¿Qué es exactamente el maltrato infantil?/What Exactly is Child Maltreatment?
Dr. David Finkelhor
David Finkelhor is Director of Crimes against Children Research Center, Co-Director of the Family Research Laboratory and Professor of Sociology at the University of New Hampshire. He has been studying the problems of child victimization, child maltreatment and family violence since 1977. He is well known for his conceptual and empirical work on the problem of child sexual abuse. He has also written about child homicide, missing and abducted children, children exposed to domestic and peer violence and other forms of family violence. In his recent work, for example, his book, Child Victimization (Oxford University Press, 2008), he has tried to unify and integrate knowledge about all the diverse forms of child victimization in a field he has termed Developmental Victimology.
Abstract
Esta conferencia comenzará con un breve repaso de la historia de la expansión del concepto de maltrato infantil en los últimos 50 años. A continuación se tratarán algunas de las ambigüedades clave que siguen afectando... [ view full abstract ]
Esta conferencia comenzará con un breve repaso de la historia de la expansión del concepto de maltrato infantil en los últimos 50 años. A continuación se tratarán algunas de las ambigüedades clave que siguen afectando al concepto. Éstas incluyen: 1) cómo influyen las normas culturales en lo que se considera maltrato, 2) la dificultad para determinar los comportamientos y situaciones que es "probable que causen daño", y 3) el debate sobre si deben incluirse también las acciones cometidas por personas diferentes a las figuras parentales. La conferencia llega a la conclusión de que es importante diferenciar entre una definición de maltrato para la "defensa de la infancia” y una definición para los “servicios de protección a la infancia”. Las definiciones de maltrato para la defensa de la infancia que se dirigen a cambiar las conductas de la sociedad hacia los niños y niñas, no son aplicables en los servicios de protección a infancia, que son responsables de hacer cumplir las sanciones contra los padres y madres maltratantes. Es necesario reconocer y adaptarse a esta necesidad de disponer de definiciones diferentes.
This talk will start with a brief review of the history of the expansion of the concept of child maltreatment over the last 50 years. It will then discuss some of the continuing key ambiguities in the concept. These include these issues: 1) how cultural norms affect what is deemed to be maltreatment; 2) the difficulty of ascertaining behaviors and situations that are “likely to cause harm”; and 3) the debate about whether actions of non-caregivers should also be included. The talk concludes that an important distinction needs to be made between an “advocacy” and an “agency” definition of child maltreatment. Advocacy definitions of maltreatment that apply to the effort to change societal behaviors toward children are not applicable to agencies that are charged with enforcing sanctions against maltreating parents. The field should give more recognition and accommodation to this need for alternative definitions.
Session
KN-2 » Keynote (09:00 - Monday, 7th October, Don Bernardo-O'Higgins Rooms)
