College of Medicine, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam, Saudi Arabia.
College of Medicine, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam, Saudi Arabia.
J Forensic Leg Med. 2022 Jul;89:102371. doi: 10.1016/j.jflm.2022.102371. Epub 2022 May 11.
Child maltreatment is a global issue. Child maltreatment can take many forms including neglect, physical abuse, emotional abuse, and sexual abuse. The aim of this review is to determine different factors that influence the lack of reporting of child maltreatment in Saudi Arabia. This paper classified these factors into barriers related to the cultural impact, healthcare practitioners, the abused children, and policy making. The cultural influence was manifested in the stigma around reporting due to lack of understanding of what child abuse is, perceiving it as a parental right to discipline a child, misunderstanding the Islamic laws, and diminished understanding of the long- and short-term consequences of child abuse. Healthcare professionals and students of healthcare specialties revealed not reporting suspected child maltreatment due to uncertainty of the occurrence of abuse, lack of knowledge on the matter, considering injuries to be unworthy of reporting, unawareness of protocols, prior negative experience after reporting, and the absence of strict legal consequences of not reporting. Abused children were found to rarely report maltreatment to authorities due to a variety of reasons such as lack of confidence, fear of breaking up their family, or being unaware of the occurrence of maltreatment in the first place. Saudi Arabia's public regulations do not specify when a physician should be concerned about improper conduct regarding child maltreatment. It is recommended that Saudi Arabia organizes child maltreatment awareness campaigns, intensifies the training of healthcare professionals, and sets precise mandatory reporting legislations. Child maltreatment is a problem that affects the society as a unit. Therefore, it mandates the collaboration of the whole community to eliminate this medico-social issue.
儿童虐待是一个全球性问题。儿童虐待有多种形式，包括忽视、身体虐待、情感虐待和性虐待。本综述的目的是确定影响沙特阿拉伯儿童虐待报告不足的不同因素。本文将这些因素分为与文化影响、医疗保健从业者、受虐待儿童和政策制定相关的障碍。文化影响表现为由于缺乏对虐待儿童的理解，报告存在耻辱感，认为这是父母管教孩子的权利，对伊斯兰法律存在误解，以及对儿童虐待的长期和短期后果的理解不足。医疗保健专业人员和医疗保健专业的学生报告说，由于对虐待发生的不确定性、缺乏相关知识、认为伤害不值得报告、不了解协议、报告后有负面经历，以及不报告没有严格的法律后果，他们没有报告疑似儿童虐待。受虐待的儿童由于各种原因很少向当局报告虐待行为，例如缺乏信心、害怕破坏家庭，或者一开始就不知道虐待的发生。沙特阿拉伯的公共法规没有具体规定医生何时应该关注儿童虐待方面的不当行为。建议沙特阿拉伯组织儿童虐待意识宣传活动，加强医疗保健专业人员的培训，并制定精确的强制性报告立法。儿童虐待是一个影响整个社会的问题。因此，需要整个社区的合作来消除这一医学社会问题。
