Biography

Ericka Rutledge, M.A., is a Doctoral student in clinical psychology at Northern Illinois University. She received her Bachelor’s degree from Indiana University, and earned her Master’s degree in psychology at New York University. Her research interests include child maltreatment, early violence intervention and prevention, attrition, and treatment sustainability.

Article Title

Protecting Our Youth: The State of Child Welfare in the Caribbean—Where We Have Come, Where We Are Going, and Where We Have Been

Abstract

Globally, approximately 40 million children are abused each year (WHO, 2001). Child physical abuse has been recognized as an increasing problem in the Cayman Islands, as well as other Caribbean communities. The impact of child physical abuse can have physical, psychological, behavioral, and societal consequences. For example, research has shown that individuals who are victims of child abuse may be more at risk of developing depression and anxiety, having substance abuse problems, engaging in delinquency as adolescents and/or violent criminal activity as adults. Additionally, child abuse not only has negative consequences for the child, but also degrades family relationships and communities. Moreover, communities pay both direct and indirect costs for child abuse such as maintaining a child welfare system, legal expenditures, and long-term economic consequences (i.e. increases in law enforcement expenditures due to higher delinquent/criminal activity, lost productivity due to unemployment, and increased use and provision of health care resources). While prevention is a key and essential element, understanding factors that put families and communities at risk, as well as community and family factors that facilitate risk reduction, are imperative to combating this problem of child physical abuse.

This paper seeks to examine the evolution of child protective laws, policies, and services in the Caribbean. This paper will highlight the unfortunate costs to societies and individuals that are resultant from child physical abuse, and also will discuss protective and prevention factors that have been found to reduce child physical abuse risk. Moreover, this paper will review some of the current practices, interventions, and programs that are being implemented in the Cayman Islands and other Caribbean countries aimed at tackling this problem of child physical abuse.