ATTITUDES OF THE SINGAPORE PUBLIC TO ACTIONS SUGGESTING CHILD-ABUSE

Objective: The aim was to ascertain the views of the Singapore public on the acceptability of actions of an abusive nature. Method: In-depth interviews were carried out with 401 randomly sampled respondents in relation to a range of actions. Questions were asked concerning the ac ceptability of 18 actions, whether circumstances might justify eight o f them, how respondents felt about reporting child abuse and whether t hey could recall any case they had come across. Results: Respondents s trongly disapproved of sexually motivated acts, and were more disappro ving of physical abuse or neglect than of emotional abuse or neglect. Circumstances did affect how the less extreme actions were viewed. Res pondents supported reporting child abuse, but were somewhat against ma ndatory reporting. They were able to recall details of a number of pos sible cases. Conclusion: We argue that definitions of child abuse shou ld be general and not tied to specific actions, since the effects of a ctions may vary across cultures, and should be treated as an empirical matter. This allows a research agenda that focuses on the consequence s of actions rather than issues of definition. (C) 1997 Elsevier Scien ce Ltd.