant variables, which were later utilized in the cluster analysis. ResultsAmong the 341 cases from 2016, 95 were judged to be at least suspicious child homicide cases. When applying the cluster analysis, eight sub-clusters were extracted: child torture, maternal filicide, neonaticide, death not related to previous abuse, paternal filicide, paternal infanticide, maternal infanticide, and psychotic killings. ConclusionsThe commonality and the unique aspect of the child homicide phenomenon in South Korea, in comparison with the results from previous research from other countries, are discussed.

Genealogía de la tortura en Colombia: una mirada desde los Derechos Humanos

This research seeks to analyze state guidelines on the torture of children and adolescents in Colombia. First, it analyzes the concept of torture in order to focus on problems regarding human rights violations. Second, it examines the judgments of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights regarding torture, followed by a study of national and jurisprudential legislations, aiming to highlight problems regarding children and adolescents. The paper finally presents some brief conclusions.

A precarious gap in U.S. criminal codes for cases of child torture and suggested model statute

Child torture includes a combination of two or more cruel inhuman degrading treatments for long periods of time, such as: intentionally starving the child, forcing the child to sit in urine or feces, binding or restraining the child, repeatedly physically injuring the child, exposing the child to extreme temperatures without adequate clothing, locking the child in closets or other small spaces, and forcing the child into stress positions or exercise which results in prolonged suffering permanent disfigurement/dysfunction, or death.11Id.This study is a comprehensive analysis of the 50 U.S. state criminal codes and the D.C. criminal code, and identifies a gap in at least fourteen state codes for cases of child torture.22Fourteen U.S. criminal codes do not contain a child torture statute, however even the states with a child torture state may have one that is inadequate in terms of loopholes. Every state code prohibits causing physical harm to a child, but not every state code criminalizes the mental trauma that occurs or a child when the torture does not result in a serious physical injury.If the child dies from the torture, then prosecutors can charge murder. However, in cases where the child survives without serious physical injuries, the only charges that fit the elements of the crime in many states are misdemeanors (crimes punishable with a jail sentence of less than one year). For example, South Dakota has adopted a statute to explicitly address the issue. The South Dakota child torture statute reads, “Any person who abuses, exposes, tortures, torments, or cruelly punishes a minor in a manner which does not constitute [a felony], is guilty of a ...felony.”U.S. state child torture statutes explicitly criminalize torturing children or a synonymous action such as “causing unjustifiable suffering.” Three variations of child torture statutes exist within U.S. state criminal codes. Thirty-six-state criminal codes and the DC criminal code contain a form of felony child torture statute. For fourteen states without a felony child torture statute, a gap in the criminal code exists that often allows people who have tortured children to serve light sentences usually reserved for slight misconduct. Legislation is suggested in these states. This study further highlights a model statute based on the survey of various U.S. child torture statutes.

Adolescent Violence through Technology in India

Introduction: The shift from the physical to virtual communication has been emerged as a vital platform to interact through technology. Apart from the positive influences, it is also affecting the adolescents in negative manner which leads to various health hazards. All governments are committed to the ambitious sustainable development agenda and its goals, in particular SDG target 16.2 to end abuse, exploitation, trafficking and all forms of violence against and torture of children. Despite the alarming situation and commitment, there is apathy towards coining the specific laws against cybercrime amongst adolescents. Methodology: A questionnaire based cross-sectional survey method was used for data collection from the adolescents who are using mobile phones since last one year and presented in outdoor pediatric department. The study was also conducted in two schools from urban and rural locations at Lucknow district during study period. Results: In the studied population of 900 students, the maximum students 606(67.3%) were from 16-18 years of age and simple mobile users were more 505(56.1%) in number when compared. the prevalence of bullied students were females 269(29.8%) and males 381(42.3%). Maximum bullied students were of age 16-18 years. As per the mode of assault sending inappropriate SMS 378 (58.1%) on mobile was outrageous than any other method. The assault was shared mainly with friends. Conclusion: Our results reflect that the prevalence of violence amongst adolescents have reached up to a point of saturation where it is mandatory to correct their attitude to avoid any unwanted happening. Apart from the surveillance of the mobile use this is our prime duty to monitor the activities of teens on internet and develop safe cyber space.

Letter to the Editor: Child Torture as a Form of Child Abuse

Letter to the Editor: Child Torture as a Form of Child Abuse

Child Torture as a Form of Child Abuse

This paper describes clinical findings and case characteristics of children who are victims of severe and multiple forms of abuse; and proposes clinical criteria that indicate child abuse by torture. Medical records, investigation records, and transcripts of testimony regarding a non-consecutive case series of 28 children with evidence of physical abuse, neglect, and psychological maltreatment, such as terrorizing and isolation, were reviewed for types of injuries, duration of maltreatment, medical and physical neglect, social and family history, and history of prior Child Protective Services (CPS) involvement. The median age was 7.5 years (9 months to 14.3 years). Thirty-six percent died. Duration of abuse ranged from 3.5 months to 8 years (median 3 years). Ninety-three percent of children were beaten and exhibited cutaneous injury; 21 % had fractures. There were 25 victims of isolation (89 %), as well as 61 % who were physically restrained and 89 % who were restricted from food or water. All of the children were victims of psychological maltreatment; 75 % were terrorized through threats of harm or death to themselves or loved ones and 54 % were degraded and/or rejected by caregivers. Nearly all children were medically neglected. Half had a history of prior referrals to CPS. The children in this case series were physically abused, isolated, deprived of basic necessities, terrorized, and neglected. We define child torture as a longitudinal experience characterized by at least two physical assaults or one extended assault, two or more forms of psychological maltreatment, and neglect resulting in prolonged suffering, permanent disfigurement or dysfunction, or death.

