Child protection in Tanzania: A dream or nightmare

•The study compared prevalence of violations against children in two time periods.•Violations against the children increased almost 3 times in 2012/2013.•Most of the victims of violations against children had both parents alive.•In both years of the study, poverty was a major contributing factor for violations.•Most of the incidences of violations were a long term and an ongoing problem.

Tanzania has been, especially in the past decade, crucially involved in the mission for child protection through various legislations and institutional arrangements, for instance the Law of the Child Act of 2009. This study examined how effective child protection measures have been in alleviating all forms of violations against children. The current study employed a cross sectional descriptive design to compare the prevalence of violations such as sexual, physical, and emotional violence experienced by the children between 2010/2011 and 2012/2013. Findings of the study show that violations against the children have increased almost 3 times between 2011/12 (n = 54) and 2012/2013 (n = 150). The majority of the victims of violence in both years were female children. In addition, most of the victims had both parents alive, but this increased from 56% in year 2011/2012 to 91% in 2012/2013. The study also identified poverty as a major contributing factor for violations in both years of the study (48% in 2011/12 and 36% in 2012/13). Most of the incidences of violations were a long term and an ongoing problem, and they frequently took place at home in both years. Despite the limitations, the findings suggest important implications for policy and practice.