A valuable sourcebook for individuals interested in the tragedy of child abuse, Children and Adolescents in Need is a practical legal primer that looks at the complex and varied issues besetting child abuse. --Edelman Children's Court Newsletter, Monterey Park, California The vulnerability of children becomes tragically apparent when they are neglected and abused by those persons most intimately responsible for their well-being. When this occurs, and parents are judged incapable of adequately providing for the critical needs of a child, the responsibility for determining "best interest" falls to the community legal system. In some instances--even before birth--legal principles, statutes, and case law are shaping the decisions that will profoundly affect the lives of these young human beings. With compassion and practicality, Children and Adolescents in Need looks at the complex issues surrounding these decisions and discusses the challenges faced by people involved in providing the resources these special children need to anticipate a future with hope and confidence. The poignant clarity of Children and Adolescents in Need makes it an excellent sourcebook for mental health practitioners, volunteer child advocates, and students in clinical training. Case studies explore the effort required to coordinate multi-disciplinary services to achieve long term positive impact on the "whole" child.

The number of sexual abuse disclosures by children has been increasing at a steady rate. Therapists are faced with the dilemma of limited resources and training to help them best serve this vulnerable population.

Choosing to Heal breaks new ground as the first resource to use Reality Therapy and Choice Therapy in focusing on the treatment of sexually abused children. Mental health professionals are provided with numerous techniques and strategies to utilize during the treatment process.

Parents, caretakers, teachers and anyone helping children heal from sexual abuse can obtain an understanding of the process in simple and understandable language. Choosing to Heal is a must-have resource for anyone helping a child heal from sexual abuse.

This volume provides the first rigorous assessment of the research relating to the disclosure of childhood sexual abuse, along with the practical and policy implications of the findings. Leading researchers and practitioners from diverse and international backgrounds offer critical commentary on these previously unpublished findings gathered from both field and laboratory research. Cross-cultural, clinical, and multi-disciplinary perspectives are provided. The goal is to learn more about why children frequently remain silent about their abuse, deny it, or if they do disclose, do so belatedly and incompletely, often recanting their allegations over time.
The book opens with a close examination of the existing literature on disclosure and the difficulties in conducting such research. It then examines the individual and contextual factors that determine whether, when, and how childhood sexual abuse is disclosed. This portion reviews how the interview techniques have a profound impact on disclosure patterns. Details of how reluctant children are interviewed are included. The third section examines the broader implications of disclosure for the child, family and peers, and for the suspect. "Child Sexual Abuse" examines how the interview strategies influence how, when, or if children disclose abuse, by examining both domestic and international data and by analyzing detailed interviews with children.
"Child Sexual Abuse" is intended for researchers and practitioners from child, forensic, and clinical psychology, social work, and all legal professionals who need to understand this crime.

While social work practice with child abuse is a well-documented topic, this revised edition of "Social Work and Child Abuse" actually challenges and changes the focus of existing literature. Instead of concerning itself with the ways in which the task of preventing and detecting child abuse can be more effectively undertaken, it presents a critical analysis of the task itself.
There has been much new guidance and regulation since the first edition of "Social Work and Child Abuse" was published in 1996, making this a timely new edition. With a brand new introduction and conclusion, this fully revised text discusses:
- the implications of Victoria Climbie Inquiry, the Laming Report, the Green Paper Every Child Matters and the 2004 Children Act
- the 1989 Children Act and the conflicting duties of the social worker to prevent and intervene in child abuse and also to promote 'the family'
- the emergence of official discourses of prevention, treatment and punishment
- the 1975 Children Act and the role of moral panic
Concluding with a call for the full implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child to strengthen the child protection system by giving children and young people a much stronger voice, this book is essential reading for all professionals in social and probation work, and for students in social work, social policy and criminology.

Women as Ritual Experts reveals how in gender segregated religions like Orthodox Judaism women develop their own autonomous religious sphere and activities that sacralize female roles. Until recently, this female world of religion has been all but invisible to both anthropologists and scholars of religion, who typically speak as though the male sphere of religion were the only definition of religion or the sacred. By exploring this separate sphere of women's religion and demonstrating its variety, depth, and dynamism, Susan Sered here attempts to expand the definition of religion, ritual and the sacred. Sered's research was conducted among uneducated, illiterate Kurdish women. She uncovers the strategies these women have used to circumvent the patriarchal institutions of Judaism, the techniques by which they have made their lives meaningful within an androcentric culture, and how they have developed their own `little tradition' within and parallel to the `great tradition' of Torah Judaism.

