Socio-Legal Approach towards Child Abuse

In recent years the manifestation of child abuse as a social disaster came into public attention with the help of public media and caused much controversy and various social reactions. It was against this background that in the past few years much endeavors has gone into the criminalization of different forms of this phenomenon by civil, sociological, psychological and criminological agencies. The criminalization of this social phenomenon due to its disastrous consequences in the form of maltreatment and abuse of the children necessitates the carrying out of this task in two major categories: firstly, revictimization of the child in turn becoming a delinquent which is a kind of response to being victimized. Putting aside the adverse victimization and criminological consequences of the child abuse and the necessity of combating them the human rights aspect of child abuse breaches their physical-moral and psychological wellbeing i.e. their human dignity. For this reason child abuse and its varied manifestations must defined in an express and doubtless manner in order to separate them from the reasonable measures necessary for their proper upbringing. This article is written in descriptive-analytical form having used the existing criminological and sociological writings in Farsi and English. Research has revealed that the Iranian criminal law lacks a comprehensive definition of child abuse. For this reason criminal law has so far failed to provide the necessary safeguards for children against abuse. The boarders of child abuse and reasonable measures for their proper upbringing are blurred. To condemn child abuse as a social phenomenon and its criminalization within criminal law involves providing a sociological-criminological definition of this phenomenon within Iranian society. As such not only duties of parents, guardians, and teachers and …. in providing care and attention for children and students are observed, children's dignity are also protected and safeguarded against different forms of abuse.