Educational Research - the Ethics and Aesthetics of Statistics

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54 J.J.H. Dekker of the problem”. He hoped that the number of child maltreatment reports through the local AMKs, or, Child Maltreatment Report Centres, until now ca. 40,000, would increase substantially. In other words, some hours after receiving the two divergent reports on child maltreatment, the available statistics immediately come to function as a new map of reality. The Minister even hopes that reality will soon be accommodated to these new maps (Rouvout, Weblog 25 April 2007). In his side letter to Parliament on the same day, he mentioned the divergence in figures between the two reports. His solution for dealing with this was to simply conclude that the Leiden report must indicate a minimum figure. Yet, he also writes that we now understand the dimensions of the problem – the AMKs reports of ca. 40,000 inaccurate and that more policy is necessary in order to show the real dimensions of the problem (Rouvoet, Letter to Parliament, 25 April 2007). This example shows that due to the pressure exerted by educational professionals (who argue that child maltreatment is an underestimated problem), policy-makers can be easily impressed by new statistical mapping of a phenomenon. In this case, they conclude that figures must be high, that prior reports must have underestimated the problem, and that we now know the true dimensions of the problem. This happened despite the fact that the three prevalence figures, namely 40,000, 107,200 and 160,700, mean that we simply have no way of making any solid conclusions. In other words, the aesthetics of statistics impress policy-makers even when statistics result in confusion instead of clarity. The policy-maker simply says: we now know the problem, and we now can base our policy on statistics. 4.7 Conclusion In looking back at almost 50 years of child maltreatment research and policy, it became clear that decreasing maltreatment of children in the Western world is not what the majority of studies on the prevalence of maltreatment of children show. It is true that the diminution hypothesis is probably maintained for the prevalence of physical child maltreatment, coming under the definition of child maltreatment as formulated by Kempe in 1962. However, when using other definitions, we must accept that there has been an increase in child maltreatment in the Western world. This increase can be observed by looking at three multipliers (though this is not to discount the influence of other factors). The first multiplier consists in the constantly broadening definition of child maltreatment since the 1970s. This has meant that the definition of child maltreatment “all depends on to whom you are talking and what they are talking about” (Giovannoni, 1990, pp. 19–20). Behind this development of broadening definitions is the new attention for child maltreatment (that emerged in the 1960s), resulting in more explicit educational standards to be followed by parents and educators. The impact of internationally accepted children’s rights in which criteria for good parenthood and for child protection have been defined forms the second multiplier. Evidence for this impact is to be found in the Dutch Civil Code, where, from 25 April 2007, in article 247#2 we read the following: “When caring and educating
4 Child Maltreatment in the Last 50 Years 55 their child, parents do not use any psychological or physical violence or any other humiliating treatment”. This change in the Dutch Civil Code resulted from the recommendation in 30 January 2004 by the UN committee that supervises the compliance by member states of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (Rouvoet, Letter to Parliament, 25 April 2007, p.2). Last but not least, the preference of policy-makers for clear figures on this topic worked as a multiplier. As we saw, the Dutch Minister of Youth and the Family to draw firm conclusions from contradictory figures on child maltreatment. The presentation of figures, notwithstanding the major contradictions between the two reports and the resulting scientific confusion, was enough for policy-makers to conclude that “we now know the dimension of the problem”, and that we can now base our policy on a statistical map of the phenomenon, even if this map is not simply representing the world, but making it more confusing. References Amato, P. R., & Booth, A. (1997). A generation at risk. Growing up in an era of family upheaval. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Ariès, Ph. (1960). L’Enfant et la vie familiale sous l’ancien régime. Paris: Librairie Plon, 1960. Baartman, H. E. M. (1993). Opvoeden met alle geweld. Hardnekkige gewoontes en hardhandige opvoeders. Utrecht: SWP. Baartman, H. E. M. (1996). Opvoeden kan zeer doen. Over oorzaken van kindermishandeling, hulpverlening en preventie. Utrecht: SWP. Baartman, H., Bullens, R., & Willems, J. (Eds.). (2005). Kindermishandeling: de politiek een zorg. Amsterdam: SWP. Bancroft, L., & Silverman, J. G. (2002). The batterer as parent. Addressing the impact of domestic violence on family dynamics. London: Sage. Berger, A. M., Knutson, J. F., Mehm, J. G., & Perkins, K. A. (1988). The self-report of punitive childhood experiences of young adults and adolescents. Child Abuse & Neglect, 12, 251–262. Clemens Schröner, B. L. F. (1956). Psychische kindermishandeling. The Hague: Nijhoff. Dahlberg, G., & Moss, P. (2005). Ethics and politics in early childhood education. London: Routledge/Falmer. Dekker, J. J. H. (2000). The century of the child revisited. International Journal of Children’s Rights, 8, 133–150. Dekker, J. J. H. (2001). The will to change the child. Re-education homes for children at risk in nineteenth century Western Europe (pp. 104–115). Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang. Dekker, J. J. H. (2002). Demystification in the century of the child. The conflict between Romanticism and disenchantment in (residential) youth care from the 1830s to 2000. In E. J. Knorth, P. M. van den Bergh, & F. Verhey (Eds.), Professionalization and participation in child and youth care. Challenging understandings in theory and practice (pp. 27–48). Burlington: Ashgate. Dekker, J. J. H. (2006). Het verlangen naar opvoeden. Over de groei van de pedagogische ruimte in Nederland sinds de Gouden Eeuw tot omstreeks 1900. Amsterdam: Bert Bakker. Dekker, J. J. H. (2007). Philanthropic networks for children at risk in nineteenth-century Europe. Paedagogica Historica, 43, 235–244. Dekker, J. J. H. (2009). Children at risk in history: A story of expansion. Paedagogica Historica, 45, 17–36. Dekker, J. J. H., & Groenendijk, L. F. (1991). The republic of God or the republic of children? Childhood and childrearing after the reformation: an appraisal of Simon Schama’s thesis about the uniqueness of the Dutch case. Oxford Review of Education, 17(3), 317–335.
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Educational Research: The Ethics an
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Paul Smeyers · Marc Depaepe Editor
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Earlier Volumes in this Series Educ
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viii Contents 10 The Good, the Beau
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8 European Citizenship and Evidence
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168 P. Smeyers indeterminism, as we
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216 About the Authors co-editor-in-
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218 About the Authors voor Wetensch
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220 Author Index Elkins, G. R., 190
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224 Subject Index I Inequality, 29-
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