Tag: neglect

Victoria University study suggests children experience high rates of violence in community sport

Post author By mangakiko
Post date August 10, 2022
No Comments on Victoria University study suggests children experience high rates of violence in community sport

Eighty-two per cent of people sampled in a study conducted by Victoria University have reported experiencing at least one form of interpersonal violence when participating in community sport as a child.

The survey, which is the most comprehensive of its kind in Australia, asked 886 adults whether they had experienced physical, sexual or psychological violence, as well as neglect, from either coaches, peers or parents during childhood.

Seventy-six per cent said they had experienced psychological violence or neglect, 66 per cent reported physical violence and 38 per cent reported sexual violence.

One in three respondents, meanwhile, said they had experienced all four forms of violence.

The respondents had participated in a large variety of sports, with nearly 70 represented.

A graph showing key statistics including that 82% of respondents experienced at least one type of violence — Seventy per cent of respondents experienced physical and psychological violence from a peer. (Designed by The Infologist for Victoria University)

While such large numbers may come as a surprise to some, study co-author Mary Woessner said she was not shocked.

“From the literature, and knowing what’s happening internationally, I would say that’s right about what we were expecting,” Dr Woessner told the ABC.

“One of the first things you need to create change, positive change, is generate understanding that there’s a problem.

“We just want people to know it exists, so we can make evidence-based decisions to change it.”

Dr Woessner’s co-author, Aurélie Pankowiak, explained that the survey asked participants about explicit examples of violence they may have experienced in a sporting context.

Dr Aurélie Pankowiak poses for a photo on one of the basketball courts at Victoria University — Aurélie Pankowiak co-authored the study with Mary Woessner.(ABC News: Andie Noonan)

For neglect, for example, participants were asked if they had experienced being refused time off for medical injuries.

For psychological, participants were asked whether they had been insulted, threatened or humiliated (for example by being bullied, given an unwanted nickname violence or otherwise ostracised).

“We had very concrete examples of different types of violence, so we did not leave it up to the person’s interpretation of whether or not what they experienced was violent,” Dr Pankowiak said.

One reason for this, the authors say, is that it can take victims a long time to recognize that what they experienced constituted violence.

“The average reporting time for sexual abuse can be 20 years or longer,” Dr Woessner said.

“At the moment we have a system that relies on children telling us what happened while knowing that the vast majority of literature says they won’t [come forward] for years to come.

“That’s why in this study, the easiest and safest way of collecting this data was to do it retrospectively. [by asking adults].”

Most children experience violence from peers

In a first, the study sought to break down children’s experiences of violence by who perpetrated it, including peers and parents as well as coaches.

This breakdown showed that 73 per cent of respondents experienced violence from their peers, followed by coaches (60 per cent) and parents (35 per cent).

Most respondents had experienced violence from a peer. A coach was the next most common.(Designed by The Infologist for Victoria University)

Dr Woessner said distinguishing who was perpetrating violence was important because most academic literature, as well as media coverage, has focused on violence perpetrated by coaches, usually at the elite level.

This includes high-profile cases like that of Larry Nassar, the former US Olympic gymnastics team doctor who is serving an effective life sentence for sexually abusing at least 40 girls and women.

Australian swimmer Maddie Groves also recently came forward with the allegation that she was sexually abused by a former coach who is still working in the sport.

“You can distance yourself from an Olympic athlete experiencing abuse and start to think that it only happens at the elite level,” Dr Woessner said.

“There’s a mentality, ‘well that’s not my child, it’s not happening in my sport, or at my club’ … but I think with this data we can show that it might be.”

Data collected by Dr Pankowiak and Dr Woessner also showed significant gendered differences in the types of violence being experienced by men, women and gender-diverse people in childhood.

Women were more likely to experience sexual violence compared to men, while they were also more likely to experience psychological violence and neglect.

Men, on the other hand, were more likely to experience physical violence from a peer.

“When you talk about a gendered experience, we sometimes focus only on women,” Dr Woessner said.

“But it’s not that men aren’t experiencing violence, they’re just experiencing different types.”

