Reporting Child Abuse to Child Protection Authorities: Who Is Influenced by the Media Coverage?

By Marie-Christine Saint-Jacques, Daniel Turcotte, Sylvie Drapeau, Patrick Villeneuve, Hans Ivers
English

Incidences of child abuse reported to the authorities have increased in recent years in France and Canada. This paper tests the hypothesis that media stories about abused children have raised the public’s awareness about the need to report instances of children being victimized. This analysis covers all reports (N = 11,563) of child abuse filed over a 24-month period in a youth protection center, as well as written media coverage about child mistreatment. The results show that the media have a moderate impact on the number of cases reported, and that the extent of this relation varies according to the source of the reports.

Keywords

  • Victimization
  • child Protection
  • abuse reports
  • Media
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