Medical Institutions’ Response to Child Abuse: Survey across Japan

Eri Ishikawa, Shoichi Maeda, Eisuke Nakazawa () and Akira Akabayashi
Additional contact information
Eri Ishikawa: Department of Medical Ethics and Patient Safety, Keio University, Keio Research Institute at SFC, 4411 Endo, Fujisawa 252-0883, Japan
Shoichi Maeda: Department of Medical Ethics and Patient Safety, Keio University, Keio Research Institute at SFC, 4411 Endo, Fujisawa 252-0883, Japan
Eisuke Nakazawa: Department of Biomedical Ethics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan
Akira Akabayashi: Department of Biomedical Ethics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan

J, 2022, vol. 5, issue 4, 1-12

Abstract: The number of child abuse cases has been increasing in Japan every year. Medical institutions face issues such as coordinating with welfare offices, child guidance centers, police, and other related agencies concerning child abuse, as well as communicating with parents/guardians who are perpetrators of child abuse. This study examined the awareness and actual behavior of medical institutions regarding the support required while notifying/reporting cases of child abuse. A self-administered and anonymous questionnaire survey was conducted among the staff of the pediatrics departments, emergency departments, and general affairs departments of large hospitals in Japan. Differences in notifying and reporting child abuse cases to the child guidance center and welfare office and the police were assessed. It was found that some cases were not reported to the child guidance center or welfare office despite being considered “abuse.” Furthermore, a difference of opinion was observed among staff members, especially in judging “whether abuse is suspected or not.”

Keywords: child abuse; notification; parents/guardians communication (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I1 I10 I12 I13 I14 I18 I19 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2571-8800/5/4/34/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2571-8800/5/4/34/ (text/html)

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:gam:jjopen:v:5:y:2022:i:4:p:34-511:d:974007

Access Statistics for this article

J is currently edited by Ms. Angelia Su

More articles in J from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().