Written By: Magistrate ’Yomi Adesoji | Chief Magistrate Court, Oke Igbo

Introduction

Child abuse is tragically a global phenomenon which has attracted national and international interventions. This paper shall focus on meaning, forms, effects, prevention and legal response to child abuse amongst others.

Who is a child?

English Oxford Living Dictionaries defines a child as “a young human being below the age of puberty or below the legal age of majority’’. 2003, Nigeria adopted the Child Rights Act to domesticate the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child which defines Child as ‘’ a human being below the age of eighteen years’’.

What is abuse?

Wikipedia defines abuse as ‘’ improper usage or treatment’’.

Horizon House in 2018 gave a comprehensive definition of abuse. Abuse by her definition is any behaviour or action designed to control, intimidate, threaten, or injure another person. It is a misuse of power which uses the bonds of intimacy, trust and dependency to make the victim vulnerable.

 What is child abuse?

The definitions of child abuse vary among persons, social or cultural groups as well as across time.

Child abuse is defined by Black’s law dictionary to mean violent and inhuman behaviour that an adult shows towards a child.

Flowing from the aforesaid definitions of child and abuse distinctively, child abuse, therefore, means improper use, treatment, behaviour or action designed to control, intimidate, threaten or injure a person below the age of eighteen years.

 Forms/ Types of child abuse

World Health Organisation in 2006 distinguishes four types of child abuse. They are physical, sexual, emotional/psychological abuse and neglect.

• Physical abuse is the intentional use of force against the child that results in harm for the child. Much physical violence against a child is inflicted with the object of punishment. This includes hitting, beating, kicking, shaking, biting, strangling, scalding, burning, poisoning, starving, chaining, house arrest and suffocating.
• Sexual abuse is a form of child abuse in which an adult or older adolescent uses a child for sexual gratification. Examples are telling a child dirty jokes or stories, pressuring a child to engage in sexual activities, indecent exposure of genitals to a child, displaying pornography to a child, actual sexual contact with a child, physical contact with child genitals and using a child to produce child pornography.
• Emotional/ psychological abuse is described by the American Psychiatric Association as ‘’ non-accidental verbal or symbolic acts which may make a child feel worthless, unloved, unwanted and endangered’’. Examples are loud yelling, public disgrace, inattention, harsh criticism, degradation and ridicule, child marriage and child labour/ trafficking. It is worthy of note that other forms of abuse can cause psychological abuse.
• Neglect is the failure of parents or persons with responsibility for the child, to provide life necessities such as food, shelter, clothing, medical care or lack of care, attention and love.

Global statistics show the following:

• In 2014, 1 billion children aged 2-17 years
• A quarter of all adults report having been physically abused as children
• One in five women and one in 13 men report having been sexually abused as a child
• Six out of every ten children ages 7-14 work economically for at least one hour per week
• In 2014, children comprised 28 per cent of detected trafficking victims
• Every year, there are an estimated 41,000 homicide death in children under 15 years of age

According to findings of the 2014 Nigeria Violence Against Children Survey conducted by National Population Commission with the support of United States Centre for Disease Control and UNICEF, there is a high prevalence of violence against children in all states in Nigeria but largely unreported.

It had been observed that approximately six of 10 children experience some form of violence before eighteen years and 50 per cent of all children in Nigeria experience physical violence. One in four girls and one in ten boys experience sexual violence, while one in six girls and one in five boys experience emotional violence by a parent, caregiver or adult relative. A report was given of a man who was abusing his younger cousin by beating him over every little mistake and thereafter applying pepper on his body and genitals.

 Can other forms of child abuse lead to sexual abuse (particularly child rape)?

It was discovered that 80 per cent of perpetrators of child abuse are known to victims.

Physical abuse most time comes before child rape as perpetrators use it as an instrument to overpower victims.

The research revealed that children who are neglected by relatives or caregivers tend to fend for themselves by involving in businesses both safe and unsafe such as housekeepers, roadside hawkers, begging and prostitution. Perpetrators can in the process pretend to be interested in what the child sells to rape the victim or entice the naïve child with money or fake promises.

Also, children who are emotionally or psychologically abused, if not withdrawn, seek acceptance, love and care from other persons. Perpetrators show such children attention to earn their trust which makes such vulnerable to rape.

Legal Framework to curb and combat Child Abuse in Nigeria

Nigeria adopted the Child Rights Act in 2003. This groundbreaking law incorporated the principles of UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and, for the first time, provided a comprehensive framework for preventing and responding to violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation of children. A decade later 23 out of 36 States had domesticated this law.

Sections 21-33 of the Child Rights Act expressly provide for acts that are abusive against a child, they further state that any form of child abuse is an offence and finally the punishments are thereafter attached.

Specifically, sections31 and 32 provide for sexual intercourse with a child, sexual abuse and exploitation respectively.

Section 31 provides that any person who has sexual intercourse with a child commits an offence of rape and is liable on conviction to imprisonment for life.

Also, according to the provision in section 32, any person who sexually abuses or sexually exploits a child is liable on conviction to imprisonment for a term of fourteen years.

Effects of Child Abuse

The results or consequences of child abuse are but not limited to the following:

• Bleeding and bruises (in or around genitals and other parts of the body)
• Head and brain trauma
• Sexually transmitted diseases
• Unwanted pregnancy
• Prostitution
• Anxiety, persistent fear and depression
• Low self-esteem
• Withdrawal, dissociation and difficulty with making and maintaining relationships
• Failure in school
• Self-harm
• Alcohol and drug use
• Criminal activities
• Death

 Prevention of Child Abuse

According to Prevent Child Abuse America, here are things one can do to prevent child abuse:

• Be a nurturing and loving parent
• Help a friend, relative or neighbour
• Get involved in helping services needed to meet the needs of children and families
• Promote child abuse prevention programmes
• Educate your children on the risk of abuse

Report suspected child abuse or neglect to Police