Abstract
The status of children reflects the willingness of a society to invest in its future. However, every year millions of children throughout the world are subjected to unnecessary and preventable physical, emotional, psychological and sexual harm by others. These include such things as the use of children in armed combat, the exploitation of child labor, child abandonment, and trafficking. Data on the extent and distribution of the various harms experienced by the world’s young people are presented. Some of these harms are the consequences of various acts normally considered to be crimes under criminal law, such as murder or theft. But the world’s young are harmed also by a host of other actions usually deemed forms of child abuse, maltreatment, or neglect that may or may not fall under the criminal statutes of individual countries. Under international law, as well as the laws of virtually all societies, such acts should be considered forms of child victimization, conceptualized and understood in the same way we view crimes of any kind. Moreover, such actions ought to be thought of as forms of “government crime” insofar as the behavior resulting in this harm is either directly perpetrated by agents of governments, or is a result of governmental inaction, indifference, or incompetence. As such, worldwide efforts to combat child victimization must focus on not only helping victimized children but also address the underlying conditions that allow such behavior to emerge and continue throughout the world.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Alderson, Priscilla. 2000. UN Convention on the Rights of the Child: Some Common Criticism and Suggested Responses. Child Abuse Review. 9:439–443.
BBC. 2010. South Africa Fury at Inaction Over School Gang-Rape. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-11717466.
Bennhold, Katrin; Kulish, Nicholas & Donadio, Rachel. 2010. Abuse Scandal’s Ripples Spread Across Europe. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/25/world/europe/25church.html?emc=eta1.
Cloherty, Jack. 2010. 12-Year-Old Picked Up in Child Prostitution Sweep. http://abcnews.go.com/News/law-enforcement-child-prostitution-sweep-picks-69-children/.
Crosson-Tower, Cynthia. 1999. Understanding Child Abuse and Neglect. 4th. ed. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Dorne, Clifford K. 1989. Crimes against Children. New York: Harrow and Heston.
Englehart, Neil A. 2009. State Capacity, State Failure, and Human Rights. Journal of Peace Research. 46:163–180.
Enzmann, Dirk; Marshall, Ineke Haen; Killias, Martin; Junger-Tas, Josine; Steketee, Majone & Gruszczynska, Beata. 2010. Self-Reported Youth Delinquency in Europe and Beyond: First Results of the Second International Self-Report Delinquency Study in the Context of Police and Victimization Data, European Journal of Criminology. 7:159–183.
Finkelhor, David & Hashima, Patricia Y. 2001. “The Victimization of Children and Youth: A Comprehensive Overview, pp., 49–78 in White, Susan O. (ed.) Handbook of Youth and Justice. New York: Klumer.
Finkelhor, David; Ormrod, Richard; Turner, Heather & Hamby, Sherry L. 2005. The Victimization of Children and Youth: A Comprehensive, National Survey. Child Maltreatment. 10:5–25.
Hartjen, Clayton A. 1978. Crime and Criminalization. 2nd. Ed. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Wilson.
Haugen, Gary & Boutros, Victor. 2011. And Justice for All: Enforcing Human Rights for the World’s Poor. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gary-haugen/and-justice-for-all-enforb583217.html.
Hunnicutt, Gwen & LaFree, Gary. 2007. Reassessing the Structural Covariates of Cross-National Infant Homicide Victimization, Homicide Studies. X:1–21.
Krug, Etienne G.; Dahlberg, Linda L.; Mercy, James A.; Zwi, Anthony B. & Lozano, Rafael. 2002. World Report on Violence and Health. Geneva: World Health Organization.
The People’s Movement for Human Rights Education. 1997. The Human Right to Education. http://www.pdhre.org/rights/education.html.
United Nations. 1989. Convention on the Rights of the Child. New York, NY: United Nations.
US Department of Justice. 2009. Criminal Victimization, 2008. http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/cv08.htm.
US Department of Health and Human Services. 2008. Child Maltreatment 2006. http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/pubs/cm06/cm06.pdf.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2012 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Hartjen, C.A., Priyadarsini, S. (2012). Introduction. In: The Global Victimization of Children. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-2179-5_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-2179-5_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-2178-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-2179-5
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawSocial Sciences (R0)