The Abuse of Children in Care in Scotland: a Research Review
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The abuse of children in care in Scotland: A research review Lorraine Radford, Steven Dodd, Christine Barter, Nicky Stanley & Ather Akhlaq © Lorraine Radford, University of Central Lancashire 1 About the Authors Lorraine Radford, PhD, was the Principal Investigator for this research. Lorraine is Professor of Social Policy & Social Work and Co-Director of the Connect Centre for Research on Interpersonal Violence and Harm at the University of Central Lancashire. She has 36 years of qualitative and quantitative research experience on violence prevention focusing particularly on gender and violence and preventing violence against children in the UK and overseas. She led the UK study of violence against children and has acted as an adviser to several other national and international studies and inquiries into the prevalence and nature of child abuse and neglect. Her most recent publication is ‘Researching violence with children: Experiences and lessons from the UK and South Africa’, Families, Relationships and Societies, 2017. Ather Akhlaq conducted the online database searches and helped to screen readings for this research. Ather was awarded his PhD in eHealth from The University of Edinburgh, UK. He is Assistant Professor of eHealth in the Institute of Business Management, Pakistan. His research interests are health information management, health information exchange, use of open source health technologies, online social media and digital commerce. He has experience of systematic reviews, scoping reviews, case study and survey research. His latest publication is “Barriers and facilitators to health information exchange in low- and middle-income country settings: a systemic review” Health Policy and Planning 2016, 31:9, 1310-1325. Christine Barter, PhD helped to quality assess studies and contributed to writing up this research. Christine is Reader in Young People and Violence Prevention at the Connect Centre for Research on Interpersonal Violence and Harm at the University of Central Lancashire. She has undertaken research on a range of children’s issues, including children in out-of-home care. Recently her research has focused on abuse and violence in young people’s intimate relationships, recent publications include Barter, C. and Stanley, N. (2016): Inter-personal violence and abuse in adolescent intimate relationships: mental health impact and implications for practice, International Review of Psychiatry. Steven Dodd, PhD was research assistant for this study and helped with the review, particularly with sourcing articles and grey literature. Stephen is a Research Associate in the School of Social Work, Care and Community at the University of Central Lancashire. He has worked on research into a range of health and social issues, including Cabinet Office funded research into the role of volunteers in end-of-life care. His latest publication is ‘How effective are volunteers at supporting people in their last year of life?: a pragmatic randomised wait-list trial in palliative care (ELSA)’ BMC Medicine 2016, 14:203. Nicky Stanley helped to quality assess articles for this research. Nicky is Professor of Social Work and Co-Director of the Connect Centre for Research on Interpersonal Violence and Harm at the University of Central Lancashire. She researches on domestic violence, children in out-of-home care, child protection and young people’s mental health. She publishes widely; her most recent book is Nicky Stanley and Cathy Humphreys (eds) (2015) Domestic Violence and Protecting Children: New Thinking and Approaches, London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers. 2 Acknowledgements The authors thank the following research experts for their helpful advice and recommendations on sources of evidence in Scotland: Brigid Daniel, Professor of Social Work, University of Stirling Andrew Kendrick, Professor of Residential Child Care, University of Strathclyde Ian Levitt, Emeritus Professor of Social Work, University of Central Lancashire Julie Taylor, Professor of Child Protection, University of Birmingham 3 Contents Glossary and definitions .......................................................................................................................... 5 Acronyms ................................................................................................................................................ 8 Executive summary ................................................................................................................................. 9 1. Background ....................................................................................................................................... 18 2. Objectives & Methodology ............................................................................................................... 18 3. The extent of child abuse and neglect .............................................................................................. 20 3.1 Measurement issues ................................................................................................................... 20 3.2 Global prevalence rates .............................................................................................................. 25 3.3 Description of the evidence on current global prevalence rates................................................ 29 3.4 Incidence and prevalence of child abuse in Scotland ................................................................. 44 3.5 Description of the evidence on current UK prevalence rates ..................................................... 51 3.6 Trends over time ......................................................................................................................... 57 3.7 Research gaps ............................................................................................................................. 62 4. The abuse of children in care – global evidence ............................................................................... 64 4.1 Measurement challenges ............................................................................................................ 65 4.2 The nature of abuse in care ........................................................................................................ 66 4.3 Global studies of the prevalence of abuse in care ...................................................................... 68 4.4 Description of the global evidence on abuse in care .................................................................. 72 5 Prevalence of abuse in care in Scotland ............................................................................................ 79 5.1 Recent studies ............................................................................................................................. 80 5.2 Nature of abuse in care Scotland 1930-2014.............................................................................. 85 5.3 Research gaps ............................................................................................................................. 93 6. Conclusions ..................................................................................................................................... 102 Appendices .......................................................................................................................................... 103 Appendix 1 ...................................................................................................................................... 103 Appendix 2 – Technical Appendix ................................................................................................... 104 Appendix 3 ...................................................................................................................................... 117 References .......................................................................................................................................... 118 4 Glossary and definitions Abuse – means primarily physical abuse and sexual abuse, with associated psychological and emotional abuse. The Inquiry will be entitled to consider other forms of abuse at its discretion, including medical experimentation, spiritual abuse, unacceptable practices (such as deprivation of contact with siblings) and neglect, but these matters do not require to be examined individually or in isolation (Terms of Reference, Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry). Child – a person under the age of 18 (Terms of Reference, Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry). Children in Care – includes children in institutional residential care such as children’s homes (including residential care provided by faith-based groups); secure care units including List D schools; Borstals; Young Offenders’ Institutions; places provided for Boarded Out children in the Highlands and Islands; state, private and independent Boarding Schools, including state funded school hostels; healthcare establishments providing long term care; and any similar establishments intended to provide children with long term residential care. The term also includes children in foster care. The term does not include: children living with their natural families; children living with members of their natural families, children living with adoptive families, children using sports and leisure clubs or attending faith-based organisations on a day to day basis; hospitals and similar treatment centres attended on a short term basis; nursery and day-care; short term respite care for vulnerable children;