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PILOT PROJECT FOR THE CREATION OF A NATION-WIDE
SYSTEM TO MONITOR NEGLECTED, ILL-TREATED AND
SEXUALLY ABUSED CHILDREN, REPORTED TO AND TAKEN
INTO CARE BY ITALIAN CHILD PROTECTION SERVICES
Ministry of Welfare
National Childhood and Adolescence
Documentation and Analysis Centre –
Istituto degli Innocenti
Framework
2002–2004 Italian National Action
Plan for Childhood sets as a priority
identifying a constant, homogeneous
registration system of the incidence
(number of cases per year) of child
abuse in all its forms, and providing an
adequate description of sub-categories
and of its characterizing features.
The project is part of the duties attributed
to the National Centre in accordance with
Law 451/97 under which the National
Centre was established
Pilot project’s aims:
1.experimenting COMMON models in
examining and reporting suspected or
confirmed cases of ill-treatment and
sexual abuse of children;
2. collecting comparative data.
Projecting process – main steps
1.
2.
3.
A national group of experts coordinated by
National Centre was set up
Review of the main experiences of data
colleting and surveys conducted in Italy
after the approval of the new law on child
sexual abuse (1996)
Analysis of the existing regional guidelines
for reporting and taking care of child
suspected to be victim of child abuse
4.
5.
6.
7.
Drafting of a form to register demographic,
social and clinical information on the child
and his/her family, and to document the
interventions by the territorial service
responsible for the minor and by all other
agencies acting in the protection process
Presentation of the project and a first
version of recording’s tools (registration
form and software) to representatives of
regions and territorial services
Identification of three regions (Friulia
Veenzia Giulia in the North, Lazio in the
Centre and Calabria in the South of Italy) for
a pilot implementation of the project
Selection of a sample of services in the
three regions partecipating to the pilot study
Training with the professionals working
in the territorial services selected
The main actors of the survey are
professionals working in child
protection’s field in health or social
local services
The application of the common form is
planned for two periods:
On the cases reported in October,
November and December 2004
On the new cases which will be
reported during the year 2005.
Framework definition “child abuse or
maltreatment constitutes all forms of physical
and/or emotional ill-treatment, sexual abuse,
neglect or negligent treatment or commercial
or other exploitation, resulting in actual or
potential harm to the child’s health, survival,
development or dignity in the context of a
relationship of responsibility, trust or power”.
1999 WHO’s “Consultation on Child Abuse
Prevention”
Typologies of child
abuse considered in the
pilot study
sexual abuse
physical ill-treatment
psychological ill-treatment
neglect
witnessing violence
Each typologies is identified by a set of
specific attitudes and behaviours
The Child form
Section A: the child, personal information of an
anonymous nature;
Section B: the reasons for the report of child to
the service (including information on possible
previous referral of child or his/her family to the
service completing the form or other);
Section C: description of the family context (its
structure, personal and social data on the
parents other children, identification of specific
risk factors);
Section D:resources of protection (material but
also qualitative) at an individual (parents and
child) and family/social level – ecological
approach to the interpretation of the causes
and dynamics of child abuse
Section E: the interventions performed by
the service filling the form, or others, in
favour of the child, the family unit
Section F: the characterizing features of the
forms of child abuse reported, for each
forms: specific acts, frequency, duration,
data on perpetrator, interventions to
perpetrator (s)
A total of 87 items.
The professionals participating to the pilot
study will register the information in a
friendly software designed by the
National Centre
The Form or Child questionnaire: a
dynamic tool for register the proccess of
taking in care of the child and his/her
family
Detection
Protection
Assessment
Child questionnaire/form
Recovery
Expected results
Identify a minimum common set of
variables/items as the core of a standard form
to be disseminate at national level
Contribute to the knowledge on each type of
child abuse in terms of characteristics,
dynamics and typologies of families
interested by the problem
Acquire a picture on the interventions
adopted to face the problem with the child,
the family and perpetrators
Collect comparable data thanking to the use
of a common set of definitions and a common
form for reporting each case