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

Abstract

Child maltreatment is a global issue deeply rooted in cultural, economic, and social practices. The present study investigates the representation of child abuse in the mainstream newspapers of Pakistan (i.e., Dawn and The News) from 2013 to 2020. This specific time frame is that these cases increased during these years. The data regarding the child abuse cases were accessed from the LexisNexis database. A computational technique of topic modeling (Latent Dirichlet Allocations) was applied to discover the hidden topics from the filtered data. The study underpinned Computational Grounded Theory as a theoretical frame for this study. The results reveal topics related to awareness of child abuse, the types of child abuse, and the law and procedural matters specific to child abuse cases in Pakistan. The study brings possible implications that child protection laws are to be improved to overcome the menace of child abuse in Pakistan.

Child Sexual Abuse and the Justice System in Pakistan

“…Pakistan's perspective on child abuse Official figures on the frequency of child abuse are crucial, since they are not available for Pakistan, a country whose situation is neither better nor worse than that of any other developing country. 28 A UNICEF survey regarding developing countries concludes that 81 percent of newborns do not survive their first month of life, 63 percent of children aged 6 months to 3 years old suffer from stunted development, anemia, and underweight, and 40 percent of all children under the age of 5 are malnourished. Pakistan has a deteriorating education system, with 21% of Pakistani youngsters marrying before the age of 18, and 23 million never having gone to school.…”

“…The CRC is a piece of legislation that guarantees certain rights to children, including access to medical care, schooling, protection from harm, and other civil and social services. 36 Since then, there has been a growing movement in support of children's rights. In order to address child sexual abuse, exploitation, child pornography, and prostitution, as well as health, housing, poverty, child labour, education, and child mortality, the National Action Plan (NPA) for Child Protection was developed.…”