Palermo, 5 Jan. (Adnkronos) – “Every act of violence against a minor produces profound and lasting effects on development. This is why child protection is not a private matter, but a fundamental indicator of the civil and democratic stability of a society”. Enza Zarcone, president of the Order of Psychologists of the Sicilian Region, intervenes after the case of the 10-year-old boy from Catania beaten with a wooden ladle by his stepfather. A brutal violence immortalized in a video posted on social media which quickly went viral, in which the little boy, sitting on a sofa, can be heard crying and begging the man to stop and the latter continuing to insult him, slap him and hit him. “On individual episodes of this type it is necessary to maintain prudence – specifies Zarcone to Adnkronos -: the reconstruction of the facts and any specific evaluation are the responsibility of the judicial authority and any experts. Any comment that enters into the merits of the case, on the basis of partial information, risks improper simplifications”.
The case of the little boy from the San Cristoforo neighborhood, however, should not be ‘archived’ as a private episode. “Violence against minors cannot be read as the isolated gesture of a single individual – Zarcone points out -. It is a complex phenomenon, which has its roots in cultural, social and relational factors: educational models based on domination, a proprietary vision of parenting, family fragility, isolation, educational poverty and lack of support networks”. Furthermore, for the president of the Sicilian psychologists, the fact that such violence occurs in the domestic space, which should be “the first place of protection for a child”, calls into question a “collective responsibility”. “The protection of children cannot be entrusted only to repressive intervention or emergencies, but requires prevention policies, adequate local services, support for families and a widespread culture of children’s rights”. Precisely on this aspect, according to Zarcone, “there is still a lot that the institutions can and must do”.
First of all, a strengthening of ‘primary prevention’ policies would be needed. “We should invest in educational, social and psychological services that are accessible and widespread in the territories, capable of intercepting situations of family vulnerability, isolation, parental stress, educational and relational poverty at an early stage”. Because, underlines the president of the Order of Psychologists of Sicily, “prevention works when it arrives before the crisis, not when the violence has already exploded”. The “central” axis remains affective, relational and sexual education, “to be started from early childhood and accompanied throughout the scholastic career, with serious, scientifically based and age-appropriate approaches. It is not a question of anticipating contents – Zarcone points out -, but of educating to respect boundaries, to listen to emotions, to manage anger, to distinguish between care and domination, to respect the body and dignity of others. It is here that a decisive part of prevention is played, because we intervene before violent, possessive or authoritarian educational models take root.”
Again, the involvement of families. “Not in a logic of blame, but of accompaniment and co-responsibility”, explains Zarcone and from this point of view the school “can and must become a space of educational alliance, in which parents, teachers, services and mental health professionals can discuss and support parental functions together, also on an emotional level”. Finally, “more integrated work” is needed between schools, healthcare, social services, justice and the third sector. “Fragmentation weakens prevention; a solid and competent network, on the other hand, allows us to detect risk signals in time and intervene in a proportionate way, preventing discomfort from evolving into violence”. This is why, concludes the president of the psychologists of Sicily, “regulatory settings, such as the Valditara bill, which tend to limit or hinder sexual-affective education in schools are of concern: restricting these spaces means weakening one of the most effective tools of primary prevention. The protection of minors – she concludes – requires a long vision, coherent political choices and the courage to invest in prevention, not just in emergencies”. (by Rossana Locastro)
