I just watched a horrific youtube clip on child abuse.
For good measure I googled 'Australian abuse stats'.
This came from an article produced by the Australian Institute of Family studies- found at http://www.aifs.gov.au/nch/pubs/sheets/rs1/rs1.html
The most recent national figures from the AIHW indicate that in Australia, during 2007-08, there were 317,526 reports of suspected child abuse and neglect made to state and territory authorities.
While the number of notifications increased, the increase observed was not as great as that observed between previous reporting periods. In fact, the increase observed between 2006-07 and 2007-08 is the smallest national increase recorded for total notifications over the past 10 years...
While the number of notifications increased, the increase observed was not as great as that observed between previous reporting periods. In fact, the increase observed between 2006-07 and 2007-08 is the smallest national increase recorded for total notifications over the past 10 years...
A child may be the subject of more than one notification - in 2007-08, the 317,526 notifications recorded during the financial year concerned 194,937 children.
Some children who are found to have suffered abuse and neglect are removed from their homes by child protection authorities and placed in out-of-home care. Nationally, the number of children in out-of-home care has risen each year from 1998 to 2008. There were 31,166 children in out-of-home care on 30 June 2008. Almost one-third (31%) of children in out-of-home care were aged 10-14 years. A further 30% were aged 5-9 years, 25% were aged less than 5 years and 14% were aged 15-17 years.
At 30 June 2008, there were 9,074 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out-of-home care. The national rate of Indigenous children in out-of-home care was almost 9 times the rate for other children
Traditionally, child protection data have been perceived as a conservative estimate of the occurrence of child maltreatment (Bromfield & Higgins, 2004).
The pattern for total substantiations in 2007-08 differed from the pattern observed for notifications and investigations. The total number of substantiations (of notifications received in 2007-08) across Australia was 55,120. This is an 8% decrease on the number of substantiations recorded in the previous financial year (60,230). The 55,120 notifications recorded during the financial year concerned 32,098 children.
The decrease in the total number of substantiations recorded in Australia was the first decrease recorded for total substantiations over the past 10 years. As can be seen from Figure 1, overall, the number of total substantiations increased between 1999-00 and 2007-08 (by approximately 123%). The decrease in substantiations was also not present in all jurisdictions - Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory all recorded increases in total substantiations recorded for 2007-08 (see Table 2). As the AIHW (2009) observed, further years' data are necessary to determine whether the decrease in 2007-08 will be a continuing pattern.
The decrease in the total number of substantiations recorded in Australia was the first decrease recorded for total substantiations over the past 10 years. As can be seen from Figure 1, overall, the number of total substantiations increased between 1999-00 and 2007-08 (by approximately 123%). The decrease in substantiations was also not present in all jurisdictions - Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory all recorded increases in total substantiations recorded for 2007-08 (see Table 2). As the AIHW (2009) observed, further years' data are necessary to determine whether the decrease in 2007-08 will be a continuing pattern.
The end of the clip asked, who's going to fight for those who can't fight for themselves?