A COMPARISON OF CHILD PROTECTION LAW BETWEEN INDONESIA AND MALAYSIA

This paper aims to compare child protection law between Indonesia and Malaysia especially in terms of family law (marriage), child definition and age limit, as well as other foundational principles. Content analysis method of a variety of relevant references is used and a comparative approach to child protection law in Indonesia and Malaysia is taken. There are many similarities between child protection law in Malaysia and Indonesia, in which both systems specify the state, family, and parents responsibilities towards children. Also specified are handling of child’s position, guardianship, rearing, adoption, religion, and abandonment. In addition, special protection such as maintenance, recovery, custody, care, investigation, nursing, education, prevention of economic exploitation, prevention of sexual abuse, prevention of child torture, and disability treatment are also included. This paper concludes that in Malaysia child protection law has been fully synthesised in Children Act of 2001 (Act 611), while in Indonesia child protection law is scattered in a number of laws related to children including the Child Protection Law.

A Short Psychosocial History of British Child Abuse and Protection: Case Studies in Problems of Mourning in the Public Sphere

This paper offers a historical and psychosocial account of ‘moral panics’ about child maltreatment in England over the last four decades, and proposes this perspective as additional to Munro's more systemic account of the same history. The formal child protection system is theorised in terms of an explicit and a covert dual primary task. The overt task is to actually protect vulnerable children and prevent abuse; the covert task is to protect the remainder of society from exposure to anxiety provoking ‘dangerous knowledge’ about the prevalence of child maltreatment. Episodes of public and political moral panic occur when the boundaries of containment provided by the official system and its processes are breached, propelling debate and contestation about child maltreatment into the public sphere, where public enquiries and other social mechanisms are called upon to ‘settle’ the contested issues. Sometimes these social settlements appear to be successful in resolving conflicts about the reality or otherwise of specific forms of abuse; in other cases, especially child deaths, the controversial and anxiety-laden nature of the problem is recurrently projected back into the public domain. The paper suggests that this may be associated with a difficulty about establishing a secure symbolic framework or discourse in society for the emotionally indigestible facts of child torture and murder. In turn, this may be associated with problems about the decline of public mourning rituals and the failure of the public enquiry format to facilitate this. In line with Munro, the paper argues for the importance of a tragic perspective on child maltreatment, to counter idealisations of the capacity of the formal system to protect children.

Child Torture as a Form of Child Abuse

Child Torture as a Form of Child Abuse

A Hunger Strike - The Ecology of a Protest: The Case of Bahraini Activist Abdulhad al-Khawaja

This article uses the case of a Bahraini activist to explore the twin interrelated ecologies of a hunger strike. The first ecology is the ethical framing of a prison hunger strike as a corporeal-environmental act of (self) destruction intended to achieve political ends. The second ecology is the operation of global media where international inaction inadvertently foregrounds the political struggles that larger events and discourses surrounding Egypt, Libya and Syria overshadow. What connects these two ecologies is the body of the hunger striker, turned into a spectacle and mediated via a politics of affect that invites a global public to empathize and so enter into his suffering. The connection between the two lies in the emaciated body of the hunger striker in this case, Abdulhadi al-Khawaja

Torturing Children: Bush's Legacy and Democracy's Failure

Nowhere is there a more disturbing, if not horrifying, example of the relationship between a culture of cruelty and the politics of irresponsibility than in the resounding silence that surrounds the torture of children under the presidency of George W. Bush – and the equal moral and political failure of the Obama administration to address and rectify the conditions that made it possible. But if we are to draw out the dark and hidden parameters of such crimes, they must be made visible so men and women can once again refuse to orphan the law, justice, and morality. How we deal with the issue of state terrorism and its complicity with the torture of children will determine not merely the conditions under which we are willing to live, but whether we will live in a society in which moral responsibility disappears altogether and whether we will come to find ourselves living under a democratic or authoritarian social order. This is not merely a political and ethical matter, but also a matter of how we take seriously the task of educating ourselves more critically in the future. We haven’t always looked away. When Emmett Till’s battered, brutalized, and broken fourteen-year-old body was open to public viewing in Chicago after he was murdered in Mississippi in 1955, his mother refused to have him interred in a closed casket. His mutilated and swollen head, his face disfigured and missing an eye, made him unrecognizable as the young, handsome boy he once was. The torture, humiliation, and pain this innocent African-American youth endured at the hands of white racists was transformed into a sense of collective outrage and pain, and helped launch the Civil Rights Movement. Torture when inflicted on children becomes indefensible. Even among those who believe that torture is a defensible practice to extract information, the case for inflicting pain and abuse upon children proves impossible to support. The image of young children being subjected to prolonged standing, handcuffed to the top of a cell door, doused with cold water, raped, and shocked with electrodes boggles the mind. Corrupting and degenerate practices, such despicable acts also reveal the utter moral depravity underlying the rationales used to defend torture as a viable war tactic. There is an undeniable pathological outcome when the issue of national security becomes more important than the survival of morality itself, resulting in some cases in the deaths of thousands of children – and with little public outrage. For instance, Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, appearing on the national television program 60 Minutes in 1996, was asked by Leslie Stahl for her reaction to the killing of half a million Iraqi children in five years as a result of the US blockade. Stahl pointedly asked her, ‘We have heard that a half million children have died. I mean, that’s more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?’ Albright replied, ‘I think this is a very hard choice, but the price – we think the price is worth it’.[1] The comment was barely reported in the mainstream media and produced no outrage among the American public. As Rahul Mahajan points out, ‘The inference that Albright and the terrorists may have shared a common rationale – a belief that the deaths of thousands of innocents are a price worth paying to achieve one’s political ends – does not seem to be one that can be made