Author(s)

Privilege M. Chadwick-Charuma¹, Maria Tsvere¹, Patience Mutopo¹, Alexio Mbereko²

¹Chinhoyi University of Technology, Chinhoyi, Zimbabwe.
²Action 24, Chinhoyi, Zimbabwe.

Background: This article discusses reasons why child abuse victims and witness may not disclose child maltreatment. Methods: For primary data collection of this article, a sample of church pastors, community members and social workers from Mashonaland West in Zimbabwe were interviewed. Primary data from a qualitative research methodology was used to explore why child abuse victims and witnesses do not always report child abuse when they come across it. Aim: The purpose for this article is to promote awareness of what hinders people from reporting child abuse so that childcare professionals and families can work together in removing barriers that hinders the revelation of horrid secret such as child abuse. Results: Inefficient systems for reporting child abuse can hinder victims and witness from disclosing child abuse cases. Conclusion: To prevent and reduce child abuse, there is a need to have effective procedures of protecting and encouraging child abuse victims and witnesses to disclose suspected child abuse cases.

Child Abuse, Child Abuse Witness, Child Abuse Victims, Child Abuse Disclosure

Chadwick-Charuma, P. , Tsvere, M. , Mutopo, P. and Mbereko, A. (2022) Understanding Factors That Hinder Child Abuse Cases from Being Reported to Officials in Households with Alcoholic Parents: Case Study of Mashonaland West, Zimbabwe. Open Journal of Social Sciences, 10, 17-26. doi: 10.4236/jss.2022.107002.