'More' children abuse parents

Social workers are having to deal with an increasing number of cases of children who are violent towards their parents.

Doreen Camilleri, the service area leader of the domestic violence services unit at Agenzija Appogg, said the agency was dealing with "a lot" of such cases.

Although she did not have the number of cases reported annually, Ms Camilleri said the eight social workers at the domestic violence services unit were all dealing with such cases.

Speaking to The Times following a seminar on domestic violence organised by Amnesty International Malta Group and the National Council of Women, Ms Camilleri said there have been reports of both under 18-year-olds and over 18-year-olds who were violent towards their parents.

"If the behaviour is not dealt with and stopped, there is the likelihood that it will aggravate," she said. However, Ms Camilleri pointed out that mothers find it very difficult to deal with this problem, because the abuser is their own child.

There had been mothers who were badly beaten up by their children, with some even having to go into shelters for battered women. For others the violence is emotional and psychological, she said.

In some cases the child copied the behaviour of the husband who abused his wife. There were other cases where a child was abusive to both parents who did not know how to deal with the problem.

Ms Camilleri told the seminar that the domestic violence services unit gets an average of 500 referrals of domestic violence annually, 350 of which are new cases. She said 97 per cent of victims are female.

While physical violence can be obvious, emotional and psychological violence sometimes hurt even more. Moreover, she said, children start sensing violence from a very young age.

She explained that domestic violence occurred when one party in an intimate relationship abuses the other but the victim does not retaliate because she is afraid to do so. Victims come from all walks of life.

Ms Camilleri told those present that the first thing to do to help a victim is to believe her and not ask what she had done to deserve such treatment.

Family and Social Solidarity Minister Dolores Cristina said the Domestic Violence Act, which will be given a third reading in Parliament soon, will not eliminate the problem, which she described as an international one. Stressing the need for continuous education, she said the law was a good one nonetheless, but needed to be reviewed every five years.