JEDDAH, 19 December 2003 — At least 21 percent of male children in the Kingdom are subjected to some form of permanent abuse, with most being subjected to psychological pressure, according to a government study.
The study, conducted by the Ministry of the Interior’s Center for Prevention and Research of Crime, excluded women and cases of sexual abuse, the latter on the grounds that the “subject was sensitive,” according to Al-Watan daily.
“Psychological abuse represents the majority of abuse cases with 33.6 percent, followed by physical abuse, which accounts for 25.3 percent. Even in cases of physical abuse the children are being subjected to some kind of psychological pressure,” said the study, the first of its kind to address the problem.
“Withholding monetary or emotional reward was the main example of psychological abuse (36 percent), followed by threatening physical abuse (32 percent) and cursing (21 percent),” the study said.
The highest level of physical abuse is at the high-school level and accounts for 28.4 percent of cases, followed by abuse at the elementary level, with 25.3 percent, and at the middle school level, accounting for 23.4 percent.
Severe beatings make up 21 percent of physical abuse. Of the physically abused children, 18 percent were being hit with dangerous objects while cases of “parents smoking in the presence of their children” accounted for 17 percent.
Many parents were found to be unaware of the punishment their children receive at school.
The study said most of the children suffering psychological abuse do so at the elementary stage. Such cases account for 36.4 percent of overall cases. It is followed by abuse at the high-school level, which accounts for 36 percent, and middle school, accounting for 30 percent.
According to the study, children with mothers with university degree were found to be among the highly abused category, accounting for 26 percent. This has been attributed to the fact that the mother goes out for work leaving the children with a maid or a relative. Children whose mothers hold elementary school certificates were found to account for 25.7 percent.
The study concluded that child abuse is more likely to happen among families with an income of less than SR3,000.
It recommends increased preventive and therapeutic programs and called for immediate intervention whenever child abuse has been established. It also called for training teams to tackle abuse from the psychological, social and legal sides.
