The problematization of child sexual abuse in policy and law: The Indonesian example.

BACKGROUND: Indonesia has a strong national child protection policy. Yet significant limitations exist in laws, policy implementation, and coordination of services, especially regarding child sexual abuse. This is related to a lack of knowledge about child sexual abuse in Indonesia and associated taboos that constrain policy development. OBJECTIVE: To understand how child sexual abuse problems have been represented in national child protection policy. METHOD: 'What's the problem represented to be' (Bacchi, 2009) is an analytic approach that uses discourse analysis. This method was employed to examine how child sexual abuse problems in Indonesia are constructed and represented in six government documents (two laws and four national policies). RESULTS: Three overarching problem representations of child sexual abuse were identified: (1) children are a vulnerable, at risk, and disempowered group; (2) service access is limited and services are not coordinated; and (3) there is a lack of agreement and clarity across laws and policy in child protection. For example, inconsistencies of policy and laws regarding the minimum age for marriage can result in gender discrimination and limit a child's access to justice, protection, and services. CONCLUSION: Policy discourses play a crucial role in the construction and representation of child sexual abuse problems in Indonesia. Current inconsistencies constrain the implementation of effective intervention and prevention programs. Further work on policy harmony is needed as well as improving community understanding of child sexual abuse.

Child sexual abuse in Indonesia: A systematic review of literature, law and policy.

BACKGROUND: Like many middle-income countries, knowledge about child sexual abuse (CSA) is limited in Indonesia. The national government has stated a commitment to protect children from the worst forms of abuse, yet the sensitivity of CSA along with the complexity of culture and law, present substantial challenges. OBJECTIVE: This article reviews current knowledge about CSA in Indonesia, in the context of existing laws and policies that influence CSA prevention and intervention. METHOD: A systematic review of this research was conducted in the following manner: a review of scholarly literature and grey literature in English (19 papers) and in Bahasa Indonesian (11 papers), and a review of CSA-related Indonesian laws (4 documents) and policies (5 documents). RESULTS: This review finds that knowledge about CSA in Indonesia is still limited. The taboos on discussing sexual matters were identified as factors that impede reporting of CSA. Poverty also leads to increasing children's risk of sexual abuse. There was less attention to CSA occurring within family contexts and focus was more upon its occurrence outside of the family. The study identified that contradictory definitions of children within the law add to children's vulnerability to CSA; this is especially the case for girls. Current child protection strategies in prevention and intervention lack specific focus on CSA. CONCLUSION: Further research is needed to enable the development of evidence-based approaches to better harmonize the development of law and policy with contemporary knowledge about CSA.