DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A COMPUTERIZED CHILD ABUSE DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1. 1 Background of the Study

Children are precious gift from the almighty God. According to the bible (psalm 127:3) children are a heritage from the Lord, children are a reward from him. They need to be cared for, loved, cherished, appreciated and adored in a reliable manner. In African context, children are so regarded that a family without a child is seen as incomplete institution.

According to Onuzulike (2002) generally stated that a child is an individual under the age of eighteen years. Child abuse is defined as the portion of harm done to a child who may be from human action or inaction that is proscribed or proximate and preventable. Preventable here implies that it is not accidental but intentionally inflicted on the child by perpetrator who does not care about the outcome.

Child abuse as a social problem has only recently opined recognition and attention of the Nigeria public. This was as a result of an organization known as the African Network for prevention and protection against child abuse and neglect (ANPPCAN) which was set up in (1984) by some African countries including Nigeria.

Their aim was to look into the area of child abuse and neglect, 25 pertains to Africa, since the Nigeria has formed its own chapter of the network which was inaugurated in (1986) and this body has held a couple of conference in an effort to defined and identify aspects of child abuse within the society. The African network for prevention and protection against child abuse and neglect (1999) defines child abuse as denial of the basic rights and need of the child by parents, schools, government and society. According to Ekpe (2001), also stated that “Neglect” implies a disorder in parent child relationship characterized by a failure of parent to provide for the child the personal values and the child suffers from lack of attention, malnutrition and lack of stimulation.

Anukam (2002) said that in emotional abuse, the parent was so depended on the child that the parent child role was reserved. The child is laid upon the burden of fending for himself and his limited capabilities; he cannot meet the demands and therefore becomes frustrated. The child may want to run away from the family environment and it’s hardship. Sexual abuse implies sexual harassment given to a child by parents, caregivers, teachers, and so on without the child’s consent and understanding. Kalu (2003) also stated that reflected or physically or sexually abused children performed poor in school; they receive lower states than no-maltreated children. Against this background, this work is aimed at or examines the nature, causes, and aspects of child abuse and neglect in Nigeria.

The main background of the study exposes the problems inherent in a non-computer based database system.

An organization like African Network for prevention and protection against child abuse and neglect (ANPPCAN) encountered serious problems in the area of documentations which include misplacement of vital information or cases, as a result of large volume of work handled, duplicated or efforts due to inconsistency in activities, and a lot of time spent ins searching for files or reports when needed for processing.

1.2  Statement of the problem

For a system to require some modification or replacement or enhancement, there must be some existing problems associated with the old or existing system that prompted to it. This organization faces numerous problems due to the manual methods of recording which may include:

1. Inefficient and ineffective security measures in order to avoid loss of data by unauthorized users.
2. The keeping and retrieval of accurate data or records on child abuse, complainant and offenders which are poorly carried out.
3. Wrongly filed and placed, hence it is not easy to obtain accurate information
4. The length of time required for processing client report is much
5. Keeping folders of report manually takes a lot of time, money and some of the information is redundant.
6. It is unreliable and accurate
7. It results to unnecessary duplication of reports
8. It causes loss of documents

1.3         Objectives of the study

The main objective of the project is to fully understand the existing system and to identify the basic information requirement and then discuss now the computerization of the system can assist in eradicating the problems of non-computer based system. The purpose of this project is to design and implement a system that will solve the problem of misplacement of vital reported cases, documents and records, duplication of efforts, and time taken or needed to process files and records.

 

The specific objectives includes:

1. To design a functionally database system
2. To compute and achieve child abuse records
3. To process and achieve each record
4. To analyze each record
5. To produce event report in demand

1.4  Scope of the Study

       This study was limited within or to African Network for prevention and protection against child Abuse and Neglect (ANPPCAN), Enugu. This is to achieve the targeted area of the study.

1.5  Significance of the Study

Child abuse and child neglect are social problem that affects a significant number of people, about which something must be done by designing a computerized child abuse and neglect database management system.

When finding from this study are implemented, it will help the staff in ANPPCAN, Enugu to solve the problem associated with inability to keep accurate reports and records effectively and acid loss of data or reported cases, and also the Nigeria to be aware of the rate of child trafficking. This work will also be beneficial to academic who want to do further research of the area.

1.6  Limitation of the Study

This work will only compute the child abused, complainant and offenders’ records, the system will require constraints internet facility to enable the user to access the platform.

1.7  Definition of Terms

1. Child: Child is defined as the dependent person in the custody of a parent or guardian for protection of his/her life.
2. Abuse: It is any deliberate act by a person, group of person in the society designed to inflict on a child mentally, physically sexually or emotionally.
3. Neglect: This usually occur when families fail to or on their own part fail to provide the necessary need for their children such as food, medical care, being deprived of essential need of life.
4. ANPPCAN: African Network for Prevention and Protection against Child Abuse and Neglect.
5. Child Abuse: This is a child this is physically, sexually, emotionally or psychologically maltreated by the parent, caregivers, teachers or group of persons.
6. Complainant: A complainant is a person who lodges a complaint. It is a term used in content of criminal law to refer to person who alleges that another person committed a criminal act against him/her in a legal way. It is a person who reports a case or crime.
7. Offender: This is a person who commits an illegal act. He/she is a criminal and guilty of an offence.

REFERENCES

Bromfield, L., & Haggins, D. (2005) national comparison of child protection system (child abuse procreation issues No. 22) melbourne: Australian Institute of family studies. Retrieved from www.aids.gov.au/nch/pubs/issues22/ issues22.html.

Albert, J.C., English, D.J., Litrownki, A.J., Thompson, R, Briggs, E.C., & Bangdiwala, S.I. Bromfield, L.M. (2005). Chronic child maltreatment in an Australian statutory child protection sample unpublished doctoral dissertation, Deakin University, Evelong.

Haggins, D. J. (2004). Differentiating between child maltreatment during childhood and adjustment in adulthood. Child maltreatment, 3, 261.272.

Scott, D. (2014). Understanding child neglect (CFCA paper No. 20) melbourne: child family community Australian Institute of family studies. Retrieved from (aids.gove.au/ifca/publication/understanding,child-neglect) Child abuse and neglect by parent and other caregivers” (PDF) World Health Organization P. 3 Archived (PDF) from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved & March 2016.