NCJ Number
223498
Journal
Child Abuse Review Volume: 17 Issue: 3 Dated: May-June 2008 Pages: 201-209
Date Published
May 2008
Length
9 pages
Annotation
The purpose of this study was to explore how social environment, lack of or discontinuity of education, malsocialization, alienation, depression, deprivation, isolation, and poverty cumulatively has had adverse effects on street children in Pakistan, who can become alienated from the prevailing social system leading to antisocial behavior.
Abstract
A range of factors are identified by children as contributing to children leaving home and living on the street. These include broken homes, strict family discipline and corporal punishment, poverty, parental remarriage, parent drug misuse, and family quarrels. These domestic conditions act to loosen the bonds between parents and children. Conversely, children who live on the streets need not worry about putting their social relationships at risk and are more likely to engage in antisocial behavior. These elements are ‘push’ factors which lead children to adopt deviant behavior. Once they are on the streets, they are vulnerable to further violence and abuse. The number of children frequenting streets and public places in order to beg and ‘hang out’ with their peers day and night is growing in many parts of Lahore city in Pakistan (an urban population). The issue of street children has emerged relatively recently in policy and academic debate. Utilizing a qualitative research design, 26 cases of street children from Lahore were selected for interviews to explore their alienation from their social system and the potential for engaging in antisocial/deviant behavior. Table, figure, and references