Will prohibiting the use of physical punishment reduce child abuse deaths among New Zealand children?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.11157/anzswj-vol21iss1id309Keywords:
child abuse, correctional force, section 59 amendment, child abuse deaths, sweden,Abstract
The Amendment Act (Crimes (Substituted Section 59) Amendment Act, 2007) came into force on 22 June 2007. The changes in the Act amended the right of parents to use force by way of correction toward a child. The purpose of this amendment was to provide children with a safer and more secure environment to live in that is free from violence. Such a move also has the potential to provide a clearer mandate for social workers in regard to issues of child safety. While planned, reviews to determine how effective the amendment has been have not yet been undertaken.
This paper presents some key findings from a larger study exploring the issue of child abuse deaths in New Zealand. In doing so a comparison of legislation and policy between New Zealand and Sweden is presented. Sweden was used as the main focus for this comparison as it introduced a ban on use of corporal punishment of children in 1979.
References
Benjet, C., & Kazdin, A.E. (2003). Spanking children: The controversies, findings and new directions. Clinical Psychology Review, 23(2), 197-224.
Bradford, S. (2005). Crimes (Abolition of Force as a Justification for Child Discipline) Amendment Bill 2005. Bills Digest No. 1278, Wellington: New Zealand Parliamentary Library.
Connolly, M. (2005). Fifteen years of Family Group Conferencing: Coordinators talk about their experiences in Aotearoa New Zealand. British Journal of Social Work, 36(4), 523-540.
Dobbs, T. (2005) Children’s insights into family discipline. A thesis submitted for the degree of Master of Arts (Childhood and Youth Studies) of the University of Otago, Children’s Issues Centre, Dunedin, New Zealand.
Doolan, M. (2004). Child death by homicide: An examination of incidence in New Zealand 1991-2000. Te Awatea Review, 2(1), 7-10.
Durrant, J.E., & Olsen, G.M. (1997). Parenting and public policy. Contextualizing the Swedish corporal punishment ban. Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law, 19(4), 443-461.
Durrant, J.E. (2000). A generation without smacking: The impact of Sweden’s ban on physical punishment. London: Save the Children.
Durrant, J.E. (2004). Whose body is it anyway? Physical punishment, children’s rights and parental responsibility. Children Issues, 8(2), 23-26.
Gallaway, A. (1999). A submission seeking to repeal section 59 of the New Zealand Crimes Act 1961. Article Collection 2001: Family Issues. Children’s Issues Centre, University of Otago.
Khoo, E., Nygren, L., & Hyvonen, U. (2002). Child welfare or child protection. A comparative study of social intervention in child maltreatment in Canada and Sweden. In M. Hill, A. Stafford, & P.M. Lister (Eds.). International perspectives on child protection. Report of a seminar held on 20 March 2002. Glasgow: Centre for the Child and Society.
Kotch, J., Chalmers, D., Fanslow, J., Marshall, S., & Langley, J. (1993). Morbidity and death due to child abuse in New Zealand. Child Abuse and Neglect, 17, 233-247.
Lansdown, G. (2001). Children’s rights: A second chance. London: International Save the Children Alliance.
Ministry of Health and Social Affairs, Sweden. (2005). Social Services Act: SFS 2001, Promulgated: 7 June, with amendments up to and including SFS 2004:851. Date of translation: March 2005. Sweden: Author.
Ministry of Health and Social Affairs, Sweden. (2005). The Care of Young Persons Act: SFS 1990, Promulgated: 8 March 1990 with amendments up to and including SFS 2003:420. Date of translation: March 2005. Sweden: Author.
Ministry of Social Development. (2005). The Social Report 2005. Wellington: Author.
Ministry of Social Development. (2006). Children at increased risk of death from maltreatment and strategies for prevention. Wellington: Author.
Ministry of Youth Affairs. (2000). Children in New Zealand, United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child: Second Periodic Report of New Zealand, December 2000. Wellington: Author.
