child abuse

Infographic: 75% of All Children in China Have Been Abused

Posted: 05/30/2014 7:14 pm

Three out of every four children in China have been abused, according to this infographic published by People’s Daily Online.

If that sounds like an incredible ratio, this infographic also provides detailed statistics on precisely which cruel acts are construed as child abuse. For example, a child hitting a child — that’s child abuse. Same goes for corporal punishment and also something curiously described as “forcing them to hand over their money”.

It may be that abuse on children is defined in China in broad terms, the same way knife attacks are now inextricably linked to terrorism. Whatever the case, here’s the proof that explains * how 75% of all Chinese children have been abused:

Analysis of Violent Abuse and Infringement of Rights of (Chinese) Children

74.8% of children (under 16 years old) have been abused

Physical Abuse

Using bare hands to strike them
Using sticks, brooms, or belts to hit them
Constricting their movements
Suffocation, burning, pricking

Mental Abuse

Humiliating and making them feel bad, stupid, or worthless
Forcing them to hand over their money
Telling them that you wished they were never born, or telling them to die
Threatening to abandon them, or forcing them to leave home
Having them witness serious fights and disputes done by family members or friends close to the family
Threatening them with serious injury or death

Sexual Abuse

Verbal sexual harassment
Sexual harasser directly exposing their genitals
Being touched in a private area
Making them touch the private area of another person
Attempted unconsentual sexual intercourse
Unconsentual sexual intercourse

Rate of Abuse in Children (Under 16 Years of Age)

Physical Abuse
Males 64.2%
Females 45.1%

Mental Abuse
Males 65.7%
Females 55.4%

Sexual Abuse
Males and Females 25.6%

Using bare hands to strike them:
Males 54.6%, Females 32.6%
Using sticks, brooms, or belts to hit them:
Males 39%, Females 28.5%
Constricting their movements:
Males 4.3%, Females 2.4%
Suffocation, burning, pricking:
Males 4.3%, Females 2.4%

Humiliating and making them feel bad, stupid, or worthless:
Males 55.9%, Females 29.9%
Forcing them to hand over their money:
Males 24.6%, Females 6.2%
Telling them that you wished they were never born, or telling them to die:
10.5% Both sexes
Threatening to abandon them, or forcing them to leave home:
Males 13.6%, Females 10.5%
Having them witness serious fights and disputes done by family members or friends close to the family:
Males 7.5%, Females 2.4%
Threatening them with serious injury or death:
Males 7.5%, Females 2.4%

Verbal sexual harassment:
Males 12.2%, Females 13.8%
Sexual harasser directly exposing their genitals:
Males 6.5%, Females 11.9%
Being touched in a private area:
Males 9.7%, Females 13.5%
Making them touch the private area of another person:
Males 1.9%, Females 2.7%
Attempted unconsentual sexual intercourse:
Males 1.3%, Females 3.3%
Unconsentual sexual intercourse:
Males 1.7%, Females 2.1%

The home is where MOST abuse occurs

Home Abuse
Hit with bare hands: 26.6%
Hit with an object: 26.2%
Humiliated and shamed: 5.6%
Witness to domestic violence: 19.3%

The school is another major place where abuse occurs, namely corporal punishment from teachers and bullying from other students

Abuse from Teachers
Hit with bare hands: 15%
Hit with an object: 7%
Humiliated and shamed: 12.9%

Abuse from other students
Hit with bare hands: 12.5%
Hit with an object: 3.5%
Humilated and shamed: 18.2%
Sexual harassment and infringement: 12.9%

Ages at which violent behavior has a clear influence upon abused children during their childhood

0:
Males 9%, Females 1.2%
1-2:
Males 14.7%, Females 3.1%
3-4
Males 18.9%, Females 5.8%
5-6
Males 29.9%, Females 7.4%
>7
Males 38.5%, Females 17.2%

* UPDATE: We neglected to mention this: we couldn’t find any reasoning or justification that backs up the huge figure of “75% of all children in China have been abused.”

Photos: Guangzhou Public Security Bureau via Weibo

Tagged: child abuseChildrenDomestic ViolenceFamiliesSchool

Shocking Child Abuse Case and Surprising Attitudes Both Surface in Guangzhou

Posted: 05/15/2014 4:16 pm

[This story may have content that some readers may find disturbing]

On May 14, photos of a ten year-old boy from Heyuan, Guangdong showed bruising and scars all across his body from being physically abused by his step-mother surfaced.

On the very same day, a published survey revealed only 37.5% of its Guangzhou respondents believe beating a child constitutes domestic violence.

We’re not sure which news to be more shocked at, so we’re going to talk about them both.

