By Yuko Iseya

These days ｗe often hear the news about child abuse, and its numbers are increasing every year. The situation of these children gives one goose bumps when hearing of the details of the abuse. In 1990, the number of consultations about child abuse was 1,101, but in 2000, they increased to 17,725, which is about 16 times more than in 1990. In 2001, 216 child abusers were arrested in 189 cases, and in cases in which the abusers were not arrested, the abused children that were protected temporarily numbered 2,053 in 1998, 4,319 in 1999, and 6,188 in 2000. In addition, 44 children died in 2000 and 61 children died in 2001 from abuse.

The details of abusers show that 59 percent are real mothers, 24 percent are real fathers, and 17 percent are other adults. Surprisingly, more than 80 percent of child abusers are real parents. Why do they treat their own children badly? There are various reasons for this, such as economical difficulties, single parent families, discord between husband and wife, the strain of childcare, isolation from others, their own experiences of being abused in childhood, or mental problems.

The most noticeable reason why parents ill-treat their children is that they also experienced maltreatment by their own parents or another adult when they were children. This is called the "unbroken chain of abuse." The wounds or damage to the heart and brain from abuse are hard to heal, so when they grow up, they often suffer from illnesses like PTSD, depression, or conversion disorder, or they become dependent on alcohol or drugs. It sometimes happens that if juveniles with such disorders grow up and have their own children, something triggers them to abuse their children just as they were abused by their parents. If we leave this as it is, we cannot stop this vicious circle and the number of abused children will surely increase.

Until now, the police, municipalities and neighbors couldnﾕt easily step in to help with this problem because it happens inside the family, so there must be great many more ill-treated children that go unnoticed. In 2000, however, the "Child Abuse Prevention Bill" was put into effect making it quicker and easier to find and take care of abused children. Moreover, according to this bill, teachers, hospital staff, and the general public can be educated about child abuse so that more abused children can be found and protected. However, in spite of this bill and their efforts, the regrettable fact is that the numbers of abused children have been increasing.

On October 1, 2005, five years after the Child Abuse Prevention Bill was put into effect, it was revised and given more enforcement power as a consequence of this dreadful state. The 2000 Bill says, "school teachers and staff must report to police or a child consultation center when they see clear evidence of abuse." In 2005 this was revised to "school teachers and staff must report to police or a child consultation center if there is a suspicion that a child is being abused." This is only an example of the revision, but it is hoped that this will help to find abused children early. It does not mean all child abuse will disappear, but it will surely be a step in the right direction to stop the vicious circle of child abuse.

So what can we do to decrease the numbers of abusers? If the abusers are conscious that they are treating their children badly and want some help to stop it, we have to quickly give them the needed counseling and advice. In fact, in these cases, it is reported that there is a high probability that many abusers can stop the abuse because they have the will to stop abusing. If all of the abusers were like them, these problems could be improved quickly. However, most child abusers never admit that they are abusing their children and in other cases, they might admit their abuse, but they donﾕt really want any outside help. Therefore, community people have to protect the children from abuse, because child abuse is no longer a problem of within the family. Family, community, schools, police and child consultation centers need to cooperate with each other to take care of children and make a society where people can notice any physical damage or changes in childrenﾕs behavior as soon as possible. Otherwise, nothing will change.

The most important thing is to deepen the consciousness and knowledge about child abuse, and to create a community that protects children with the participation of all the community members. Now, this new effort to triumph over both physical and mental child abuse has just started with the new 2005 amendment to the Child Abuse Prevention Bill.