The Sunday Times and New York Times Bestseller. Although Jodie is only eight years old, she is violent, aggressive, and has already been through numerous foster families. Her last hope is Cathy Glass

Cathy, an experienced foster carer, is pressured into taking Jodie as a new placement. Jodie's challenging behaviour has seen off five carers in four months but Cathy decides to take her on to protect her from being placed in an institution.

Jodie arrives, and her first act is to soil herself, and then wipe it on her face, grinning wickedly. Jodie meets Cathy's teenage children, and greets them with a sharp kick to the shins. That night, Cathy finds Jodie covered in blood, having cut her own wrist, and smeared the blood over her face.

As Jodie begins to trust Cathy her behaviour improves. Over time, with childish honesty, she reveals details of her abuse at the hands of her parents and others. It becomes clear that Jodie's parents were involved in a sickening paedophile ring, with neighbours and Social Services not seeing what should have been obvious signs.

It s clear that Josie needs psychiatric therapy, but instead Social Services take Jodie away from her, and place her in a residential unit. Although the paedophile ring is investigated and brought to justice, Jodie s future is still up in the air. Cathy promises that she will stand by her no matter what her love for the abandoned Jodie is unbreakable."

Born into poverty and violence, Lora's early life was one of extreme vulnerability. She was prostituted for the first time at the age of nine and suffered unspeakable treatment from those who should have protected her. Early trauma led to her institutionalization soon after she started college, an incarceration she would not have survived but for a courageous nurse who fought for her release. Fifty years later, with an advanced degree in clinical psychology, a long career as a successful mental health professional, a leading educator and sought-after public speaker, Lora revisited the grounds of the Illinois state mental hospital where she was once kept in inhumane, degrading, and life-threatening circumstances. This profound and compelling memoir traces her life as a survivor of child abuse, sex trafficking, illegal pharmacological drug research, and institutional abuse. Lora's experiences illuminate and validate the power of love and the strength of the indomitable human spirit that lives within each one of us. This is her story.

Internet Child Abuse: Current Research and Policy provides a timely overview of international policy, legislation and offender management and treatment practice in the area of Internet child abuse. Internet use has grown considerably over the last five years, and information technology now forms a core part of the formal education system in many countries. There is however, increasing evidence that the Internet is used by some adults to access children and young people in order to 'groom' them for the purposes of sexual abuse; as well as to produce and distribute indecent illegal images of children. This book presents and assesses the most recent and current research on internet child abuse, addressing: its nature, the behaviour and treatment of its perpetrators, international policy, legislation and protection, and policing. It will be required reading for an international audience of academics, researchers, policy-makers and criminal justice practitioners with interests in this area.

Deafening silence generally surrounds the sexual abuse perpetrated against child Survivors of the Holocaust by their saviors and captors. In this book, child Survivors who endured two of the most severe traumas-the Holocaust and sexual abuse-bravely tell their stories to prevent this crucial aspect of the Holocaust from being buried and left virtually unknown to the world. The testimonies of these Survivors, who were beholden to their abusive saviors or entrapped by their terrorizing guards, reveal that sexual traumas leave a differential as well as a combined psychological trail from the Holocaust experience. Hell within Hell begins with background information about the Holocaust and its impact on the lives of Survivors. The authors then explain why sexual abuse is so psychologically devastating and discuss how such a traumatic experience reverberates later in life. Readers are able to use this knowledgeable context to fully listen to the Survivors' powerful voices. The afterword contains a dialogue between the authors befitting the Survivors' forthright accounts.

I have no doubt that this book will become an invaluable tool for family and children's court judges and magistrates, psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, police and the many other professionals who work in this field.' The Honourable Alastair Nicholson, former Chief Justice of the Family Court of Australia A ground-breaking, comprehensive, honest, well researched and courageous book that should be essential reading for all politicians and professionals involved in both the Family Court of Australia and state child protection systems.' Emeritus Professor Freda Briggs AO Child abuse in the context of parental separation and divorce is not a malicious allegation, nor a misunderstanding. It is a real and growing problem with very young children as the primary victims. Child Abuse and Family Law draws on pioneering research to identify the causes, features and impact of child abuse in parental separation and divorce. The authors argue that professionals working with these families need to better understand the specific and often severe nature of this abuse to improve outcomes for both the children and their families. The authors develop a much-needed practice framework for all socio-legal professionals involved in the family law system. Using case studies, they take a multi-disciplinary approach to outline strategies for family lawyers, child legal representatives, social workers, child protection workers, psychologists, psychiatrists, health workers and teachers.

