A study recently released by UNICEF and the National Council
for Family Affairs revealed that violence against children is widespread and
alarming.
اضافة اعلان
The study, which was announced last month, was based on a
national sample of 3,281 school students between the ages of 8 and 17 selected
from public, private, and UNRWA schools. An additional sample of 296 Syrian
refugees in camps and a small sample of people with disabilities were also
selected. The results indicate that children are subjected to a wide range of
violence of all types: physical, psychological, sexual, and electronic.
At national level, seven out of 10 children have been
subject to physical violence, five out of 10 were subjected to psychological
violence, three out of 10 were subjected to sexual violence, and one out of 10
to electronic violence. The results also showed several trends that are worth
mentioning.
First, that violence against children is prevalent among all
social and economic groups, and not only among poor or less educated groups.
Certainly, these problems are probably greater among poor and low-income level
people because of the daily pressures to meet the needs of the children and
disciplining them at the same time, but it is not restricted to these groups.
Second, that physical violence, which is more prevalent, is
practiced against children by those who are supposed to provide care and
guidance to them. Physical violence against children is mostly practiced by
parents (47 percent), siblings (44 percent), peers (39.4 percent), and teachers
(27 percent).
Third, that physical and psychological violence is practiced
by care takers to discipline children because they had made certain mistakes,
but, most importantly, because they had disobeyed the authority at home or
school. This reveals the persistence of traditional authoritarian approaches to
raising and teaching children, on the one hand, and the resistance to this
pattern by children, on the other.
Fourth, that children who are subjected to physical or
sexual violence have limited options when it comes to getting emotional and
psychological support or help, as a majority of them turn to the police
stations and to a lesser degree to the family protection units. This indicates
that the society has not responded adequately to this alarming problem, probably
because the majority believes that this is a private family matter, which makes
them refrain from getting involved in it.
Finally, it must be said that violence against children is a
multi-faceted phenomenon that is the result of a combination of factors that
interact with each other, such as economic, legal, cultural, technological
change, and the increasing globalization that affects our way of life and the
aspiration of children themselves.
But what is certain is that violence, of all types, against
children has a very damaging and lasting effect on their well-being and their
future, deprives them of their basic human rights and has negative ramification
for the society at large.
The field work of the study was conducted in 2019 and
therefore it did not capture the impact of the COVId-19 epidemic and the
economic, social, and psychological consequences on this issue, which, many
studies reveal, has exacerbated the pressure on families and might had a direct
impact on family violence in general and violence against children in
particular.
This fact does not alter the value of the study, which
reveals that violence against children in Jordan is persistently high and
requires immediate national attention.
The current efforts of many national and international
organizations are important and should be commended, but it is clear that it is
not enough to stem the tide of violence against children and deal with its
consequences. What is needed is a comprehensive approach with high commitment
from the government, because the problem is multi-faceted and requires a
holistic approach that involves legal, economic, institutional, educational,
and awareness dimensions. What is needed, also, is nothing less than a national
strategy to combat violence against children. It is high time to act.
The writer is former director of the Center for Strategic
Studies and professor of sociology, at the University of Jordan, and was selected as a
member of Royal Committee for Political Modernization.
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