NZPA. (2007, February 22). Discipline Bill passes second reading. Otago Daily Times.
NZPA. (2007, May 3). Amendment clears way for Bill. Otago Daily Times.
NZPA. (2007, May 17). Big vote puts Smacking Bill into law. Otago Daily Times.
Ritchie, J., & Ritchie, J. (1981). Spare the rod. North Sydney: George Allen and Unwin Australia.
Ross, G. (2002). The physical chastisement of children: Lessons learned from Sweden and Germany. The Scottish Parliament: The Information Centre.
Tapp, P., & Taylor, N. (2002). Protecting the family. In M. Henaghan & B. Atkin (Eds.). Family law policy in New Zealand (2nd ed.). Wellington: Lexis Nexis Butterworths.
Taylor, N. (2004). International law. In A.B. Smith, M.M. Gollop, N.J. Taylor, & K.A. Marshall (Eds.). The discipline and guidance of children: Messages from research, a review of research literature for the Office of the Children’s Commissioner by the Children’s Issues Centre. Dunedin: University of Otago, Children’s Issues Centre, Commissioner for the Children.
The New Zealand Children, Young Persons and Their Families Act. (1989).
The New Zealand Crimes Act. (1961). Section 59.
The Amendment Act (The Crimes (Substituted Section 59) Amendment Act, 2007)
Trevathan, S. (2007). Stopping the hurt: Laws prohibiting the use of physical punishment could reduce the rate of child abuse deaths amongst New Zealand children. (Unpublished Master of Social Work thesis), University of Otago, Dunedin.
UNICEF. (2008). The Crimes (Substituted Section 59) Amendment Act - Media Kit. Retrieved on 31 August 2008 from http://www.unicef.org.nz/speaking-out/nz-children/April_2008_media_kit.pdf.
UNICEF. (2003). A league table of child maltreatment deaths in rich nations. Innocenti Report Card, Issue No.5, Florence: UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre. Retrieved June 18, 2005, from http://www.uniceficdc.org.
Wood, B. (2006). Article on repeal of Section 59 Crimes Act 1961. Retrieved 19 April 2006 from http://www.converge.org.nz/pma/subsec59.htm.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2017 Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
By completing the online submission process, you confirm you accept this agreement. The following is the entire agreement between you and the Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers (ANZASW) and it may be modified only in writing.
You and any co-authors
If you are completing this agreement on behalf of co-authors, you confirm that you are acting on their behalf with their knowledge.
First publication
By submitting the work you are:
- granting the ANZASW the right of first publication of this work;
- confirming that the work is original; and
- confirming that the work has not been published in any other form.
Once published, you are free to use the final, accepted version in any way, as outlined below under Copyright.
Copyright
You assign copyright in the final, accepted version of your article to the ANZASW. You and any co-authors of the article retain the right to be identified as authors of the work.
The ANZASW will publish the final, accepted manuscript under a Creative Commons Attribution licence (CC BY 4.0). This licence allows anyone – including you – to share, copy, distribute, transmit, adapt and make commercial use of the work without needing additional permission, provided appropriate attribution is made to the original author or source.
A human-readable summary of the licence is available from http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0, which includes a link to the full licence text.
Under this licence you can use the final, published version of the article freely – such as depositing a copy in your institutional research repository, uploading a copy to your profile on an academic networking site or including it in a different publication, such as a collection of articles on a topic or in conference proceedings – provided that original publication in Aotearoa New Zealand Social Work is acknowledged.
This agreement has no effect on any pre-publication versions or elements, which remain entirely yours, and to which we claim no right.
Reviewers hold copyright in their own comments and should not be further copied in any way without their permission.
The copyright of others
If your article includes the copyright material of others (e.g. graphs, diagrams etc.), you confirm that your use either:
- falls within the limits of fair dealing for the purposes of criticism and review or fair use; OR
- that you have gained permission from the rights holder for publication in an open access journal.
