Important Topics In Child Protection And Youth Justice

Short answer questions

Q 1

Read the case study about Jack (week 1 lecture, slide 16). Read the explanation about ‘wicked problems’ (slides 17 and 18). Identify four wicked problems that you might face as Jack’s case manager.

2 marks

Student’s response

From the case study Jack, as a case manager of Jack, the four major wicked problems of him which can be identified by the support of the lecture notes are as follows:

1. Although Jack is respectful to the case manager, he still is very elusive and guarded in his every interaction with the case manager.

2. Jack does not trust anyone at all.

3. Jack is very unwilling to provide any details about his friends.

4. Jack avoids all his family members, including his mother, father and his sister.

Q 2

Drawing from Bromfield et al’s (2010) “Issues for the safety and wellbeing of children in families with multiple and complex problems” (reading in week 2 moodle), identify six ways parental substance misuse can have a negative impact on the safety and wellbeing of children and young people in these families.

3 marks

Student’s response

1. The negligence towards the children generally increases by substance misuse.

2. The risk factors of both physical as well as emotional abuse, increased.

3. Sexual abuse from both parental as well as extra-familiar parental abuse may also increase.

4. Passive fear towards parents may be developed by the children.

5. Emotional stress can be added, which may harm the brain’s growth.

6. During pregnancy, psychological stress can create damages in the growth of the newborn baby (Bromfield et al. 2010).

Q 3

In lecture 4, slide 9 it says that “In Australia, giving a young person a custodial sentence is considered a last resort … (and that) … the emphasis is on diversion and rehabilitation in order to break offending cycles”. Why do you think giving a young person a custodial sentence should be the last resort? (Provide 4 – 6 sentences in your response to this question).

2 marks

Student’s response

In the case of a young adult, the custodial sentence creates huge damage to mental health. Also, in imprisonment, the young adult comes close to so many other adult criminals who also impact the mental condition. That is why in Australia, a custodial sentence is considered to be the last resort for young adults (Down, Smyth & Robinson, 2018). So they are generally sent in the rehabilitation to give them an opportunity to solve their fault.

Q 4

Regarding age of consent laws:

a. What is the age of consent in your State or Territory? (1/2 mark)

b. Is it legal for someone in a supervisory or leadership role (e.g., a coach) to have sexual interactions with a 17 year old in their care (in your State/Territory)? (1/2 mark)

c. If there is sexual activity between two young people – one young person age 15 years, and the other aged 13 years – do you need to call the police or child protection or both? Give a reason for you answer (2 marks).

3 marks

Student’s response

a) 16 years.

b) Yes, if the young adult gives consent.

c) The child protection authority must be called. As here, both of them are not adults, so imprisonment is considered to be the last resort. So here, the police should not be called. Only the child protection authority should be called to give them rehabilitation (Mendes et al. 2020).

Q 5

Regarding sexting

a. Can sexting be a crime if it involves a person under the age of 18 years, even if the under 18 year old has consented? Why/why not? (1 mark)

b. If a young person repeatedly texts someone, asking them for a naked picture of themselves, might this be a crime? Why/why not? (1 mark)

2 marks

Student’s response

a) If both of them are above 16 years and both have their consent in doing the sexting, then that will not be a crime as they are above the age of consent, so they can do sexting if it does not damage anyone’s mental or physical condition.

b) Yes, this action will be considered as a crime if the person whom the young person repeatedly sending massage has not given consent of massaging or asking for naked pictures.

Q 6

Regarding mandatory reporting laws:

a. List six professionals who are mandated reporters in your State/Territory? (1/2 mark)

b. What abuse types are mandatory to report in your State/Territory (e.g, sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, neglect and/or exposure to family violence?) (1/2 mark)

1 mark

Student’s response

a)

1. a doctor

2. a psychologist

3. a person authorised to inspect education programs

4. a teacher at a school

5. an enrolled nurse

6. a midwife

b)

Sexual abuse, family violence, physical abuse and emotional abuse are mandatory to be reported in Australia (Riggs, 2019).

Q 7

How might some young people and parents in some culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds view the notion of young people’s rights differently to those from western cultures? How might this impact the young people themselves? Provide 6 – 8 sentences in your response to this question.

3 marks

Student’s response

Young people and their parents who belong to diverse backgrounds generally things that young people’s rights can be modified and liberty can be increased. But in general, at a very young age, the children do not understand right and wrong properly. So, most of the time, they tend to do the wrong things, which generally impacts their futures. So it is important to bind them in proper laws (Strauss et al. 2020). So that they can be protected from criminal activities, this type of diverse thinking by the young people and parents can harm the minds of the young adults and may lead to creating different types of criminal activities.

