Responding to child sexual abuse in the United States and Kenya: Child protection and children's rights

Jane Mildred and Carol A. Plummer

Children and Youth Services Review, 2009, vol. 31, issue 6, 601-608

Abstract: Child welfare policies and practices vary widely across nations, but most comparative studies have focused on differences between North American and European countries in how they address the abuse and exploitation of children. Using a comparative case-study approach to examine differences and similarities in how the United States and Kenya have responded to the sexual abuse of children, this article illustrates why it is important to examine and compare child welfare policies and practices in a wider range of countries. The dominant strategy for addressing child sexual abuse in the United States is the formal child protection system, while Kenya focuses more on locally-based efforts for empowering children and communities to resist and interrupt exploitation and abuse. Since both approaches have strengths and weaknesses, there is a great deal that the two countries could learn from and teach each other. The authors suggest that it is important to acknowledge children's strengths, agency, and rights, as well as their vulnerabilities, and conclude that responses to child sexual abuse and other types of maltreatment may be strengthened by a clearer understanding of how history, culture, politics, and economics influence the development and effectiveness of child protective policies and practices.

Keywords: Sexual; abuse; Child; protection; Children's; rights; UNCRC; Kenya; United; States (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190-7409(08)00273-9
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:31:y:2009:i:6:p:601-608

Access Statistics for this article

Children and Youth Services Review is currently edited by Duncan Lindsey

More articles in Children and Youth Services Review from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().