Download citation:
BibTeX | RIS | EndNote | Medlars | ProCite | Reference Manager | RefWorks
Send citation to:

---

Objectives: child abuse is affected by several factors. The economic situation of the abused child's family is one of them. Poverty, as the lack of capabilities helping people to have a suitable life, plays a great role in defining their economic situations. This article is going to review the influence of some of the obstacles of the human capabilities like the family income, the kind of housing, locality of living and work of the children on child abuse, with a capability poverty approach. Methodology: This article is an excerpt from the results of a review about child abuse. Here, the results of the previous researches about this issue are presented and reviewed within the framework of the social structure's theory. This theory, to some extent, has succeeded in explaining the relation between the social situation, social problem and crime. It has insisted on the stability of kind of violence culture in between the low-income urban classes. Findings: The occurrence of child abuse is affected by capability poverty like family income, the kind of housing, locality of living and the children work. Almost, all the studies on the kind of abuse and neglect on children have confirmed that child abuse is more prevalent among poor families with lower economic condition than other classes. The stresses on people in low economic classes raise the probability of the happening of child abuse much more than middle and high classes. There is a direct relation between the situation of people's house and family capability poverty. In most families with economic capability poverty, the house is rental, small sized, unsuitable, and crowded. The results of the studies confirm that child abuse is more prevalent in families living in such houses. Various studies have shown that in some areas such as low income neighborhoods or suburbs, the prevalence of social problems and crime is more than other localities. This phenomenon has several reasons: First, the people living in the same locality are similar in cultural aspects, ethical disciplines, and beliefs and they are influenced by each other. On the other hand, the outdoor abuses are related to the locality of life of the person and its environmental variations. Researches show that child abuse is more prevalent in mentioned localities. In spite of the laws forbidding the work of children under 15 (79th article of work law in Iran), their existence in the job marketing is noticeable. Although officials have not reported the exact number of employed people between the ages of 9 and 14, the rate between the employed children at the ages of 10 to 14 to the entire population of this age is reported as 2.75 percent. In spite of it, there are many clues for employment of much more children in official and unofficial job marketing. These children are seriously in risk of being abused by adults because there is the least protection and observation at their work location. Results: In poor families, it is impossible or difficult to be met the basic minimum needs of children by their parents. Moreover, because of the priority for obtaining the least income for surviving the family, neglect is significantly more prevalent than middle and high-income families. Poverty as a factor influencing the kind and situation of house can prepare the way for child abuse by the low quality of the house or the feeling of insecurity because of rental housing. All the family living in single room is one of the most potential reasons for sexual abuse. A repeated movement reduces the potential protection in the neighborhood they have lived in for a long time and raises the outdoor risks for children. Poor families are forced to live in less regular areas to spend less on housing. In these neighborhoods there is no urban service. Usually the access to educational and health services is hard or in low quality, so the children are deprived of the least protections. Soon entering to job marketing makes them predisposed to be offended so easily because they do not have the ability to protect themselves from the risks. Finally, although poverty is not the only factor explaining child abuse, from different aspects it is one of the most important ones.

Keywords: Child Abuse, Equality, Iran, Poverty

Full-Text [PDF 371 kb]   (2961 Downloads)