A sociological study on child abuse in Sri Lanka: A case study in wellawaya police division in monaragala

Child abuse is a foremost and sensitive social phenomenon in the world while Asia has been playing a leading role in child labour and sexual exploitation. Child abuse has been rapidly increasing in Sri Lanka as a Key social problem relatively to the other types of crimes spread all over the country. This study seeks the causes of child abuse in Sri Lanka with especial reference to Wellawaya police division. Wellawaya Police division was selected for the study due to the highest records of child abuses in that division from 2005 to 2011 in Monaragala district. Both primary and secondary data was used by the study. Primary data was mainly based on case studies and key informant interviews. Secondary data were collected from children and women’s section in police station at Monanragala. The sample of the study was 12 children have been victimized to abuse in the most recent year 2010. Qualitative analytical techniques are mainly used for the analysing while some quantitative techniques such as frequencies and descriptive statistics are further applied. The main causes for child abuse were sexual interest, revenging purposes, physical punishments, incest-taboos, mental illness, and lack of parental skills, sickness, drug addiction, disability, divorce and poverty. The study identified three major negative consequences of child abuse including emotional effects, physical effects and behavioural effects. Some possible policy implications were suggested as final contribution of this micro level study to address this social problem in Sri Lanka in a sociological aspect.