Women experienced higher rates of sexual and psychological violence, as well as neglect.

The authors also analyzed a third category, gender-diverse people, encompassing those who identified as non-binary, gender questioning or selected “don’t know” for their gender identity.

While the sample size was small, at 17 people total, the authors found gender-diverse people experienced higher rates of many types of violence compared to cisgender men and women.

“We know from the literature broadly that marginalized communities experience institutionalized violence,” Dr Pankowiak said.

What was less clear, Dr Pankowiak said, was how the experience of systemic marginalization translated into interpersonal violence in a sporting context.

“We need an understanding of what’s driving those rates,” Dr Woessner said.

“We are talking about gender diversity here, but we know that the LGBTQI+ community broadly, people from culturally and linguistically diverse communities, they all have higher risks. We just don’t fully understand why and how that’s happening.”

A wake-up call with ‘no quick fix’

While this particular study did not look at the impacts of the childhood experience of violence, the authors said there was clear evidence that it could have lifelong detrimental effects.

“We do know that there are long-term impacts,” Dr Woessner said.

“Often they [victim survivors] leave sport. They might only leave the team they’re on, but there are some people who leave sport entirely.

Co-author Mary Woessner hopes the study will be a call to action for Australian sport.(ABC News: Andie Noonan)

“Beyond the individual, you see families torn apart, you see communities torn apart.

“Community sport is led by volunteers, and when something like this happens, it impacts not just the individual but their friends, their family, and by default the community.”

Moving forward, the authors argued it was essential to intervene early so that children and adults could continue to enjoy the many benefits sport provides.

“What we’re seeing in the data is that we have a cultural normalization of violence in sport,” Dr Woessner said.

“It’s systemic, there’s not one type of violence or only one type of perpetrator and it’s happening across all sports.”

Dr Woessner added that while there was no “quick fix”, there were clear steps sports could take to safeguard children.

“When we’re thinking about changing culture, we need to go a step further than just education and policies,” Dr Woessner said.

“We need to go from the ground up and work with clubs on initiatives that are long-lasting and can create behavioral change.

“I would hope that this data starts to change public perception on the prevalence of these experiences in community sport and that it calls sports to action.”

If you believe you have experienced violence during your childhood participation in sport, you can lodge a complaint through Sport Integrity Australia’s online portal.

Tags abuse, CALD, child, child sexual abuse, children, coach, Data, Fitness, gender, gender diverse, gymnastics, impacts, Larry Nassar, LGBT, LGBTQI, Maddie Groves, Men, neglect, non-binary, Pankowiak, parent, peer, prevail, psychological, reporting, research, Sport, standards, statistics, study, Survey, swimming, victoria college, Violence, Woessner, women

Australia

Craigmore boy whose death is being investigated suffered stomach pains, cardiac arrest before dying, his family says

Post author By mangakiko
Post date August 1, 2022
No Comments on Craigmore boy whose death is being investigated suffered stomach pains, cardiac arrest before dying, his family says

The father of a young Adelaide boy whose death is being investigated by police has spoken of the “saddest day” he laid his son to rest.

WARNING: This story contains content that some readers may find upsetting.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains the name of a person who has died.

Kaurna-Narungga boy Makai, aged seven, died on February 10 but police yesterday revealed they have been investigating his death — the second suspected neglect case brought before the taskforce in less than a month.

ABC has spoken to Makai’s family and has obtained permission to use his name.

In a social media post, Makai’s father wrote the boy has been laid to rest in the new Kaurna Repatriation area at Smithfield Memorial Park in March.

“My son, Makai, will be the first Kaurna person to be laid to rest in a new location, designated for the Kaurna People,” he wrote.

“What an historic moment this will be and yet it will be the saddest day for me.”

In an earlier post, I thanked close family and friends who supported him and his child through “difficult and challenging time”.

“No father should watch his son die. Wouldn’t wish this on anyone. Not even my worst enemy,” the father wrote.

“The system I put my faith and trust in, failed me and my son,” he wrote in a separate post.

