Child Maltreatment Investigations Among Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginal Families in Canada

Abstract

This comparative analysis of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal families uses a 1998Canadian study of child maltreatment cases to identify important differences: Aboriginal families face worse socioeconomic conditions, are more often investigated because of neglect, less often reported for physical or sexual abuse, and report higher rates of substance abuse. At every decision point in the cases, Aboriginal children are overrepresented: investigations are more likely to be substantiated, cases are more likely to be kept open for ongoing services, and children are more likely to be placed in out-of-home care. Findings suggest the development of neglect intervention programs that include poverty reduction and substance misuse components.

Exploring inequities in child welfare and child protection services: Explaining the ‘inverse intervention law’

“…(There is less attention in studies of rates to other dimensions of identity such as gender, disability, age or sexual orientation, although differences are also apparent ). Explanations for racial or ethnic differences in intervention rates (Blackstock et al, 2004;Lonne et al, 2013;Putnam-Hornstein et al, 2013), sometimes extended to include religious affiliation (Attar-Schwartz et al, 2011), again commonly reflect the need vs bias dichotomy (Drake et al, 2011). Klein and Merritt (2011, p.96) describe these arguments:…”

Cultural and ecological contexts of violent punishment and restraint of Negev Bedouin children: from understandings to interventions

“…Child protection involves investigating allegations, mandatory reporting to police, initiation of court proceedings and prosecuting the family. With regard to children, social workers are expected to serve as representatives of the state, and are trained to apply modern and westernised sensibilities regarding individual well-being and child-adult relations (Al-Krenawi, 1999;Al-Krenawi and Graham, 1999;Blackstock et al, 2004;Payne, 1989;Peres, 2005). (Of course, there is considerable variation within the category of 'social worker', and there are Bedouin social workers for whom the dual frameworks of professional versus community ethos are brought into more intensive relief.)…”

“…Furthermore, evaluation of the risk to which they are exposed occurs within two worlds: on the one hand, within their own communities, which remain substantially governed by traditional pastoral nomadic lifestyles and value systems, and on the other, within the modern social work and legal systems now charged with child welfare. Yet, such cases are not unheard of in developed countries, especially with immigrant communities (Blackstock et al, 2004;Fontes, 2002;Maker et al, 2005;Rhee et al, 2008;Zayas, 1992), and analogous dilemmas face social workers in traditional societies around the world. Even within middle-class American experience, there is still debate about the boundaries of acceptable uses of violence as a form of punishment in the heated debates about spanking as 'non-abusive physical punishment' (see Graziano et al, 1996, and other comments in this issue of the journal Pediatrics, reporting on a 1996 conference in the wake of the lack of consensus on a policy statement on corporal punishment to be issued by the Board of the American Academy of Pediatrics).…”

Intergenerational knowledge transmission from aboriginal female elders to youth regarding preventative and self-care knowledge of urinary tract infections in Prince George, BC.

“…The residential school system has been found to be responsible for major losses of Aboriginal culture (Bamhardt & Kawagley, 2005;Blackstock, Trocme, & Bennett, 2004;de Leeuw & Greenwood, 2011;Martin-Hill, 2003; National Collaborating Centre for Aboriginal Health, 2012a;Ohmagari & Berkes, 1997;Waldram et al, 2007). Removal of children from their families and communities deprived multiple generations of Aboriginal children from their culture and language.…”

“…These effects on family structure not only come from the impacts of residential schools but also the historical mass removal of Aboriginal children from their families into non-Aboriginal homes, known as the Sixties Scoop (Blackstock et al, 2004;Carriere, 2005).…”