Tougher laws not enough to prevent child abuse, says doctor

KUALA LUMPUR: A senior paediatrician has warned that stricter laws and the enforcement of such laws may not be enough to prevent child abuse as ignorance and cultural norms often cloud the issue.

Dr Irene Cheah Guat Sim, who heads the Suspected Child Abuse and Neglect team at the Kuala Lumpur Hospital, said a majority of perpetrators were unaware that their actions constitute abuse or neglect of children.

“Furthermore, some of our own cultural norms in Asian, or even Western societies, increase the risk of child abuse.

“You and I may not define an act as child abuse when we see a case. If doctors, police and the Welfare Department don’t think that a case is child abuse even when it is, no action will be taken,” she said in a forum on child abuse at the Royal Malaysian Police College in Cheras yesterday.

She added that incidents of child abuse are often hidden as perpetrators do not want people to know of their acts. This makes it difficult to prosecute such cases.

At times, she said, families are also reluctant to report cases of abuse as they do not want attention from the media.

“That is part of the reason why our laws do not seem to be effective,” she said, adding that the majority of cases often go unreported.

Even when reports are made, she said, they usually concern only cases with a high degree of severity.

This leads to a “seasonal” coverage of child abuse cases by the media, although in reality such cases occur every day, she said.

“One moment you will have all the suicide cases and child deaths due to mental health, the next you’ll have all the sexual abuse cases.

“Two months later, there are the physical abuse cases. But frankly speaking, these cases are happening all the time,” she said.

These include “minor” cases in which injuries such as bruises are inflicted but have disappeared by the time the victim is taken to see the doctor.

According to Cheah, the majority of child abuse cases are reported through government hospitals before reaching the Welfare Department.

“There are those who come directly to the police first, and then the hospitals. And the hospitals will refer to the Welfare Department,” she added.

She said the apparent increase in number of child abuse cases might be due to a growth in reports, which she added would lead to a fear of legal reprisal and a subsequent rise in imprisonment.

“The automatic reaction is to punish and have stricter laws, but my case today is that just having stricter laws and the enforcement of laws is not enough to prevent child abuse.”

She added that the police would likely end up overloaded if reports are lodged for every case of child abuse seen by doctors.

“This is probably not the right method, because we want to help the families. Not all families purposely abuse their children,” she said. - FMT