Richard M. Lerner's work presents a powerful and emotive treatise on the crisis facing America's youth. Drawing on a wide range of statistical evidence to support his arguments, he graphically demonstrates the risks of drug and alcohol abuse, unsafe sexual practices, teenage pregnancy, school drop out and academic underachievement, delinquency, crime, and violence facing American youth at historically unprecedented levels. . . . This is an authoritative, well-researched piece of work that takes a refreshing and positive look to the future of action research in collaboration with empowered communities to provide for needs and treasure the community resources that have in the past been paid scant attention. America's Youth in Crisis is both forward thinking and imaginative and will challenge researchers, policymakers, and practitioners faced with the crisis of American youth. --Heather Leitch in Journal of Adolescence "Lerner's work presents a powerful and emotive treatise on the crisis facing America's youth. Drawing on a wide range of statistical evidence to support his arguments he graphically demonstrates the risks of drug and alcohol abuse, unsafe sexual practices, teenage pregnancy, school drop-out and academic under-achievement, deliquency, crime and violence facing American youth at historically unprecedented levels. Lerner calls for a comprehensive and integrated national policy on youth to address these risk factors which he sees as threatening the very fabric of American society. This is an authoritative, well-researched piece of work which takes a refreshing and positive look to the future of action research in collaboration with empowered communities to provide the needs, and treasure the community resources which have in the past been paid scant attention. It is both forward-thinking and imaginative and will challenge researchers, policy-makers and practitioners faced with crisis of American youth." --Heather Leitch in Journal of Adolescence Our nation's youth are at risk for drug and alcohol abuse, unsafe sexual practices, teen pregnancy, academic underachievement, delinquency, and crime and violence. What can be done to prevent these problems from occurring? Outlining a vigorous "call to arms," this volume describes the steps needed to overcome these potential problems by enhancing academic researchers' responsiveness to the needs of the community and encouraging them to apply the results of research findings to community outreach. After reviewing the problems that beset today's youth, Lerner offers a model, developmental contextualism, that provides a theoretical framework for viewing child and adolescent development in relation to specific features of environmental "context" such as family, neighborhood, society, culture, etc. This model is used to describe the problems and the potentials that are associated with the bidirectional relationships between youth and their contexts. Lerner asserts that by altering the context in which youth live, researchers can test the effectiveness of policies and/or programs in creating desired changes in children's and adolescents' behavior and development. Researchers and practitioners interested in child and adolescent development, family studies, child and family policy, and program evaluation will find this thought-provoking book useful in their studies and programs. "Brief and often abstract, the book first describes the crises facing America's children and adolescents... The ideas proposed by Lerner could transform programs for America's youth and revitalize applied research." --Choice "One of the nation's most eminent developmental psychologists has applied his mastery of adolescent research and theory to a new challenge. In America's Youth in Crisis he focuses his attention on solutions, showing how research and outreach come together in successful prevention programs." --Graham B. Spanier, Chancellor, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Hearing the Internal Trauma offers therapists an innovative clinical model for understanding what happens within a sexually abused child. Combining the latest research findings in child development, early attachment, sexual abuse, and trauma with extensive clinical experience, this clearly written book assists therapists in not only recognizing signs of a child or adolescent's abuse but also developing effective therapeutic interventions. Author Sandra Wieland first provides a clear description of how children and adolescents present themselves in therapy, identifying how distress from abuse can be exhibited in their play, conversation, and behavior. Then, using a carefully balanced combination of psychoanalytic, behavioral, and cognitive therapies, Wieland imparts a psychodynamic trauma-focused therapy designed especially for abused children and adolescents. Including illustrative case examples of play or conversation as well as the therapist's thought processes, the book describes therapy with children, adolescents, and their nonperpetrator or perpetrator parents. Also included is a thoughtful discussion of the effects a therapist's own experiences and internalizations can have on the therapy process. Easy to read yet thought-provoking, Hearing the Internal Trauma is ideal for therapists, social workers, mental health practitioners, and interns working with this client population. Advanced students will also find the book instructional and enlightening.

