Media reported this month that a one-year-old boy nicknamed Kai Kai (愷愷) died as a result of abuse in December last year at the hands of a woman surnamed Liu (劉), who was his foster caregiver, causing much public anger.
Ironically, Liu had written a comment on social media in support of the idea that “the death penalty is the only punishment for child murderers.”
However, there is another important aspect of the case.
As a licensed nanny, Liu would have looked after many children without incident; that is, apart from Kai Kai.
On her social media pages, there is also evidence of the passion and attentiveness she had for childcare.
So what psychological mechanism made it possible for her to become a child abuser and even a killer?
Liu might have a pathological tendency to be a so-called “justice warrior,” with an abnormal sense of mission.
Before she became Kai Kai’s nanny, she must have known that the child’s father had lost contact with him and his mother was in prison.
For her, his family history was his “original sin.”
It is inevitable that a one-year-old would be a little naughty or difficult to communicate with. For other children who were that way, she might have seen them as “active and smart,” but perhaps she saw Kai Kai as “a bad child with criminal tendencies.”
She might have thought: “As the nanny of this bad child, I should educate and punish him to prevent the offspring of criminal parents from also harming society when he grows up.”
The morbid tendencies of a justice warrior might have allowed Liu to rationalize her abusive behavior as disciplining a “bad” child.
She even shared her philosophy on discipline with her younger sister online.
For nannies and the children they care for, there is already a gap in psychological maturity.
As for a justice warrior nanny, she is more likely to be self-centered and take on the responsibility of educating and disciplining a child inappropriately when faced with incessant crying, ultimately leading to regrettable events.
Training courses for nanny licenses should teach the legal responsibilities of the job, the penalties for child abuse and the scope of appropriate discipline. That would establish proper conduct and help prevent tragedies such as those perpetrated by the punishment of a justice warrior.
Another way to improve the social safety net would be to improve the single-person tracking and counseling methods of social workers, promote random visits by supervisors and recruit “secret visitors” — workers who enter the homes of carers to observe their behavior without the carer knowing they are being scrutinized.
Public sensitivity to child abuse incidents also needs to be bolstered.
By improving the social safety net, every child can have the chance to grow up in peace and security.
Tai Shen-feng is a professor in National Chung Cheng University’s department of criminology.
Translated by Eddy Chang
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
In an article published on this page on Tuesday, Kaohsiung-based journalist Julien Oeuillet wrote that “legions of people worldwide would care if a disaster occurred in South Korea or Japan, but the same people would not bat an eyelid if Taiwan disappeared.” That is quite a statement. We are constantly reading about the importance of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), hailed in Taiwan as the nation’s “silicon shield” protecting it from hostile foreign forces such as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and so crucial to the global supply chain for semiconductors that its loss would cost the global economy US$1
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
Sasha B. Chhabra’s column (“Michelle Yeoh should no longer be welcome,” March 26, page 8) lamented an Instagram post by renowned actress Michelle Yeoh (楊紫瓊) about her recent visit to “Taipei, China.” It is Chhabra’s opinion that, in response to parroting Beijing’s propaganda about the status of Taiwan, Yeoh should be banned from entering this nation and her films cut off from funding by government-backed agencies, as well as disqualified from competing in the Golden Horse Awards. She and other celebrities, he wrote, must be made to understand “that there are consequences for their actions if they become political pawns of