Ethical Dilemma: A Critical Analysis Of Child Abuse And Sexual Assault

Understanding Ethical Dilemma

In daily lives, individuals are often confronted with certain situations where they have to decide the right way to act. In some scenarios, the individual has to choose from given morally correct options from different perspectives, and the individual is facing a dilemma in making a decision. Such scenarios drive the individuals into ethical dilemmas. Ethics deals with moral values, human values, rights, and duties in the behavior of individuals. These are the essence of ethics. An individual’s right is the expression of freedom of the individual to achieve desired values. Moral values can be defined as norms used as regulations against rights and obligations. Considering these essences, the individual faces dilemmas in which he/she has to decide between alternatives and the best among the choices if both are ethical.

The first case to be considered is child abuse. Child abuse includes various harmful behaviors of any form that are directed towards a child. Child abuse gives rise to psychological problems. The abuser, in this case, is often referred to as a perpetrator. Based on research, it has been found that 20 percent of women and around 10 percent of men are victims of child abuse worldwide. It is a serious crime that is a massive human rights violation and can negatively affect the lives of the victims. The main dilemma that arises in this situation is whether the crime needs to be reported or to keep quiet and pretend to not have witnessed the situation at all. The victim, in this case, is young and cannot be held accountable for hiding the crime or keeping silent (MICHAN?OVÁ, 2011).

• The personal beliefs of the counselor can impact the counseling relationship. The counselor might be a law-abiding person, and any crime punishable under the law is deemed to be reported. However, in the case of child abuse, the adults in the child’s family might not want the issue to be reported due to many cultural obligations and the protection of honor.
• Out of the ethical principles stated by the American Counselling Association, one of them is confidentiality (DuFresne et al., 2013). A counselor will keep any information provided by the victim or the adults in the victim’s family. The confidentiality of the patient is highly important as it might negatively affect the child and cause traumatization as these events create brain abnormalities (Salter, 2018). Other principles relevant to the scenario are non-maleficence which is not causing harm to others and autonomy. A child cannot take decisions on his/her own, and an adult is needed to decide for the child. Thus, conflict arises between non-maleficence and autonomy. Another conflict between non-maleficence and confidentiality is to keep the matter confidential; more harm will be done that will also increase the risk of further victims.
• A case of abuse of a child has many reporting issues. The perpetrator might cause harm to the victim’s family, and the fear of that might force the family to not report the issue. Certain signs of abuse are not visible or are not physical. It becomes difficult to validate the reported abuse without proof as medical evidence might be absent. It might not be easy to identify the assaulter as the assaulter might be a known member of the family or someone close to the child.
• First of all, knowledge about the assault has to be taken. I will talk to the victim and ask him/her questions about who he/she thinks has unconventionally treated her. Children, in general, do not lie about a case of abuse and cannot fathom if they have been assaulted. It is crucial to monitor their behavior and report any noticeable change is seen. Setting the assaulter free is ethically wrong and generates further risk. The reporting will be done once I am 100 percent sure that the abuse has occurred. It is also crucial to decide which of the two is harmful between reporting the issue and not reporting. Reporting the issue may be harmful as the perpetrator might threaten the victim’s family or use physical violence. Not reporting is setting the assaulter free and increasing the risk of further abuse by the same perpetrator. In this case, I would choose that the issue is reported to legal institutions, and the assaulter should be punished.

A similar case of ethical dilemma arises when a person has been sexually assaulted without consent. This type of assault is mainly termed rape where the victim and the perpetrator engage in a sexual activity to which the victim has not consented. The contact or interaction between the victim and the perpetrator may involve physical force leading to contract sexual abuse. The ethical dilemma that arises, in this case, is reporting the case to legal authorities or keeping quiet and not reporting.

