Violence against children, the voices of Ugandan ... - Raising Voices

In what ways do you punish children?Physical PunishmentAlthough an overwhelming majority of adults (78.3percent) said they caned children, only 45.7 percentof adults said they slapped children as a form ofpunishment, and 42.8 percent said they pinchedchildren. Almost 1 in 5 adults (19.3 percent) saidthey assigned excessive work to punish children,and more than 1 in 10 (11.4 percent) said theylocked children up. Apart from caning, thesefigures are considerably lower than the experiencesreported by children. Most noticeably, 80.4 percentof children reported being slapped by adults,yet only 45.7 percent of adults reported slappingchildren. Similarly, 61.6 percent of children reportedbeing pinched by adults, yet only 42.8 percent ofadults reported pinching children.This discrepancy confirms an observation discussedearlier (see page 65) that many adults are underrepresentingand perhaps even under-perceivingthe amount of violence inflicted on children. Indiscussions and interviews, many adults tendedto discount ad hoc incidences of violence againstchildren as inconsequential.Small, small actions such as looking with hoteyes or a quick slap are not important. It quicklyputs the child right and you continue doing whatyou were doing before. If I were to count those,they would be too many!female, parent, WakisoAs expected, not many adults admitted to usingexcessive forms of physical punishment. Forexample, 19.1 percent of boys and 15.1 percent ofgirls reported being burned, yet only 2.9 percentof adults reported using burning as a form ofpunishment. Similarly, 14.4 percent of childrenreported being tied up, yet only 3.4 percent ofadults admitted to tying up children. This wouldsuggest that at least at some level, a significantnumber of adults are aware that other adults wouldunderstand some of the punishment they inflicton children as mistreatment. This emerged moreclearly during discussion under question 7 althoughoften it was reported in the third person.Figure 3.9 Comparison of children’s and adults’ reports of use ofphysical punishmentCaningSlappingPinchingExcesive workChildrenAdultLocking up0 10 20 30 40 50 60 7080 90% of respondentsPart Three Adults’ Rationale 69