Many midwives will care for women who are survivors of childhood sexual abuse (CSA), whether these women disclose this or not. Pregnant and birthing women commonly experience their bodies becoming 'public property', a variety of sometimes intimate medical procedures, and limited choices on where and how care is provided. For CSA survivors, who have suffered loss of ownership over their bodies as children and may experience recurring feelings of powerlessness and loss of control, these factors can combine with impersonal and medicalised settings and practices to deeply traumatic effect. 'Sexual abuse is all about power, not sex.' - interviewee Many midwives also experience powerlessness and loss of control as professionals as a result of these same settings and practices, and those midwives who are themselves CSA survivors bring a particularly acute awareness of this and of the needs of survivor mothers. This unique study sets out to gain a deeper understanding of the needs of these mothers by exploring them alongside the parallel experiences of survivor midwives. It explores the insights and reflections they together bring to midwifery, and the positive results of more collaborative, personal, communicative and ultimately empowering practices for all involved. 'The significance of this book is far wider than its immediate subject, for it offers us the opportunity to rethink our professional coping strategies. If we seek to make all our professional relationships ones of equality and opportunities for growth, as would benefit someone who has suffered abuse, then we can all grow and flourish.' - from the Foreword by Mavis Kirkham

Internet Child Abuse: Current Research and Policy provides a timely overview of international policy, legislation and offender management and treatment practice in the area of Internet child abuse. Internet use has grown considerably over the last five years, and information technology now forms a core part of the formal education system in many countries. There is however, increasing evidence that the Internet is used by some adults to access children and young people in order to 'groom' them for the purposes of sexual abuse; as well as to produce and distribute indecent illegal images of children. This book presents and assesses the most recent and current research on internet child abuse, addressing: its nature, the behaviour and treatment of its perpetrators, international policy, legislation and protection, and policing. It will be required reading for an international audience of academics, researchers, policy-makers and criminal justice practitioners with interests in this area.

A memoir like no other – Claudine Shiels and her sister Lisa van der Merwe have brought South Africa’s oldest sexual abuse case to court. The sisters used the Frankel 8 Criminal Procedures decision to bring court action against their sexually abusive step-uncles forty years later – this is their story.

On a hot summer evening in 1967, eight-year-old Claudine Brown watched from the back seat of a car stalled on a railway track in the suburbs of Cape Town, as a fast-moving train hurtled towards them. Her mother sat frozen with fear in the driver's seat. The events leading up to this moment were unremarkable, giving no clue to their catastrophic timing. The aftermath was brutal and childhood-wrecking, leaving Claudine and her younger sister Lisa world-weary before they had even got started.

When her mother, unraveled by post-traumatic shock, abandoned the family, and her father reached for the nearest comfort to ease his pain – a new wife – Claudine had only one defense against the years of exploitation and physical, emotional and sexual abuse that followed: hope. She remembered what normal life was, and plotted her course back there.

The book which inspired Spotlight, 2016 winner of the Best Picture award at the Oscars!

This is the true story of how a small group of courageous journalists uncovered child abuse on a vast scale - and held the Catholic Church to account. Betrayal is the ground-breaking Pulitzer Prize-winning work of investigative journalism, now brought brilliantly to life on the screen.

On 31 January 2002, the Boston Globe published a report that sent shockwaves around the world. Their findings, based on a six-month campaign by the 'Spotlight' investigative team, showed that hundreds of children in Boston had been abused by Catholic priests, and that this horrific pattern of behaviour had been known - and ignored - by the Catholic Church. Instead of protecting the community it was meant to serve, the Church exploited its powerful influence to protect itself from scandal - and innocent children paid the price. This is the story from beginning to end: the predatory men who exploited the vulnerable, the cabal of senior Church officials who covered up their crimes, the 'hush money' used to buy the victims' silence, the survivors who found the strength to tell their story, and the Catholics across the world who were left shocked, angry, and betrayed. This is the story, too, of how they took power back, confronted their Church and called for sweeping change.

Updated for the release of the Oscar-winning film, this is a devastating and important exposure of the abuse of power at the highest levels in society.

Moving nimbly between literary and historical texts, Monica Flegel provides a much-needed interpretive framework for understanding the specific formulation of child cruelty popularized by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) in the late nineteenth century. Flegel considers a wide range of well-known and more obscure texts from the mid-eighteenth century to the early twentieth, including philosophical writings by Locke and Rousseau, poetry by Coleridge, Blake, and Caroline Norton, works by journalists and reformers like Henry Mayhew and Mary Carpenter, and novels by Frances Trollope, Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, and Arthur Morrison. Taking up crucial topics such as the linking of children with animals, the figure of the child performer, the relationship between commerce and child endangerment, and the problem of juvenile delinquency, Flegel examines the emergence of child abuse as a subject of legal and social concern in England, and its connection to earlier, primarily literary representations of endangered children. With the emergence of the NSPCC and the new crime of cruelty to children, new professions and genres, such as child protection and social casework, supplanted literary works as the authoritative voices in the definition of social ills and their cure. Flegel argues that this development had material effects on the lives of children, as well as profound implications for the role of class in representations of suffering and abused children. Combining nuanced close readings of individual texts with persuasive interpretations of their influences and limitations, Flegel's book makes a significant contribution to the history of childhood, social welfare, the family, and Victorian philanthropy.