Q 8

In lecture 5 you learnt that it is important to give young people a ‘voice’ but not necessarily a ‘choice’?  

a. Why is giving young people a voice but not necessarily a choice important? (provide 2 – 3 sentences in your response to this question) (1 marks)

b. What skills and practice principles might you draw on to do this? (provide 6 – 8 sentences in your response to this question) (3 marks)

4 marks

Student’s response

a)

Giving voice is important to young people so that they can report any kind of abuse to them so that the child protection authority can track and solve that issue (Watkins, Noble & Wong, 2019). But the, young children should not be given a choice like that can lead them to forcefully accept any kind of abuse by fake consent. Or they can use that choice to do criminal acts without knowing the impact of that acts.

b) Child protection principle must be drawn on this issue to protect children from being abused. The young children must be added to the different types of voluntary service to understand other children more properly and help others from being abused. The protection from the guardians must be increased. The partnerships of the guardians with their children should also be increased to know the inner psychological thoughts and solve all issues as soon as possible. These are all major important skills and practice principles that must be done properly to solve various kinds of child abuse with the help of voices raised from the abused children.

Case Study

Part 1

Marlee, age 34 and her son Jake aged 14

The family is Indigenous.

Marlee and Jake were referred to the family support service you work for by the Student Welfare Coordinator at Jake’s School following the discovery of marijuana in Jake’s locker.  Marlee’s partner Tim had recently been imprisoned for drug offences and she had been struggling to cope without him.

Up until Tim’s imprisonment Marlee and Tim had both been using heroin – although Marlee insisted that she only occasionally used heroin in order to prevent withdrawal symptoms. After Tim’s imprisonment Marlee and Jake moved in with Marlee’s sister because Marlee had been unable maintain payment of rent.  Marlee says her relationship with her sister is conflictual.

After Tim was imprisoned Marlee went on the methadone program.

In your initial sessions with Marlee she gradually revealed a long history of trauma, abuse, family violence, mental illness, substance abuse and transience. During his life Jake has moved schools 7 times.

During joint sessions you observed some significant challenges in the family relationships e.g., with Jake presenting as withdrawn and non-communicative in the sessions. This situation does not seem to be helped by the fact that Marlee provides Jake with few positives in terms of warmth or affirmation.

Questions:

a. Identify the multiple and complex needs that exist in this case? (1 mark)

b. Identify three examples of how and why these needs might be both the cause and the consequences of each other? (3 marks)

4 marks

Student’s response

a) There are two types of complexes there in this case study. Frist is child abuse on Jake, and the next one is the drug abuse by the three family members.

b) 1. Child abuse has created a poor family relationship between Jake and Marlee. This led to creating poor mental health of Jake. So, child abuse is the cause of the trauma, which consequence the poor mental health.

2. The whole family has taken marijuana. So none of them stopped others and led to create drug abuse. So this child drug abuse becomes both the consequence of the cause of adult drug abuse.

3. Mental trauma and drug abuse lead to prevent from getting a proper job which leads to creating the financial problem which mental trauma even further.

Case Study

Part 2

This morning you had an individual session planned with Marlee at her house. You expected that Jake would be at school.  However when you knocked on the door Jake answered, and let you in the house. Jake was very upset.  He said he was worried about his mother because she had been using heroin, and that she had been heavily drug affected all weekend. You observed the house to be messy and dirty.  Jake said he had barely eaten anything for the last few days and that there was no food in the house.  Jake told you that his mum apologised to him this morning – and that she was currently in bed asleep.  Jake begged you not to make a report to child protection about what had happened.  Jake said he had been involved with child protection in the past, that he had been placed in foster care and he hated it.  He started to cry when he told you that his mum needed him to stay with her and look after her.

Questions:

a. Identify the main ethical dilemma that exists in this case?   (1 mark)

b. How might you respond to this complex situation (in the immediate)? (please write 250 – 300 words in your answer) (5 marks)

6 marks

Student’s response

a) The main ethical dilemma that exists, in this case, is that Jake may have harmed his mother and did not want this to be proved, so he is making a story to the carer and asks not to make a report as this may lead to further investigation, and the real reason of his mother’s current condition may revel (Boyd & Bromfield, 2006).

b) In this case, the case manager at first needs to write a proper description of what Jake told. There are so many different kinds of things that could have happened, so proper instigation is very important to identify the situation. Maybe Jake needs proper care to save him from using the Heroin drug, or maybe he could harm his mother. So after reporting, the description must be reported to the authority so that a proper investigation must be done (Benveniste, 2018). However, Jake has told that his experience with child care is not good and asked not to admit his foster care. But Jake should be given to foster care, and extra care must be given to him so that he does not find any difficulty living there until the perfect results of his mother’s condition are revealed. After that, the proper medical as well as mental treatment of Marlee must be done to improve her reported physical and mental condition. Based on that, the next step of their rehabilitation must be done. Like this way by following these steps, the care manager should handle this situation to find out justice and make a proper solution to the mentioned issue. Based on their actual activity, the custody of Jake should be given to Marlee, or Jake needs to be admitted to rehabilitation if he had done any crime to harm his mother.

Total

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