Binbin’s abuse was reported by a homeroom teacher that saw a bruise on his face. For years, Binbin had been beaten by his stepmother once or twice a week, first with fists and then with clothes hangers. Despite the abuse, authorities could only force the step-mother to take classes, and having failed that, they could take criminal action against her.

Meanwhile, for the past four years, an average of 500 domestic abuse cases have been reported each year in the province, many not unlike Binbin’s case, according to a survey done by Sun Yat-sen University and the Women’s Federation of Guangzhou. Despite the abuse, there are only available six shelters in the province that offer protection, and they have only provided assistance to 17 women and children over the last two years.

Here is what Feng Yuan, co-founder of the Anti-Domestic Violence Network, told the Global Times:

There is no legal framework for public institutions like schools and hospitals to report child abuse…The nation has yet to deprive a single abusive parent of guardianship or to exercise national guardianship to guarantee the best interests of children.

Here’s a fact for you: 100% of me is disgusted, outraged, and saddened, but perhaps not in that order.

Photos: Southern Metropolis Report via Weibo

Tagged: child abuseDomestic ViolencestatisticsSurvey

[Graphic] Video shot by journalist shows father violently abusing his teenaged son

Posted: 04/2/2014 6:05 pm

[This blog contains graphic images and content that some viewers may find offensive.]

A video has surfaced online that depicts the continued assault of a teenaged boy by his father in Chengdu, Sichuan.

Alerted by a tip, a journalist takes position across from the balcony and records the abuse. From noon until 8pm on March 31, the reporter counts 17 beatings inflicted upon the youth by both the mother and father.

The abuse takes place upon a balcony that doubles as the boy’s bedroom, even during winter months. Having dropped out of middle school earlier this year, the boy rarely leaves the house and only eats two meals a day. The boy stated that the reason for the beating was because he stole a sausage from the other renters that share the flat.

Police have intervened, whereby a councilor has been appointed to help the father and son reconcile their differences.

The boy’s interview with a reporter revealed the extent of any reconciliation to be had:

One time, I stepped on mother’s slipper while I was sweeping the floor; father gave me a beating. Father hadn’t finished drinking; when I took a sip; I got beaten so badly my nose bled. Once when I made noodles and used up the last of the remaining vegetables in the house, father gave me a beating. This Spring Festival I received RMB 200 in lucky red envelope money. I used RMB 30 to buy a toy gun and some firecrackers; father said I wasted money, and beat me.

Here is a clip of some of the recording made by the reporter:

Tagged: Assaultchild abuseCrime

2 yr-old in Foshan severely burned by father who was “just educating him”

Posted: 01/10/2014 7:00 am

Foshan made headlines around the world in 2011 when the toddler Wang Yue was run over by two trucks and left for dead by 19 passers-by. Yesterday another horrifying image of the ill-treatment of a child came out of the city.

Xiao Bao, image courtesy of Southern Metropolis Daily

2 year-old Xiao Bao (alias) was taken to hospital last week with severe burns on his head, scars across his face and a 5cm wound on his left arm. His father admitted responsibility for the injuries but said “he was just educating” the boy, Nandu Daily reports.

Xiao Bao’s 7 year-old sister Rong Rong (alias) told doctors that their father often beat her and Xiao Bao, especially while drunk. Police in Shunde are now investigating their father, Mr. Luo.

On January 2, Mr. Luo took the boy to hospital claiming that two days earlier the toddler had suffered burns while being given a bath and the wounds may now be infected. The doctor who treated Xiao Bao doubted this story, claiming that the burns on his head could only be made by boiling water. The doctor also wanted to know why Xiao Bao had so many other injuries.

On Wednesday (Jan.8), a reporter from the paper went to Foshan No. 1 Hospital and spoke to Rong Rong, who was sitting at her brother’s bed side. Rong Rong explained that, after having a row with her father, her mother walked out several months ago.

For over a year now, Mr. Luo has been beating getting drunk and hitting Rong Rong and Xiao Bao, saying they are too naughty. He has even been known to refuse to feed them if they are bad, the family claims. Neither child had eaten meat in months. Rong Rong’s face has traces of a cigarette burn and the father is accused of threatening to disown the children if they tell any strangers about his behaviour.

Mr. Luo tearfully confessed to the paper that he would scold and hit his children. But he claimed he never hit them hard enough to injure them and he only did it to “educate”. He claimed to feel remorse for his actions and also claims to get sleepy rather than violent when he is drunk.

In answer to the accusation that he never fed his children meat, he said there were two reasons. Firstly, he was quite poor, and secondly, the family did not much like meat anyway, they prefer fish.

As well as having a dysfunctional marriage, Luo is also 1000 yuan behind on his rent, according to his landlady. The landlady also says she often hears the children screaming after he has gone home drunk. Once, she knocked on the door after hearing particularly piercing screams. When confronted, Luo asserted that he had just given the child a smacked bottom.