• The personal beliefs of the counselor might impact the ethical nature of the scenario. There is a possibility that the allegations brought by the victim are not credible (Campbell, Menaker & King, 2015). In that case, the counselor might think that the sexual assault has not taken place. If a sexual assault has taken place, then the act is a criminal offense and needs to be reported. If the counselor is a law-abiding person his belief can point to reporting of the matter.
• Three of the ethical principles involved in the scenario are autonomy, confidentiality, and beneficence (DuFresne et al., 2013). The victim might decide to keep the matter unreported which is defined by the ethical principle of autonomy. A counselor will not disclose the information provided by the victim to anyone which falls under confidentiality. The ethical principle of beneficence is to portray acts of kindness in a way that benefits others and saves the victim from further harm. A conflict arises between beneficence and autonomy. If the autonomy of the victim is respected, the case remains unreported and the perpetration might harm the victim again, and if the counselor reports the case to save the victim from further harm, the autonomy of the victim will be violated.
• There are reporting issues associated with the case. The perpetrator might inflict harm upon the victim again or harm his/her family members. The victim might not want to report the issue due to cultural obligations and such cases fall under taboos in society. There is another issue that needs to be mentioned which is the credibility of the assault. Often, the victims report allegations that turn out to be false due to lack of proof or the victims to have bad intentions. According to NSW, the age of consent for consensual sex is 16 years, and below the specified age, a person cannot consent to sex, and the assaulter is punishable (org.au., 2022).
• The counselor Aimee has to confirm if the sexual assault has taken place. This can be done through tests conducted on the victim and medical reports often succeed to prove that sexual assault has indeed taken place. Visible signs of assault can be found in the genitals, mouth, or skin that can be proof of sexual assault (Clifton, 2020). After the reports have been thoroughly examined, the case can be reported to legal authorities. Here, saving the victim from further harm is more important than respecting the autonomy of the victim as these types of cases can affect the victims psychologically. Keeping the issue unreported even if the case is proved is ethically wrong as the perpetrator will be set free and that will increase the risk of further victims. The perpetrator will be punished accordingly.

In conclusion, it can be said that both scenarios demonstrate cases of ethical dilemma, and analysis of the situation is crucial before resolving the dilemma. It is important to decide which alternatives are more harmful than the other, and the less harmful alternative should be chosen. The decision should be based on ethical, moral, and legal bases. First and foremost, the conflict between the ethical principles concerning the respective scenarios is to be considered. A thorough analysis is to be made to address the scenario and figure out which of the principles is more effective. Any legal aspect procedure involved is also needed to be addressed. In the case of physical abuse of a child, mandatory reporting is necessary under the law (Education.nsw.gov.au., 2022). Taking all these aspects into consideration, an individual can arrive at an ethical decision.

References

Campbell, B. A., Menaker, T. A., & King, W. R. (2015). The determination of victim credibility by [adult and juvenile sexual assault investigators. Journal of Criminal Justice, 43(1), 29-39.

Clifton, E. (2020). Medical Examination of the Rape Victim – Gynecology and Obstetrics – MSD Manual Professional Edition. Retrieved 7 March 2022, from

https://www.msdmanuals.com/en-in/professional/gynecology-and-obstetrics/domestic-violence-and-rape/medical-examination-of-the-rape-victim

DuFresne, R., Haar, J. I., Intagliata, A., & Rybarczyk, N. (2013) The Case of Liam: Ethical Counseling of Minors. 

https://www.counseling.org/docs/default-source/vistas/the-case-of-liam.pdf?sfvrsn=a92a0f24_10

Education.nsw.gov.au. (2022). Mandatory reporting obligations. Education.nsw.gov.au. Retrieved 25 February 2022, from

https://education.nsw.gov.au/student-wellbeing/child-protection/mandatory-reporting.

Figar, N., & ?or?evi?, B. (2016). Managing an ethical dilemma. Economic Themes, 54(3), 345-362.

https://sciendo.com/pdf/10.1515/ethemes-2016-0017

MICHAN?OVÁ, S. (2011)  Ethical Dilemmas in Dealing with Cases of Child Sexual Abuse. 

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/280227148_Ethical_dilemmas_in_dealing_with_cases_of_child_sexual_abuse

Salter, M. (2018). Child sexual abuse: ethics and evidence. Child abuse review, 27(3), 165-170. https://doi.org/10.1002/car.2516

Wlsnsw.org.au. (2022). Some common questions – Women’s Legal Service NSW. Women’s Legal Service NSW. Retrieved 25 February 2022, from

https://www.wlsnsw.org.au/resources/sexual-assault/some-common-questions/#:~:text=The%20age%20of%20consent%20in,be%20charged%20with%20an%20offence.