Yafit Sulimani-Aidan PhD. candidate, Bar Ilan University, Israel Presenter: Dr. Rami Benbenishty Bar Ilan University, Israel Haruv Institute, Israel Funded by: the Haruv Institute In collaboration with: Ministry of Welfare and Social Services Local child maltreatment rates and protective service responses: The role of ethnicity and community socio- economic characteristics

A N OVERVIEW A methodological note A brief review of the literature on community characteristics and maltreatment Child maltreatment and ethnicity A brief description of the situation in Israel Methods Findings Discussion, limitations, conclusions & implications

A N INTRODUCTORY METHODOLOGICAL NOTE Child indicators as a form of monitoring on national and regional level Commonly discussed in terms of policy implications A powerful scientific method, which has many strengths, and of course some weaknesses as well Need to be further developed to take advantage of the power in secondary analyses and data mining of large (either representative or ‘census-like’ data bases. The importance of replication over time and caution in interpretation

I NTRODUCTION I Child maltreatment is viewed as resulting from complex factors, across multiple ecological levels The rates of maltreatment are influenced. Among other ecological factors by family and community characteristics (e.g. poverty)

I NTRODUCTION II Ethnic minority groups and maltreatment In many cases are more vulnerable when they are associated with poverty and stressful life events May have cultural approaches that either protect children or increase maltreatment (as defined in Western cultures). Separate maltreatment from maltreatment reporting Lower report to protect group Are more vulnerable to intrusion by state authorities

T HE SITUATION IN I SRAEL Israeli Arabs have lower socio- economic status, hence Arabs are expected to have higher rates of maltreatment Cultural values (e.g., physical punishment of children, Ben-Arieh & Haj-Yhaia, 2006; Benbenishty et al., 2002)- hence Arabs are expected to have higher levels of maltreatment

C URRENT FINDINGS IN I SRAEL Still, findings regarding differences in child maltreatment reports between Arabs and Jews are inconsistent Potentially, offsetting cultural strengths Potentially, issues of reporting Practitioners in Arab localities are social workers who may have conflicts reporting maltreatment because of their National/ethnic/minority identity Community connectedness Extended family loyality More research is required to disentangle these issues

E XPLORING L OCAL RESPONSES TO MALTREATMENT Responses of the child welfare system may vary on the continuum between family support and interventions and punitive/legal responses. Responses to maltreatment vary by: Child welfare regimes Countries Localities Sources for variance: Cultural values Child Welfare regimes and organizational structures Historical developments Resources Little/no research on local variations

S TUDY A IMS Examine the contribution of the community's socio economic and ethnic characteristics to child maltreatment in Israel. Examine local responses to maltreatment Examine differences between mainly Jewish and mainly Arab localities

STUDY VARIABLES Child maltreatment Rates Types Protective services responses reports to police Court orders Family interventions  Demographic factors Locality Size Age Distribution  Economic factors Income Unemployment  Education level % of Students % of high school diploma Dependent variables Independent variables

M ETHOD  Sample  231 localities out of a total of 256  2,133,376 number of children (97.9% of the total population of children)  Data sources  Annual reporting system on all local maltreatment reports in Israel  Census information provided by Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics on each locality.

R ATES PER T HOUSAND C HILDREN

P ROTECTIVE S ERVICE R ESPONSES ( AS PERCENT OF ALL REPORTS IN LOCALITY ) Arabs N=52-75 Jews N= SDM M Family intervention (no legal intervention) Declare child in need Reports to police Request to override report Intermediate order Order to remove Supervision Order Emergency Order Protective Order

P ROTECTIVE S ERVICE R ESPONSES ( AS PERCENT OF ALL REPORTS IN LOCALITY

P EARSON CORRELATIONS - J EWISH AND A RAB L OCALITIES TotalNeglectSexualPhysicalVariable -.26** ** ** ** -.20 Locality population -.32**.56** ** -.23** *.37* Age ** -.38** * -.32** ** -.26 Rate of 75+ (%).49**.03.28**.04.51**.06.51**.04 Unemployment.19** Socio-economic status * **.02 High school diploma

S UMMARY & C ONCLUSIONS  Rates of maltreatment reports are lower in Arab localities  Relative prevalence of different types of reports is different between Jewish and Arab localities  Socioeconomic factors, age factors and educational level correlate with child maltreatment, especially in Jewish localities  Fewer children are removed from home and fewer court orders are issued in Arab localities

C ONCLUSIONS II Variability among localities is very large Perhaps there is a conceptual mismatch between community and locality; There may be different mechanisms operating on these two conceptually different units of analyses

P OTENTIAL I NTERPRETATIONS  Differences in values and cultural perceptions regarding physical punishment Willingness to use social services and involvement of the community in family problems Differential access to social services

T HE SOCIAL SERVICES ROLE Differences in reaction of the social services to maltreatment Resources Cultural differences as to what is considered appropriate response

P RACTICAL IMPLICATIONS Availability of social workers Cultural sensitivity Strengthening the community

A CKNOWLEDGEMENTS The authors gratefully acknowledge the collaboration of Israel’s Ministry of Welfare and Social Services and of Child Protective Services staff Funding was provided by: Haruv Institute, Jerusalem, Israel

T HANK Y OU ! R AMI B ENBENISHTY – R GMAIL. COM Y AFIT S ULIMANI -A IDAN - WALLA. CO. IL & S HALOM !R GMAIL. COM WALLA. CO. IL

T HANK Y OU ! R AMI B ENBENISHTY – R GMAIL. COM Y AFIT S ULIMANI -A IDAN - WALLA. CO. ILR GMAIL. COM