Luo is now under investigation. It ain’t looking good for him.

Tagged: Alcoholismchild abuseDomestic ViolenceFoshanFoshan No. 1 HospitalShunde

Watch: Mother viciously abuses daughter on Dongguan street

Posted: 12/15/2013 6:57 pm

Harrowing footage of a mother in Dongguan physically abusing her daughter yesterday has gone big on Sina Weibo.

The woman can first be seen kicking the child’s buttocks, then dragging her ten metres before beating her more. The child looks littler more than a toddler.

When the police arrive, the mother remains defiant.

She can be heard shouting: “What business is it of yours?”

She then rants: “Not only can I make her cry, I can make her die. I can raise her my own way. Who are you to intervene? You’re not my relatives.”

At the end, a policeman can be heard saying: “This is taking place in our country.”

It emerged that the woman had just had a row with her husband.

The child was not injured, according to Xinhua. It remains to be seen what, if any, legal consequences the mother will face.

Tagged: Beatingchild abuseDongguanPSBrant

Shenzhen teacher pleads guilty to child molestation

Posted: 09/24/2013 11:09 am

A former head teacher in Shenzhen’s Nanshan District pleaded guilty earlier this week to the sexual molestation of four female students at Hongji School, according to a report by Shenzhen Daily.

Prosecutors have requested that the head teacher, surnamed Wu, 42, be jailed for three to five years for sexually assaulting the girls “dozens of times,” though some of the parents feel such a prison term would be too light in view of Wu’s crimes, and the psychological harm it has done to the girls.

According to the court case, Wu had been molesting the female students during noon nap time since September 2012, but his crimes were only exposed in May when one of the girl’s parents went to police. He had persuaded the girls over the course of several months that what he was doing was OK because he was a teacher and “different from other people.”

Stories of child sexual abuse by teachers have been making headlines in local and national media on a regular basis in recent months, and some teachers found guilty of rape of minors have even been executed this year under China’s criminal law.

Li Feng, who was executed July, was one such example of an elementary school teacher that the state came down hard on in an example to others. Li was found guilty of raping and molesting 19 students under the age of 14 in Jilin Province.

China’s Central Government this year introduced tougher sentences for those found guilty of abusing children in an attempt to better protect the safety and rights of minors.

Photo credit: ShardsOfChina

Tagged: child abuseChildrenCrimeSchoolSexual AssaultShenzhenTeacher

Shanxi boy whose eyes were gouged out is in Shenzhen for surgery

Posted: 09/10/2013 7:00 am

It was the story that shocked China. Little Guo Bin (known affectionately as Bin Bin), a 6-year old child, was playing outside his home when he was lured away and had both of his eyes gouged out by a woman in Shanxi Province late last month. The prime suspect was his aunt, who killed herself six days later. Blood from the boy was apparently found on her clothes.

Bin Bin has since been transported down here to Shenzhen, where he arrived on Sunday to have artificial eyes fitted. He will also get navigation sensors to help him detect shapes, the South China Morning Post reports.

Bin Bin with his mother, image courtesy of South China Morning Post

Although the technology to restore his eyesight does not currently exist, doctors are hopeful that he will see again.

The paper has more:

“He was very excited [about the plane trip]“, said Dr Dennis Lam Shun-chiu at whose hospital Bin-Bin will be treated.

“He asked his mother whether they were in the sky already. He went near a window and wanted to see the sky but he couldn’t,” Lam said.

“He still has hope that he will be able to see again. His parents dare not tell him that the chance is small.”

Lam, who saw the boy at his C-MER Dennis Lam Eye Hospital on Sunday, said Bin-Bin had told investigators he was aware that he had lost his eyes and said it was a woman who did it.

Since the attack two weeks ago he has been treated at a hospital in Shanxi. Lam, who is offering free treatment for the boy, said his wounds were stable and there were no signs of infection.

After four to eight weeks, doctors will give him prosthetic eye pieces that are coloured to look like normal eyes. These will be attached to eye tissues and muscles to give normal eye movement.

Lam has also ordered navigation sensors from Japan and Europe and hopes Bin-Bin can start learning to use them in the next few months. If necessary, he might go to Germany or Japan for training.

The navigation devices, worn on the forehead or tongue, capture images and translate them into electric signals that stimulate the skin. He is expected to stay in Shenzhen for 2-3 months after the operation.

The motive of the attack may never be known.

Tagged: Bin binchild abuseeyes gouged outSuicide

Another horrific tale of abuse: 2-year old dies after being beaten by dad’s girlfriend

Posted: 01/10/2013 7:00 am

Xiao Lijia’s biological mother, Xiao Lv, by her bedside in the Intensive Care Unit.

