Child Sexual Abuse in Pakistan: Evidence-informed Policy Framework

Abstract

Current policy response towards issue of child sexual abuse in Pakistan is not strategic and evidence-informed but incidents based and populist. Moreover, socio-economic, cultural and political factors in uences also in uence the policy response for addressing the problem of child sexual abuse (CSA). This study is an attempt to suggest the evidence-informed best practices regarding preventive and curative aspects of child sexual abuse in a policy framework. Using ICAST-R tool, 18-24 years old 274 university students were asked about their experiences of sexual abuse during childhood. After critical analysis of policy a rational and evidence-informed policy based on child rights framework and community development approach is proposed for identi cation of CSA, its prevention, addressing cultural barriers, responding to reported cases and other aspects. Overall, 41.69% respondents were sexually abused with one or other form of sexual abuse. Experience of CSA was reported more frequently by boys than girls. Only 34.21% of sexually abused children disclosed to someone and 65.78% victims of sexual abuse never disclosed the experience of sexual abuse to anyone. Among the victims of abuse who disclosed the abuse to someone only 12.82% disclosed within a day. Majority of disclosures (50.98%) were made to friend/peer, followed by parents (11.76%) and siblings (7.84%). Very small percentage of victims reported the abuse to doctor (3.92%), police (1.96%) or a counselor / social worker (1.96%).

Exploring the Causes of Child Abuse in Punjab: Reflections from the Narratives of Child Molesters

“…Even though previous studies (Children's Bureau, 2019) didn't talk about how child abuse affects a child's mind, body, and behavior. Social and cultural factors play a very important role in child abuse (Abbas, 2021). The participants of the present research have shown deep concern about child abuse.…”

Topic Modeling as a Tool to Analyze Child Abuse from the Corpus of English Newspapers in Pakistan

“…Studies on the Pakistani context reveal that it lacks internationally accepted rights-based on child protection mechanisms at the national and provincial levels (Ul Mustafa & Mehmood, 2015). Moreover, a security-focused narrative and socio-economic realities such as poverty are the main priorities of policymakers, which hinders child protection laws (Abbas, 2021). On the other hand, studies based on the context in Pakistan suggest that the lack of adequate state structures paves the way for child abusers to avoid penalties (Granich et al, 2021).…”