Thesis (M.A. (Criminology and Criminal Justice)) -- University of Limpopo, 2021 / The incidence of child sexual abuse is reaching new statistical highs in South Africa. Studies indicate that every second a child is raped in South Africa. Therefore, Child Sexual Abuse requires abstained approaches to be fastened, solid knowledge foundation and understanding. Failure to respond precisely and treat sexually abused children with sensitivity and professionalism (SAPS officials, healthcare practitioners and the judiciary) limit chances for a successful prosecution and victory to conquer psychological impairments on victims. Therefore, this research explored experiences in the Criminal Justice System (CJS) in the treatment of and response to child sexual abuse. The study was confined to Polokwane Policing Cluster (PPC) involving a sample from the South African Police Services (SAPS), the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of Social Department (DSD). This qualitative study adopted non-probability purposive sampling. Initially, the researcher targeted a population of fifteen (15) officials within the PPC who work directly with cases of CSA. However, two officials were not willing to form part of the study. This research was guided by the following objectives to: 1. Determine responses of the CJS to children as victims of sexual offences within the PPC; 2. Establish the protection of psychological well-being of children as victims of sexual offences in Polokwane Policing Cluster; and 3. Review regulatory legislative frameworks addressing the treatment of children as victims of sexual offence in Polokwane Policing Cluster. Moreover, this study examined causes and impacts associated with CSA. The study further reveals consequences of CSA and offer suggested mechanisms stemming from selected participants whom, among others include, but not limited to the following: using the legislative framework approach; the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996; protection of children‟s rights and broad statutory approaches for the treatment of sexual offence victims.

This dissertation is a qualitative secondary content analysis of clinical records collected for the Spokane Safe Start Project in Spokane, Washington, a program designed to offset trauma in children exposed to domestic and intimate partner violence (IPV). The Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization have identified intimate partner violence (IPV) as a health policy issue. Most studies of intimate partner violence and children exposed to violence have used samples from domestic violence shelters, large phone-based community surveys, or convenience samples such as college students. Currently, studies of families that have experienced intimate partner violence and received services in their homes do not exist. As such, the process and effects of intimate violence in families residing in their homes have not been identified. The purpose of this study was to identify the structural issues, factors affecting service engagement, family characteristics, and factors promoting resiliency in families that experienced intimate partner violence and were served by the Spokane Safe Start Project in Spokane, Washington, a program designed to offset trauma in children exposed to caregiver intimate partner violence. To this end, the four research questions were: 1) What are the underlying structural problems that affected these families? 2) Is family functioning at intake associated with the length of time with the program? 3) Of the families that engaged with Safe Start for at least five face-to-face contacts, what are the caregiver and/or family characteristics that seem to indicate the presence or absence of resilience in the caregivers? This study involved the analysis of the clinical case records of 30 families that received Spokane Safe Services. The primary source of data for this study came from the narrative portions of the electronic ACCESS and written client clinical records. The Spokane Safe Start clinical narratives served as a record of clinician observations, interactions, and service delivery to families greatly affected by intimate partner violence. Using the bio-ecological perspective and family systems theory as the theoretical frameworks to understand intimate partner violence and its effects on children, data analysis and synthesis, I used qualitative content analysis thematic analysis, and data matrices. In essence, this is a multiple case study producing "context-dependent knowledge" that is vital to develop ecologically sound interventions to address intimate partner violence and its effects on families (Flyvbjerg, 2006, p. 221). This study revealed three main findings. Families encountered roadblocks in the form of environmental and individual obstacles. These obstacles included family-of-origin dynamics, severe financial problems, and individual issues such as relationship ambivalence and substance abuse that posed serious limitations to developing resilience. Parent-child interactions were strained and difficult in most families. The majority of children experienced chronic IPV and many had a history of maltreatment as well. Although many parents were concerned about the future wellbeing of their children, they also had difficulty reflecting on their children’s emotional needs and experiences. Evidence of resilience in the case narratives was quite limited. There was evidence, one particular clinician's model of service provision was more successful at engendering resilience than that of the other clinicians. Results were triangulated with the extant literature and previous quantitative studies conducted by Washington State University on the Spokane Safe Start data indicating the results of this study are trustworthy and credible. This study makes an important contribution to the family violence literature and may serve as a resource for policy and program development. / Graduation date: 2012

Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASAs) represent children's best interests in juvenile court proceedings. In Riverside County, conflict exists among the child advocates and children's social service workers. This study measures current attitudes and perception of social workers and CASA volunteers in a quest to gain awareness and understanding of any problems in communication that may hinder effective working relationships.