The abuse of women and children transcends geographical boundaries as well as economic, cultural, religious, political, and social divisions. Comprised of the work of more than 20 academics and practitioners from around the world, Criminal Abuse of Women and Children documents the atrocities that have been committed against these victims from ancient to modern times. It examines the causes of such abuse and provides a global survey of what forms of abuse exist and how cases are handled in various parts of the world.

International Experts Survey Patterns of Abuse

Following an introduction to the historical antecedents and theoretical explanations of criminal abuse, the contributors review efforts at control and prevention. They focus on informal control mechanisms, religious intervention, and the criminal justice system, and highlighting the limitations that are inherent in these attempts. The remainder of the text consists mainly of case studies covering the various facets of abuse in numerous countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and the Americas. The contributors also explore the role of community policing and supply a critical assessment of how American police practices may contribute to the continued victimization of women and children.

A Call to Action to End the Scourge of Victimization

A comprehensive analysis of the worldwide problem of the exploitation of women and children, the book elevates this topic to a subject worthy of academic discourse. It underlines the need for concerted global action and intervention at the national, regional, and local level.

Paedophiles exist and we must develop ways of living with this fact whilst ensuring that children are kept safe. This ground-breaking book demystifies the field of adult sexual attraction to children, countering the emotionality surrounding the topic of paedophilia in the popular media by careful presentation of research data and interview material. Addressing how we can work together to reduce sexual offending in this population, this text bridges the gulf in understanding between those who want to protect children and those who feel sexual attraction to children ? and recognises that they are sometimes the same people.

Sarah D. Goode provides an overview of the topic by defining the term 'paedophile' and discussing how many adults there may be in the general population who find themselves sexually attracted to children. She looks at how the Internet has acted as an enabler, with an explosion of child pornography and 'pro-paedophile' websites. Drawing on data from a sample of fifty-six self-defined paedophiles living in the community, she explores themes including self-identity, the place of fantasy and the forms of support available to paedophiles. Her research highlights the scale of debate within the 'online paedophile community' about issues such as the morality of sexual contact with children and encouragement to maintain a law-abiding lifestyle. Throughout, she draws careful distinctions between sexual attraction to children and sexual contact with children. The book concludes with a valuable discussion on how adult sexual contact harms children and examples of a range of initiatives which work to protect children and prevent offending.

Suitable for all professionals who work with children or sexual offenders, this book gives clear guidance on what one needs to know and do to ensure children are kept safe. It will also be of interest to students studying child protection, paedophilia and child sexual abuse within other social science disciplines.

Children's exposure to violence (CEV) in their home, their community, and our society has finally been recognized as a serious mental health, social, and public health problem. This book highlights a summary of relevant current research, practice, and policy issues. It is the third in a series to help provide current state-of-the-science information to stimulate awareness, research, and best practices in the field. This book provides chapters concerning the physiological effects of violence on children, its effects on behavioral and emotional functioning, and differences between boys and girls. Current interventions for children and families, such as innovative programs that are both home based as well as community based, are described. Promising and evidence-based practices are presented to provide the most recent approaches to helping children recover from the trauma of the abuse. The chapters in this book provide greater awareness of the issues involved with CEV, stimulate additional research, improve practice techniques, lead to more evidence-based programs for both intervention as well as prevention, and help initiate a national priority to eliminate violence in the home and community. This book was published as a special issue of the Journal of Emotional Abuse.

Aged nine Joss came home from school to discover her father's suicide. She's never gotten over it. This is the true story of Joss, 13 who is angry and out of control. At the age of nine, Joss finds her father's dead body. He has committed suicide. Then her mother remarries and Joss bitterly resents her step-father who abuses her mentally and physically. Cathy takes Joss under her wing but will she ever be able to get through to the warm-hearted girl she sees glimpses of underneath the vehement outbreaks of anger that dominate the house, and will Cathy be able to build up Joss's trust so she can learn the full truth of the terrible situation?

