In September 2008 I wrote this:
Unfortunately, what this [the repeal of section 59] does to parents is place them in a position of having no clear idea what is an acceptable smack. Worse still, it allows children to threaten their parents, thereby seriously reducing their authority, even if the child has no intention of notifying [...]

The Herald reports today that 39 “minor acts of physical discipline” were brought to the attention of police, resulting in one prosecution and  37 warnings. The article goes on to say:
Deputy Police Commissioner Rob Pope said the figures showed police continued to apply discretion in handling “anti-smacking” cases.
Sadly, Mr. Pope completely misses the point. Absolutely [...]

BBC News reports on a fascinating study that demonstrates that victims of child abuse may have accelerated aging.
Telomeres are relatively short sections of specialised DNA that sit at the ends of all our chromosomes.They have been compared to the plastic tips at the ends of shoelaces that prevent the laces from unravelling.
Each time a cell [...]

Fancy an emetic? The Herald is running a series of articles on child abuse today. Here is a nauseating recitation from a single article:

An average of eight children are killed each year, and many more end up battered in hospital at the hands of family members.
Children under two are especially vulnerable; each year 59 are admitted [...]

Has anybody noticed that the review of changes to section 59 of the Crimes Act has missed the point entirely? The review tries to make out that the police are not using the law to persecute parents who lightly smack their children. This is probably true (though I should add “at the moment” here because [...]

Apparently the case of the mother who beat her children with multiple implements is so horrible that some of the jury have been in tears. Though, as usual, this will be portrayed as yet another example of why we needed the repeal of section 59, it is, of course, nothing of the sort. Though I [...]

You would think that child abuse would be something that at least the police would take seriously, but it appears not. The Dom Post runs an article on the massive backlog of child abuse cases that has been known about since 2006 but is only now being subject to an investigation. It seems that little [...]

There is now a site detailing some of the abject failures of the repeal of section 59 at http://yesvote.blogspot.com/. But for an example of how the repeal of section 59 not only does not address the problem of child abuse, it is not even near the same country; there is this lovely couple.
Oneroa reached across [...]

Politicians kill children. That appears to be the message of the latest report from the Children’s Commission. Consider it Cindy Kiro’s parting gift.
Kiwi kids are dying in accidents and from abuse and Third World diseases due to political apathy, doctors and child welfare experts say.
Not sure about the “Third World diseases” bit. It is my experience that [...]

The horrific details of the murder of Duwayne Pailegutu by his stepfather, Johnny Pukerua Joachim have been released. They make grim reading.
Johnny Joachim is serving an 18-year, non-parole sentence after admitting Duwayne’s murder.
For the week before he died,Duwayne sat, partially paralysed and fitted with nappies, slowly suffocating on blood which he inhaled into his lungs as [...]