Text in Afrikaans / The researchers' own interaction with the community caused her to recognize that the safety of pre-schoolers and toddlers in high risk areas are being jeopardised because sexual education is not applied soon enough. The aim of this research study was to determine the needs of role-players in the high risk area in terms of community education regarding the safety of pre-schoolers. A quantitative approach was followed, which focussed on applied research and the exploratory and descriptive objectives of the research in order to facilitate a better understanding of the research phenomenon and to understand the specifics of the situation. The Randomised Cross-sectional Survey design was implemented. The analysed findings were presented graphically and interpreted in order to reach conclusions and present the recommendations of the study. The general conclusion based upon the empirical findings of the study is that there is a great need for community education regarding the safety of pre-schoolers in the high-risk area, Danville. / Social Work / M. Diac. (Play Therapy)

Text in Afrikaans / The researchers' own interaction with the community caused her to recognize that the safety of pre-schoolers and toddlers in high risk areas are being jeopardised because sexual education is not applied soon enough. The aim of this research study was to determine the needs of role-players in the high risk area in terms of community education regarding the safety of pre-schoolers. A quantitative approach was followed, which focussed on applied research and the exploratory and descriptive objectives of the research in order to facilitate a better understanding of the research phenomenon and to understand the specifics of the situation. The Randomised Cross-sectional Survey design was implemented. The analysed findings were presented graphically and interpreted in order to reach conclusions and present the recommendations of the study. The general conclusion based upon the empirical findings of the study is that there is a great need for community education regarding the safety of pre-schoolers in the high-risk area, Danville. / Social Work / M. Diac. (Play Therapy)

Increasing tourism numbers in third world countries affect their economies and certain aspects of their society positively; however, there are concomitant negative effects that expose the dark side of the tourism industry. One of these is the escalating commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC), particularly child prostitution (CP) in the context of tourism, a phenomenon known as child sex tourism (CST). Although tourism plays an important role in creating the perfect storm of poverty-stricken children colliding with wealthy tourists, it is not solely responsible for this phenomenon. Internationally and nationally, the lacuna of knowledge on CST in particular hampers an informed response by way of resource allocation and coordinated service delivery to both victims and perpetrators. Utilising a qualitative research approach, and the collective case study and phenomenological research designs complemented by an explorative, descriptive and contextual strategy of inquiry, the researcher explored the status of the knowledge of and response to the CSEC through the lens of closely associated role players, who were purposively selected for inclusion in the study. These were adult survivors who were as children engaged in sex work and victims of child sex tourism, social workers and non-social workers involved in rendering child welfare and protection services, members of the Family Violence Child Protection and Sexual Offences (FCS) Unit of the South African Police Service (SAPS) and representatives of the hospitality and tourism industry. Data was collected via individual in-depth semi-structured interviews, telephone interviews, and email-communication and thematically analysed. The researcher found that a range of microsystem level factors, such as poverty and family dysfunction, pushed children to the street, and as a means to survive engage in sex work, enabling tourists (i.e. local - out of towners) and foreigners, mainly men from varied sexual orientation) to commercially sexually exploit both boys and girls, from as young as nine years of age, and of different race groups, which leave them with physical and psychological scars. The following main findings surfaced: The social workers, in comparison to the non-social workers, who have a primary responsibility to provide child welfare and protection services were ill-informed in terms of identifying CST as phenomenon, untrained and/or slow to respond appropriately with interventions directed to the victims and perpetrators of CSEC. The service provider groups, as microsystems interfacing on a mesosystem, were fraught with perceptions that the social workers and the SAPS were being inadequate. Furthermore a lack of cooperation, collaboration and communication between the service provider groups to respond to CSEC existed. The hospitality and tourism industry service representatives were also ill-informed about the phenomena of CP and CST with a response that at best can be labelled as fluctuating between an indirect response to that of turning a blind-eye. From the findings, recommendations for social work practice, education and training and recommendations specific for the other closely associated role players in responding to the CSEC were forwarded. / Social Work / D.Phil. (Social Work)