Understanding Child Abuse is the first book to look at women whose partners are child sex offenders. Much of the book is devoted to the voices of the women themselves, telling their stories and how they feel about the situations in which they found themselves, how they coped, and how they remade their lives and those of their families. They describe what they learned from their experience and how it changed them.

Such experience is largely overlooked by researchers, agencies and policy makers and this book throws unique light on this neglected area. The chapters cover:

Combining theory, practice and personal testimony in a concise and accessible manner, Understanding Child Abuse is essential reading for social work practitioners and students as well as probation officers and anyone involved with child protection. It will also be of interest to members of the public.

Public policy responses to child sexual abuse are dominated by interventions designed to take effect only after offenders have already begun offending, and after children have already been sexually abused. Comparatively little attention has been given to alternative prevention strategies - particularly to those aimed at preventing sexual abuse before it might otherwise occur. Considerable knowledge has been accumulated on the characteristics, modus operandi and persistence of offenders, the characteristics, circumstances and outcomes for victims, and the physical and social settings in which sexual abuse occurs, but little work has been done to systematically apply this knowledge to prevention. This book aims to fulfill this objective through integrating clinical and criminological concepts and knowledge to inform a more comprehensive and effective public policy approach to preventing child sexual abuse. Empirical and theoretical knowledge concerning child sexual abuse is integrated with broader developments in evidence-based crime and child maltreatment prevention, leading to new ideas about understanding and preventing child sexual abuse. This book will be essential reading for anybody with interests in this field.

Public policy responses to child sexual abuse are dominated by interventions designed to take effect only after offenders have already begun offending, and after children have already been sexually abused. Comparatively little attention has been given to alternative prevention strategies - particularly to those aimed at preventing sexual abuse before it might otherwise occur. Considerable knowledge has been accumulated on the characteristics, modus operandi and persistence of offenders, the characteristics, circumstances and outcomes for victims, and the physical and social settings in which sexual abuse occurs, but little work has been done to systematically apply this knowledge to prevention. This book aims to fulfill this objective through integrating clinical and criminological concepts and knowledge to inform a more comprehensive and effective public policy approach to preventing child sexual abuse. Empirical and theoretical knowledge concerning child sexual abuse is integrated with broader developments in evidence-based crime and child maltreatment prevention, leading to new ideas about understanding and preventing child sexual abuse. This book will be essential reading for anybody with interests in this field.

While it is well known that the emotional effects of divorce, family violence or substance abuse can cause problems later in a child's life, we have come to realise that overprotection and bullying at school can be equally crippling.

"The Emotionally Abused and Neglected Child, Second Edition," discusses the ways in which we can identify and assess cases of emotional abuse and neglect. Using proven theories and illustrative case studies, it adopts a multidimensional approach to effective intervention.

The book provides checklists, assessment tools and a wide range of therapeutic methods, all tested for efficacy. The methods used include play therapy, attachment work, family therapy, behavioural-cognitive therapies and marital counselling. Looking beyond the family context, it discusses legal aspects and it investigates problems in residential settings, foster homes, schools, detention centres and secure units.

This second edition features a range of new topics, including bullying, divorce and domestic violence, and has been expanded to include adolescents. It provides a fully comprehensive study of this area, and will be an invaluable resource for social workers, paediatricians, psychologists, health visitors, nurses, teachers, lawyers, parents, foster-parents, carers and all others involved in this problematic area.

From the Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author comes the poignant and shocking memoir of Cathy s recent relationship with Tayo, a young boy she fosters whose good behaviour and polite manners hide a terrible past.

Tayo arrives at Cathy s with only the clothes he stands up in. He has been brought to her by the police, but he is calm, polite, and very well spoken, and not at all like the children she normally fosters. The social worker gives Cathy the forms which should contain Tayo s history, but apart from his name and age, it is blank. Tayo has no past.

Tayo is an 'invisible' child, kidnapped from his loving father in Nigeria and brought illegally to the UK by his drink and drugs dependent prostitute mother, where he is put to work in a sweat shop in Central London. When he sustains an injury and is no longer earning, he is cast out.

When Cathy takes Tayo to school he points out a dozen different addresses where he has stayed in the last six months, often being left alone. Tayo lies, and manipulates situations to his own advantage and Cathy has to be continually on guard. Tayo s social worker searches all computer databases but there is no record of Tayo he has only attended school for 3 terms and has never seen a doctor. He and his mother have been evading the authorities by living underground .

With his mother recently released from prison, Tayo is desperate to live with his father in Nigeria, but no one can track him down or even prove that he exists."