Introducing this special issue on child maltreatment J. B. S. Coulter It is a pleasure to introduce this special issue on child maltreatment, and we are very grateful to all the contributors. It covers a wide range of important aspects of child maltreatment in both developing and developed countries. The first paper by Andreas Jud and co-authors describes child protection services in high-income countries — Belgium (Flemish region), Canada, Germany, The Netherlands, New Zealand, South Korea, Switzerland and The United States. It also includes provision for indigenous and minority groups, the Maori in New Zealand and the aboriginal population in Canada. Child protection services in each of these countries are summarised and reasons for lack of data collection on child maltreatment are examined. Sebastian van As and colleagues undertook a systematic search for articles on management of physical child abuse in Africa and found only two relevant articles. They then describe a retrospective review of the types of child assault seen at the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital, Cape Town during 1991–2009 and an audit of suspected nonaccidental injuries during 2008–2010. They emphasise the importance of compulsory reporting of child abuse, increased public awareness, and standardisation of its management in African hospitals. Mildred Mudany and co-authors undertook a comparison study of attitudes to and types of physical punishment in three tribal groups in the Kibera community in Nairobi – Luo, Luyha and Nubi. Seventy per cent of participants understood discipline to mean showing love and praising children when they were good and punishing wrong-doing, which in 20% involved beating the child. The third paper on physical abuse was an international collaborative study on knowledge of the shaken baby syndrome in Australia, Hungary, Greece, Brazil and Turkey. The programme was developed in Sydney and describes the difficulties and success in promoting information on this very serious condition in various countries. There are two papers on sexual abuse. Elizabeth Molyneux and co-workers present an in-depth review of child sexual abuse (CSA) in Africa in particular,

ß W. S. Maney & Son Ltd 2013 DOI 10.1179/2046904713Z.000000000151

including short extracts from victims’ accounts. They then describe the excellent system they have set up in Blantyre for managing patients. This includes training of the medical team, the role of the police, social services and counsellors, and court proceedings. Oladele Olatunya and co-authors report their experience of CSA in south-west Nigeria and the difficulties in setting up an appropriate service for patients. David Owen, a Liverpool barrister, describes child abuse from the point of view of the United Kingdom’s criminal justice system (CJS). The CJS’s main procedure for dealing with child abuse is outlined and contrasted with the difficulties of funding and managing such a service in Tajikistan and Tanzania. The next three papers deal with children exposed to armed conflict. Kamalini Lokuge and her colleagues describe the mental health services provided by Me´decins Sans Frontie`res for over 3000 patients ,20 years of age in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq and The Occupied Palestinian Territory. Events which precipitate mental health issues included exposure to armed conflict, sexual and domestic violence and incarceration or detention. The frequency of assaults varied greatly according to the country in which they occurred. Harendra de Silva provides an overview of the history of conscription of child soldiers over the centuries and recent methods to control it. He focuses on the Tamil separatist war in Sri Lanka. He discusses the conscription or ‘volunteering’ of children, the tasks assigned to the conscripts, the psychological effects of war, and the interesting topic of martial suicide and the cult of martyrdom. Sofie Vindevogel and co-authors undertook an indepth study of former child soldiers’ experience and perception of stress in the conflict in northern Uganda and compare it with non-recruited youths of the same background. Violence was central in child soldiers’ perception of stress, whereas scarcity of resources and poor living conditions were more important to non-recruited participants, including life in the internally displaced persons camps. Pratibha Singhi and colleagues provide a detailed account of the varied aspects of child abuse in India

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Ayesha Kadir and colleagues undertook a qualitative study of community perceptions of the social determinants of child health in a population living in deprived circumstances in the rural Western Cape. Children were interviewed along with adults and were asked to make drawings of their experiences. Both children and adults described alcohol and drug abuse as major determinants of child neglect. Despite legislation and the promotion of a variety of methods to try to reduce the practice of female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C), up to 30 million girls may still be at risk. Rigmor Berg and Eva Denison undertook a systematic review of the efficacy of strategies to reduce FGM/C and found that dissemination of information and involvement of religious leaders was the most important element.

and the efforts being made by the government to recognise the extent of the problem and to formulate ways to combat it. This includes training doctors, the police and court officials in child protection. Forms of maltreatment discussed include feticide, infanticide, abandonment, child labour, begging and physical and sexual abuse. They also mention the successful Childline outreach service developed in Chandigarh. Despite the fact that for many years Turkey has had penal and civil laws to protect children, it is only in the last decade or so that child abuse and neglect became important in clinical practice. This is described by Resmiye Oral and co-authors, who particularly address the major role now taken by universities and other organisations in developing a successful child protection service.

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