Increasing tourism numbers in third world countries affect their economies and certain aspects of their society positively; however, there are concomitant negative effects that expose the dark side of the tourism industry. One of these is the escalating commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC), particularly child prostitution (CP) in the context of tourism, a phenomenon known as child sex tourism (CST). Although tourism plays an important role in creating the perfect storm of poverty-stricken children colliding with wealthy tourists, it is not solely responsible for this phenomenon. Internationally and nationally, the lacuna of knowledge on CST in particular hampers an informed response by way of resource allocation and coordinated service delivery to both victims and perpetrators. Utilising a qualitative research approach, and the collective case study and phenomenological research designs complemented by an explorative, descriptive and contextual strategy of inquiry, the researcher explored the status of the knowledge of and response to the CSEC through the lens of closely associated role players, who were purposively selected for inclusion in the study. These were adult survivors who were as children engaged in sex work and victims of child sex tourism, social workers and non-social workers involved in rendering child welfare and protection services, members of the Family Violence Child Protection and Sexual Offences (FCS) Unit of the South African Police Service (SAPS) and representatives of the hospitality and tourism industry. Data was collected via individual in-depth semi-structured interviews, telephone interviews, and email-communication and thematically analysed. The researcher found that a range of microsystem level factors, such as poverty and family dysfunction, pushed children to the street, and as a means to survive engage in sex work, enabling tourists (i.e. local - out of towners) and foreigners, mainly men from varied sexual orientation) to commercially sexually exploit both boys and girls, from as young as nine years of age, and of different race groups, which leave them with physical and psychological scars. The following main findings surfaced: The social workers, in comparison to the non-social workers, who have a primary responsibility to provide child welfare and protection services were ill-informed in terms of identifying CST as phenomenon, untrained and/or slow to respond appropriately with interventions directed to the victims and perpetrators of CSEC. The service provider groups, as microsystems interfacing on a mesosystem, were fraught with perceptions that the social workers and the SAPS were being inadequate. Furthermore a lack of cooperation, collaboration and communication between the service provider groups to respond to CSEC existed. The hospitality and tourism industry service representatives were also ill-informed about the phenomena of CP and CST with a response that at best can be labelled as fluctuating between an indirect response to that of turning a blind-eye. From the findings, recommendations for social work practice, education and training and recommendations specific for the other closely associated role players in responding to the CSEC were forwarded. / Social Work / D. Phil. (Social Work)

This thesis focuses on the development of Gestalt guidelines for alternative caregivers to enhance attachment with the traumatised child. The researcher made use of the intervention research process, consisting of six phases. For the purpose of this study of limited scope, the intervention research process was completed up to step one of the fourth phase. The target group in this study was alternative caregivers of traumatised children where attachment difficulties existed. `Alternative caregivers' refers to people who provide care to these children, either on a voluntary basis or professionally. Focus groups, field notes and observation were used as data collection method, and Creswell's spiral was used to analyse data. Not all aspects regarding attachment were covered in this study and only relevant Gestalt principles were discussed. Gestalt guidelines with an observational system were finally developed. The views of the respondents, those of experts and a literature review were incorporated into the guidelines, as well as some functional elements of existing treatments. / Practical Theology / M. Diac. (Play Therapy)

The South African Justice System is a broader system that brings law and order to society. This law and order also includes the constitutional rights of the sexually abused children. A special court dealing with cases of children who are sexually abused is functioning throughout the country. The purpose of this study is to develop a framework for social workers working with children in these special courts. The problem identified is that in these courts no framework exists for social workers focusing on the guidance of the child through the processes of the Justice System. This includes the therapeutic guidance by means of brief or directive therapy. The research methodology for this study focused on developmental research by using the Intervention research model of Rothman and Thomas (1994). The phases implemented in the study were Problem analysis and project planning, information gathering and synthesis and design. Qualitative data was gathered by means of semi-structured interviews and integrated in phase two of the research report. A proto-type guideline was developed and needs to be evaluated in future research. / Social Work / M.Diac. (Play Therapy)

This thesis focuses on the development of Gestalt guidelines for alternative caregivers to enhance attachment with the traumatised child. The researcher made use of the intervention research process, consisting of six phases. For the purpose of this study of limited scope, the intervention research process was completed up to step one of the fourth phase. The target group in this study was alternative caregivers of traumatised children where attachment difficulties existed. `Alternative caregivers' refers to people who provide care to these children, either on a voluntary basis or professionally. Focus groups, field notes and observation were used as data collection method, and Creswell's spiral was used to analyse data. Not all aspects regarding attachment were covered in this study and only relevant Gestalt principles were discussed. Gestalt guidelines with an observational system were finally developed. The views of the respondents, those of experts and a literature review were incorporated into the guidelines, as well as some functional elements of existing treatments. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / M. Diac. (Play Therapy)