Yafit Sulimani-Aidan PhD. candidate, Bar Ilan University, Israel Presenter: Dr. Rami Benbenishty

1. Local child maltreatment rates and protective service responses: The role of ethnicity and community socio-economic characteristics Yafit Sulimani-Aidan PhD. candidate, Bar Ilan University, Israel Presenter: Dr. Rami Benbenishty Bar Ilan University, Israel Haruv Institute, Israel  Funded by: the Haruv Institute In collaboration with: Ministry of Welfare and Social Services

2. An overview • A methodological note • A brief review of the literature oncommunity characteristics and maltreatment • Child maltreatment and ethnicity • A brief description of the situation in Israel • Methods • Findings • Discussion, limitations, conclusions & implications

3. An introductory methodological note • Child indicators as a form of monitoring on national and regional level • Commonly discussed in terms of policy implications • A powerful scientific method, which has many strengths, and of course some weaknesses as well • Need to be further developed to take advantage of the power in secondary analyses and data mining of large (either representative or ‘census-like’ data bases. • The importance of replication over time and caution in interpretation

4. Introduction I • Child maltreatment is viewed as resulting from complex factors, across multiple ecological levels • The rates of maltreatment are influenced. Among other ecological factors by family and community characteristics (e.g. poverty)

5. Introduction II • Ethnic minority groups and maltreatment • In many cases are more vulnerable when they are associated with poverty and stressful life events • May have cultural approaches that either protect children or increase maltreatment (as defined in Western cultures). • Separate maltreatment from maltreatment reporting • Lower report to protect group • Are more vulnerable to intrusion by state authorities

6. The situation in Israel • Israeli Arabs have lower socio-economic status, hence Arabs areexpected to have higher rates of maltreatment • Cultural values (e.g., physical punishment of children, Ben-Arieh & Haj-Yhaia, 2006; Benbenishty et al., 2002)- hence Arabs are expected to have higher levels of maltreatment

7. Current findings in Israel • Still, findings regarding differences in child maltreatment reports between Arabs and Jews are inconsistent • Potentially, offsetting cultural strengths • Potentially, issues of reporting • Practitioners in Arab localities are social workers who may have conflicts reporting maltreatment because of their • National/ethnic/minority identity • Community connectedness • Extended family loyality • More research is required to disentangle these issues

8. Exploring Local responses to maltreatment • Responses of the child welfare system may vary on the continuum between family support and interventions and punitive/legal responses. • Responses to maltreatment vary by: • Child welfare regimes • Countries • Localities • Sources for variance: • Cultural values • Child Welfare regimes and organizational structures • Historical developments • Resources • Little/no research on local variations

9. Study Aims • Examine the contribution of the community's socio economic and ethnic characteristics to child maltreatment in Israel. • Examine local responses to maltreatment • Examine differences between mainly Jewish and mainly Arab localities

10. study variables Dependent variables Independent variables Child maltreatment • Rates • Types Protective services responses • reports to police • Court orders • Family interventions • Demographic factors • Locality Size • Age Distribution • Economic factors • Income • Unemployment • Education level • % of Students • % of high school diploma

11. Method • Sample • 231 localities out of a total of 256 • 2,133,376 number of children (97.9% of the total population of children) • Data sources • Annual reporting system on all local maltreatment reports in Israel • Census information provided by Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics on each locality.

12. Rates per Thousand Children

13. Protective Service Responses (as percent of all reports in locality)

14. Protective Service Responses (as percent of all reports in locality

15. Pearson correlations - Jewish and Arab Localities

16. Summary & Conclusions • Rates of maltreatment reports are lower in Arab localities • Relative prevalence of different types of reports is different between Jewish and Arab localities • Socioeconomic factors, age factors and educational level correlate with child maltreatment, especially in Jewish localities • Fewer children are removed from home and fewer court orders are issued in Arab localities

17. Conclusions II • Variability among localities is very large • Perhaps there is a conceptual mismatch between community and locality; • There may be different mechanisms operating on these two conceptually different units of analyses

18. Potential Interpretations • Differences in values and cultural perceptions regarding physical punishment • Willingness to use social services and involvement of the community in family problems • Differential access to social services

19. The social services role • Differences in reaction of the social services to maltreatment • Resources • Cultural differences as to what is considered appropriate response

20. Practical implications • Availability of social workers • Cultural sensitivity • Strengthening the community

21. Acknowledgements • The authors gratefully acknowledge the collaboration of Israel’s Ministry of Welfare and Social Services and of Child Protective Services staff • Funding was provided by: Haruv Institute, Jerusalem, Israel

22. Thank You!Rami Benbenishty – Ramibenben@gmail.comYafitSulimani-Aidan - yafitsoul@walla.co.il & Shalom!

23. Thank You!Rami Benbenishty – Ramibenben@gmail.comYafitSulimani-Aidan - yafitsoul@walla.co.il