There is no end to tragic cases of child abuse. Reinforcing the system for protecting children's safety and security is an urgent matter.
The number of child abuse cases that the nation's child consultation centers dealt with in fiscal 2017 totaled 133,778. It was up 11,203 from the previous fiscal year, renewing a record high.
By type, mental abuse -- such as using violent language to the child or exposing the child to domestic violence -- accounted for 54 percent, marking a conspicuous increase. Physical abuse -- such as causing physical injury and harm to the child -- represented 25 percent, which was followed by child neglect at 20 percent, which refers to the failure of a parent or a guardian to provide the child with proper care.
In addition to a rise in social awareness, another primary factor in the increase was thorough notification by police to the child consultation centers regarding cases in which a child was exposed to domestic violence at home.
While the number of child abuse cases dealt with by the child consultation centers marked a 230 percent increase over the past 10 years, the number of child welfare officers placed at these centers grew by only 40 percent. Due to a manpower shortage, critical cases could be missed. In addition to reinforcing the functions of the child consultation centers, their further cooperation with police and municipal governments is required.
Following an incident in Meguro Ward, Tokyo, in which heartrending written messages were left behind by a 5-year-old girl who died after being abused, the government in July compiled emergency measures.
The central pillar of the measures is to increase the number of child welfare officers by 2,000 by fiscal 2022, which will represent a 60 percent increase from the current number. The measures have also made it mandatory for officers to make a compulsory on-the-spot inspection in the event that the child's safety could not be confirmed, while the reinforcement of information sharing between child consultation centers and police is also advocated.
All the organizations concerned have to tackle the issue, with a mind-set that all of them are involved parties.
Division of roles vital
There has been an increase in cases in which prefectural governments that run child consultation centers, including the Tokyo metropolitan government, have concluded information-sharing agreements with police. This is an effective measure for responding promptly to child abuse cases and for assuring the child's safety, but, due to privacy concerns, there are also many cases in which the information the center supplies to police is limited only to highly perilous cases.
Including the information sharing of all the abuse cases, more effective modes of cooperation between them should be studied.
It is also essential to promote the division of roles between child consultation centers and municipal governments.
A system under which low-risk cases are handled by municipal governments so that child consultation centers can focus on more serious cases was introduced last fiscal year. It is also aimed at promoting prompt responses, by separating the functions of protecting the child and of supporting the parent.
The challenge lies in enhancing the ability of the staff working at municipalities in dealing with these cases. It is important to improve the on-the-job training and to promote exchanges of personnel between municipal governments and child consultation centers.
With babies under 12 months of age accounting for more than 60 percent of the fatal child abuse cases -- excluding family murder-suicides -- instances apparently stemming from unexpected pregnancies are conspicuous. The improvement of a system for municipal staff to take charge of consultation and provide seamless support from the stage of pregnancy onward should be accelerated.
The task of finding a place for abused children to stay with security must not be forgotten, either. The government holds up a policy of giving priority to the fostering of such children in a homelike environment through a foster-parent system or adoption arrangements. Expanding public support to families who accept such children is called for.
(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Sept. 4, 2018)
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