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Law Multidisciplinary

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Browsing Law Multidisciplinary by Subject "Child abuse."

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    A critical examination of South African legislation pertaining to the abused child.
    (1994) Dickerson, Tracey-Leigh.; Lupton, Michael Leslie.; Schwikkard, Pamela-Jane.
    The physical and sexual abuse of children is primarily a complex, insidious socio-psychological . problem, and secondly, a legal concern. Accordingly, any attempt to examine the phenomenon from a legal perspective, requires by necessity, an acknowledgement of the multi-dimensional nature of the problem. This thesis attempts to provide the reader with a comprehensive overview of the current state of medical, psychological and social knowledge on child physical and sexual abuse. Following on this, an examination is made of the legislation pertaining to the protection of the abused child within the home and the courtroom. In respect hereto, review is made of the development of the legal response to child abuse, those provisions within the Child Care Act 74 of 1983 pertaining to child protection, the issue of a legal definition of child abuse, corporal punishment and the rules of evidence and procedure impinging upon the child witness. During the course of this thesis, regard is had primarily to current psychological research findings. This is particularly apparent in respect of issues dealing with the alleged inferiority of the child witness in the courtroom. Here, psychological evidence is provided to show that major discrepancies exist between the positive view of the child witness, which is emerging from current experimental studies, and the skeptical approach to such a witness by the legal system. Throughout the thesis, a call is made for the realignment of the law with medical, psychological and social realities. Unless such takes place, the legal response to child abuse will remain an ineffective and harmful experience for any unfortunate child victim.
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    Critically evaluating the machinery of the Domestic Violence Act 116 of 1998 for combating domestic violence in South Africa.
    (2017) Sibisi, Siyabonga.; Khumalo, Khulekani.
    There is an international law duty on South Africa in terms of the Convention on the Elimination of Violence Against Women (CEDAW) and the Convention on the Elimination of Violence Against Woman (CEVAW). Section 12 (1) (c) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 guarantees a right to be free from violence either from a public source or a private source. South Africa ranks amongst the most dangerous countries in the world. It is submitted that intimate partner violence is at its peak. Domestic violence is a direct violation of various other rights including the right to life, equality, human dignity, privacy, labour and housing. The Domestic Violence Act 116 of 1998 (the DVA) was passed as a means to combat domestic violence primarily by issuing protection orders to victims of domestic violence. This dissertation affirms that the protection order is the core machinery in the DVA for combating domestic violence. However it is further submitted that there are other machineries within the DVA that may equally be effective. It is trite that domestic violence still rears its ugly head. There are various causes for this. On one hand, some argue that the machineries are ineffective, and on the other hand, some argue that they are not being properly implemented. Therefore, the purpose of this dissertation is to set out the core machinery for combating domestic violence and then to critically examine the advances made in the implementation of the same machinery, focussing primarily on the criminal justice system and the challenges they face while implementing the DVA and providing possible solutions.