“I miss him so much, I wish he was here with me. I LOVE HIM,” he wrote on a different day.

Makai’s heart stopped three times

Makai’s relatives have claimed on a fundraising page that the Craigmore boy had suffered stomach pains in his final days.

The primary school student visited a doctor and had x-rays after complaining of stomach pains on February 7.

His doctor reviewed the x-ray results the next day and prescribed Makai laxatives.

Police Commissioner Mal Hyde — Former police commissioner Mal Hyde will lead a government review into the agencies’ interactions with Charlie and Makai’s families.(abcnews)

However, Makai took a turn for the worse the following day, where he could not move and started to hallucinate, his relatives wrote on the fundraising page.

On February 10, Makai — with a swollen belly — was rushed to the Lyell McEwin Hospital by his father.

His heart stopped beating and he went into cardiac arrest twice, and doctors were able to revive him.

Makai underwent emergency surgery and was placed into an induced coma to be transferred to the Women’s and Children’s Hospital.

During the ambulance trip, Makai’s father was told the boy might not survive the journey to the hospital.

After arriving, Makai’s heart stopped for a third time and doctors were not able to resuscitate him.

The coroner’s report released the following week showed the seven-year-old had died from pneumonia in both lungs, sepsis and the MRSA superbug, a drug-resistant form of golden staph.

A photo of Charlie wearing a cowboy hat — Police are investigating the death of Charlie for suspected neglect.(Supplied)

Makai’s relatives wrote the diagnosis was “a shock”, because pneumonia was not picked up at the Lyell McEwin Hospital nor by radiology.

The boy’s death is being investigated by Taskforce Prime, which was set up last month to investigate the death of six-year-old Charlie.

A government review — led by former police commissioner Mal Hyde — is underway to examine the interactions that agencies had with both children’s families and to identify any gaps in the child protection system.

Tags Adelaide, bad hyde, Charlie, child abuse, child protection, craigmore, gofundme, Health, lyell mcewin hospital, makai, neglect, police taskforce prime, smithfield, women's and children's hospital

Australia

South Australian police investigate seven-year-old Craigmore boy’s death from suspected criminal neglect

Post author By mangakiko
Post date August 1, 2022
No Comments on South Australian police investigate seven-year-old Craigmore boy’s death from suspected criminal neglect

South Australian detectives have launched a second investigation into the death of a child by suspected criminal neglect.

WARNING: This story contains content that some readers may find upsetting

The new case involves a seven-year-old boy, who died soon after he was taken to the Lyell McEwin Hospital by his father in February.

The boy’s five siblings, aged between seven and 16, were later removed from their home at Craigmore in Adelaide’s northern suburbs.

Police say they have examined volumes of evidence from child protection authorities, alongside a post-mortem report and advice from a pediatrician at the hospital.

“There is an enormous amount of records and we’ve only had a cursory look at those since we’ve got them, but it seems sufficient to launch a criminal investigation,” Detective Superintendent Des Bray said.

“Several serious health issues were identified but in themselves [were] not necessarily cause for immediate concern.”

He urged neighbours, friends and workers in government and private agencies to come forward and contact Crime Stoppers to assist the investigation.

“Essentially a case of criminal neglect occurs when a person who has a duty of care to a child fails to take all reasonable steps to protect the child from harm and the child dies or is harmed as a result of that neglect and the neglect is so serious that it warrants a criminal sanction,” Superintendent Bray said.

Police have now referred the boy’s death to Taskforce Prime, which was set up a fortnight ago to investigate the death of another child, a six year-old girl named Charlie.

Charlie, aged six, died soon after arriving at the Lyell McEwin Hospital last month.(Facebook)

Charlie died soon after arriving unresponsive at the Lyell McEwin Hospital last month.

While there are no links between the two cases, police say there are some similarities.

Tags Adelaide, Charlie, child abuse, child protection, coronial, craigmore, criminal neglect, des bray, lyell mcewin hospital, major crime, makai, neglect, police, question, task force prime, women's and children hospital, world for

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