Child neglect highest reported form of abuse – CCPA

The Child Care and Protection Agency (CCPA) received 4917 reports of child abuse in 2018, with neglect accounting for the majority of those cases.
Many parents, due to a busy schedule or other reasons, fail to give their child the attention he or she deserves, which takes a toll on that child without some parents even noticing.
According to the Child Care Department, some 2431 cases of child neglect were recorded last year. In trying to reach out to the public on this matter, the CCPA recently posted on its social media page that the most effective strategy there is when it comes to parents preventing child abuse is communication.
“Parents need to talk to their children every day to learn as much as they can about their child’s daily activities [such as] their feelings, concerns or problems. Adults must listen to their children with open minds [and] they must not be judgemental or keep interrupting the child’s flow as he or she speaks,” the agency stated.
It further noted that at an appropriate time, parents can feel free to ask questions or simply ask the child about anything which may have raised a red flag during the conversation.

The CCPA said that children will not speak openly with adults if they feel that they will either get into trouble or upset their parent in some way. It also noted that if a child feels that the adult is not really concerned about him or her and only pretends to be listening, eventually the child will desist from sharing their feelings.
The Ministry of the Presidency had said, “According to the statistics, 60 per cent of child neglect occurs when a child is between the ages of 4-13 years old, while 83 per cent of child sexual abuse occurs when a child is between the ages of 8-18 years old”.
But Director of the CCPA, Ann Greene is of the view that this number is far less than the actual statistics since abuse is a “hidden crime”.
“Child abuse is a hidden crime and, particularly, sexual abuse is behind closed doors and some of the victims, they literally do not have a voice to report abuse, meaning many children are being abused and they can’t report. So even if we do get a report, that’s the tip of the iceberg,” Greene was quoted as saying.