Child abuse is very different from other forms of criminality, and treating it like any other crime is a "grave mistake", clinical psychologist and former child protection officer Roberta Attard said.
There is quite a "shocking, high prevalence" of child abuse in society, she said in a wide ranging interview with The Malta Independent, the first part of which was published yesterday.
Earlier this month, a University of Malta research study shed light on the problem of child abuse in Malta, highlighting ‘very high’ percentages of child abuse cases, and a ‘very small’ percentage of individuals who do seek help, with many deciding to seek help decades later.
The Malta Independent spoke with Attard, one of the main researchers of the project, to further expand on the study, the first of its kind, showing this reality in Malta.
She said that even though the public is exposed, mostly through the media, of cases of physical and sexual abuse, all the clients in the research study talk about the impact of the emotional abuse being so much worse.
"It is like a dark blanket you carry all your life. Even if the physical damage that may have happened because of the abuse fade away, the emotional wounds persist," Attard said, adding that it is something which is unseen, but constantly felt, which affects self-esteem, sense of competence, sense of self-agency and especially effects relationships.
Attard said that this leads to inter-generational transmission, even of parenting styles and attachment. Emotional abuse causes untold damage, Attard continued, adding that unfortunately, people seem to recognise the least.
"Even in terms of prioritising, all you have to see, from a practical point of view, is how social workers prioritise cases. For example; they tend to prioritise sexual abuse and physical abuse over any form of emotional abuse, as if the impact of one or the other could be less in impact," Attard said.
Emotional abuse
From other research studies, Attard said that the impact of emotional abuse could lead to early-substance abuse, especially alcohol, self-harm, suicidal thoughts.
She highlighted a big problem of a lack of parent supervision, especially online supervision, which give opportunities for children to seek substance abuse, or become more vulnerable for someone to abuse them.
Respondents also found it very difficult to find help when they had actually recognised that they were going through emotional abuse, as it seems as if it is "not a priority," she said.
"Our children are not well. Even if you look at education and achievements, we do not equate achievement with wellness at all," Attard said, adding that when children are dis-regulated because of pre-occupations way beyond their years, which society is further exposing them to, their minds will be taken up by concerns, worries and anxieties, that they are not ready to emotionally and developmentally be able to process.
Attard said that nowadays, in light of the unsupervised exposure that children are having online, they are being exposed to things that go beyond their level of comprehension, and therefore raise their level of anxiety, which in turn affects their propensity to be able to learn.
On suicidal thoughts, Attard said that there are many attempts of suicide which are not labelled as such. She said that statistics and numbers can be moved and manipulated, as can labels.
"The numbers can also change depending on what you name something. If it is named as suicide, it is recorded as suicide, if it is named as attempted suicide, it is recorded as such.” But if it is named as an accident for example, it remains an accident therefore the statistics are not correct, Attard said, adding that finding out through social media on whether an accident was a suicide further shows how the statistics are incorrect.
No assistance
She said that the number of people who have actually sought and obtained help was "shockingly small" which she felt it was "devastating" to hear how few people not only sought help, worse still, did not find help when they actually sought it.
Attard said that a lot of them sought help in their primary area of residence, which was in their school. That is where respondents say that they did not find assistance, she said, describing it as tragic.
Respondents also said that they never think of seeking help again, and they wouldn't, because they were discouraged by the ability of society to protect them. "Then who do you tend to? How do you rebuild that trust in society?" Attard questioned.
She mentioned a high rate of legal couple separations in Malta, which warrants another research to understand why there is an alarming rate of separations, equating to around two to three couples a day.
"Was it because before, they couldn't, or is it because the nature of relationships between people has changed, and if this is the case, what is causing these changes, which is leading to couples separating," Attard said.
Attard said that one would wonder the impact separating couples would have on their children.
She questioned why we do not have a mental health residential facility which is befitting for persons with mental health issues, as unfortunately, due to a lack of services and the difficulties of people who have been through child abuse face, they often end up in mental health services.
Mental health
Attard said that however, the structure of mental health services in Malta is not befitting of the dignity of the human beings who need this service.
"We need to see that mental health services first of all exist, and do not continue colluding with the narrative in society that mental health issues are to be hidden away," Attard said.
She added that Malta's services need to make sure, that even in their very structure, they give dignity and are effective in the services they provide to the persons who use them.
Attard said that again, there was no mention of the mental health hospital in the 2024 Budget, and it is not because of a lack of trying from the people who work in these services.
"It is ignored, over and over again, and we know, even from our research, that there are many people in society have serious mental health issues," Attard said.
On perpetrators of child abuse, Attard said that when it comes to working with perpetrators, it was found that even those who feel that they need help, rarely do so.
The reason why they don't is because of the shame, stigma, and the fear of being reported. Attard said that even when perpetrators speak about something which may have happened in the past, even if they weren't caught, they will not report themselves or seek therapeutic assistance because of the fear of what might happen if they talk about it.
"That, in itself, is putting society at risk. We have people who recognize that they did something wrong in their past, and, for example, in court, rarely does the judge or magistrate suggest a therapeutic programme, instead of a prison sentence," Attard said.
She said that even though with drug-abuse, therapeutic programs are suggested constantly, and rightly so, for persons perpetrating child abuse, this does not happen.
"This is what needs to happen, as the chances are that after they finish their sentences, they would experience a period of being concerned that they will be caught again, and then it will get the better of them, and there will be opportunities to do it again," Attard said.
Attard said that victims of abuse said that they wished that their parent - who may have not been conscious or aware they were committing the abuse - had received help for it.
She said that a number of respondents in the study cited 'ignorance' as the reason why their perpetrators of abuse continued to commit this abuse.
Child marriages
Attard was asked about child marriages, and if this should require an additional focused law to prohibit this from happening.
"The understanding in the law is that you can only marry if you are 16 with parental consent, but first, you need to consent," Attard said.
She said that the law does seem to indicate that firstly, marriage should be out of free will, and secondly, indicates whether the youth in question can make the decision that they want to spend the rest of their lives with this other human being.
"When you see that a custom or a culture goes against the well-being of other human beings, then I believe that it needs to be called out," she said. This is a situation where one person is exerting power over the other, under the disguise of a cultural norm or a celebration.
"If we collude with that, we are choosing to stay silent, and if we choose to stay silent, we become an oppressor too, there's no two ways about it," Attard said.
In terms of foreigners doing this in Malta, Attard said that if one uses physical punishment as a form of "education" in a particular country, and they choose to come to another country where this is not accepted, one is duty bound to obey the rules and regulations of the country.
She said that one would wonder whether the system has failed, in terms of investigating reports made by teachers who have said that certain students in their class have disappeared, and the follow up was not done sufficiently to discover the underlying reasons, and address it.
The fragmentation of services, the under resourcing, the lack of timely exchange of information, have led to failing the children.
"This is what professionals tell you; 'we have failed the children, we are too busy, we are under-resourced, and therefore we don't serve the children in a timely matter,'" Attard said.
The first part of the interview was carried yesterday