A girl in Qingyuan died one month short of her 3rd birthday after spending almost a week in intensive care on January 7. She had been hospitalized after being severely beaten by her father’s girlfriend sometime in late December, Sohu News reports.

According to Qingyuan People’s Hospital, where she was taken to on January 1, Xiao Lijia started having headaches and vomiting on December 29 but she did not receive the care she needed. It was later discovered that his father’s girlfriend, Miss Zeng, had been beating her.

That she wouldn’t stop crying was cited as the reason for the beating. If Zeng is pregnant, as is thought, her sentence may be lighter than it otherwise would have been.

There were severe injuries to her skull and brain when she was admitted to hospital. Brain surgery showed exactly how serious her condition was, and for the last few days of her life she was unconscious and could not breathe unassisted.

Xiao Lijia’s biological mother, identified as Xiao Lv, says she had seen scars on the toddler’s face after being left with Zeng before and that Zeng had denied claims made by the toddler that she had treated her badly.

Xiao Lijia was born outside of wedlock in Dongguan in 2009. His mother, who is now 22 and from Zhoukou in Henan Province, was working as a foot masseuse when she met Lao Xu, a construction worker, who is 19 years her senior. After a brief affair, Xiao Lv got pregnant by accident. They had the baby but later broke up.

Both parents were at the girl’s bedside the entire time she was in hospital and her mother was weeping uncontrollably for most of the time.

The anguished biological parents

Lao Xu is also expected to face charges as he was the child’s legal guardian.

People talk and talk about improving training and awareness about child abuse which begs the question, how much training do you need to know that it’s wrong?

Tagged: child abuseDongguanQingyuanXiao Lijia小丽佳

Father in Shenzhen repeatedly lashes 6-year old son to “educate” him, boy dies

Posted: 01/2/2013 7:00 am

Zheng Junpeng

After we recently reported that a woman in Shenzhen had beaten her own daughter before burning the body to make the death look like an accident, Shanghaiist intelligently connected the problem of weak child abuse laws with the government’s reluctance to focus on anything but economics.

But the frequency of child abuse cases at the hands of both parents and teachers may force the government to act.

The latest such case saw a 6 year-old boy die after his father lashed him ferociously with a belt in Shenzhen’s Longgang District on the night of December 28, Liaoning Satellite Television reports.

The father, Zheng Junpeng, told police he was beating the boy to “educate” him at their home on Bantian Road. When he realised the seriousness of his son’s injuries, he rushed him to hospital, but the boy, Xiaohao, could not be saved.

It was the seventh child abuse case to make the news in Shenzhen in 2012, according to Southern Metropolis Daily.

The beating happened around 10 p.m. after Zheng had been told by Xiaohao’s teacher that his son was a bully who would try to steal classmates’ money and beat them if they failed to comply.

The landlord, Shu, overheard the beating and knocked on the door to tell Zheng to stop. Zheng did not answer the door so Shu shouted through the door, asking Zheng not to beat his son so hard before leaving.

Xiaohao was found cold in bed but he was discovered too late. The case is being investigated.

A 2005 survey carried out by the All China Women’s Federation led to the discovery that child abuse was extremely common in China. The Hong Kong Law Blog tackled the issue of child abuse in Mainland China in November.

Tagged: Beatingchild abuseCrimeDeathLonggang DistrictShenzhen

Abusive teacher jailed for six and a half years for dropping Yaoyao on her head

Posted: 12/14/2012 7:00 am

Xu being escorted into the courtroom.

A female teacher was sentenced to six and a half years in jail yesterday after she punished a 4 year-old student by turning her upside down and dropping her on her head, according to Southern Metropolis Daily.

After we told you in October of the horrific injuries that the four year-old Yaoyao had sustained, outcry spread across the country over this and several other high-profile cases of child abuse.

Last month an op-ed in Shenzhen Daily called for reforms to China’s pathetic child protection laws that enabled a 20 year-old kindergarten teacher to escape jail time after abusing students in creative and horrific ways.

The sentencing of the teacher, surnamed Xu, at Panyu District Court sends out a message to other teachers who attempt corporal punishment.

The incident took place on the morning of Feb. 7 this year when, after repeated disobedience, Xu committed the act of abuse and Yaoyao was left lying unconscious on the floor.

On Oct. 10, Xu admitted to inappropriately lifting the student but insisted that dropping her was an accident.

Judges at the court explained that the sentence was so long because Xu was in a position of particular trust at Guangzhou Panyu Zihui Children’s Rehabilitation Centre and the child, who was not responsible for her own actions, sustained such serious injuries.

Tagged: child abuseKindergartenPanyuspecial needsToddleryaoyao

The Nanfang / Blog