Although child neglect is the most common form of abuse, the extant research literature has mostly ignored this form of child maltreatment. Now editor Howard Dubowitz and an outstanding group of leaders in the field of child abuse and neglect offer perspectives on a range of important issues pertaining to the neglect of children. Neglected Children is the first book to focus on this most common type of child maltreatment, presenting a comprehensive and critical portrait of the phenomenon of neglect, based on theory, research, and clinical practice experience. This extensive work includes the following topics:

-Causes and contributors

-Definitions and measurement research

-Cultural issues

-Short and long-term outcomes

-Evaluation and risk assessment

-Prevention and intervention

-Prenatal substance abuse

-Fatal neglect

-Policy issues

Neglected Children conveniently captures much of what is known about child neglect and offers recommendations for future research. Researchers, clinicians, students, and policy makers in the fields of social work, child maltreatment, interpersonal violence, family studies, psychology, sociology, and public health will find this broad view of the subject essential to addressing the complex and pervasive underpinnings of child neglect.

Children throughout the world are engaged in a great number of activities classifiable as work. These range from relatively harmless, even laudable, activities like helping parents in their domestic chores, to morally and physically dangerous ones like soldiering and prostitution. If we leave out the former, we are left with what are generally called "economic" activities. Only a small minority, less than 4 percent of all working children, are estimated to be engaged in what ILO defines as the "unconditional" worst forms of child labour. The absolute number of children estimated to be engaged in the latter is, however, a stunning 8.4 million. Should we only be concerned about the worst forms of child labour? Most forms of child labour other than the worst ones have valuable learning-by-doing elements. Furthermore, child labour produces current income. If the family is credit rationed, child labour relaxes the liquidity constraint and increases current consumption. There is thus a trade-off between present and future consumption. To the extent that current consumption has a positive effect on future health (hence, on the child's future earning capacity and, more generally, utility), this trade-off may be lower than one might think. This book provides a blend of theory, empirical analysis and policy discussion. The first three chapters develop a fairly comprehensive theory of child labour, and related variables such as fertility, and infant mortality. Chapter 4, concerned with the effects of trade, contains both theory and cross-country empirical evidence. The remaining chapters are country studies, aimed at illustrating and testing different aspects of the theory in different geographical contexts. These chapters apply the latest developments in microeconometric methodology for dealing with endogeneity, unobserved heterogeneity, and the evaluation of public intervention.

Know what signs indicate a child molester! Revealing the secret but successful strategies used by child molesters allows adults to intervene long before children are abused. The Socially Skilled Child Molester: Differentiating the Guilty from the Falsely Accused identifies how socially proficient molesters successfully ingratiate themselves into families and communities. The book closely examines their techniques and strategies while detailing the tools for prevention. The difficult issue of false accusation is tackled by learning the distinctions that clearly differentiate the actions of the guilty from those who are innocent. Practical recommendations for accurately assessing danger and managing safety are provided. The Socially Skilled Child Molester focuses on the sexual deviants who 'groom' family, friends, and their community to allow their activities, though arousing suspicion, to go on without restriction. This essential source reveals their tactics. Using composite representations of various types of child molesters, the author illustrates through case history and detailed research how these offenders succeed, while providing recommendations on how communities can stop enabling and protecting such individuals. The Socially Skilled Child Molester discusses in depth: 'groomers' versus 'grabbers' common misperceptions about child molesters the groomer profile-the different types groomer strategies for manipulation correctly differentiating between pedophiles and the falsely accused predicting risk the key concerns when interviewing child molesters the three levels of child molesters recidivism for the sexual deviant. The Socially Skilled Child Molester comprehensively brings together helpful strategies and vital information essential for parents, lawmakers, police, teachers, and therapists.

The past few decades have brought to light increasing evidence of systemic and repeated institutional abuse of children and young people in many western nations. Government enquiries, research studies and media reports have begun to highlight the widespread nature of sexual, physical and emotional abuse of vulnerable children and young people. However, while public attention has focused on 'episodic-dramatic' representations of institutional abuse, comparatively little emphasis has been given to the more mundane, routinized and systemic nature of abuse that has occurred. This book documents comprehensively a full range of abuse occurring in 'caring' and 'protective' institutions, with particular reference to the Australian case. The dominant theme is 'betrayal' and in particular the ways in which agencies charged with the care and protection of children and young people become the sites of abusive practices. The authors draw on a range of theoretical frameworks to explore issues of trust and betrayal in the context of the professional and ethical obligations which workers have to those in their charge. The authors argue that it is not sufficient merely to report on accounts of institutional abuse or the consequences of particular practices; rather it is necessary to locate the prevalence of institutional abuse in the wider context of institutional practices as they relate to the 'governance' of particular sections of the population.

Taking into account ambiguities in the relationship between childhood abuse experiences, formation of self- destructive personality styles, and subsequent psychotherapy, the author presents a working model that is useful without limiting the practitioner.

Building upon the theoretical work of Ferenczi, Fairbairn, and Berliner, the author describes four basic relational patterns in the lives of abused children: the reliving of abusive relationships, either as victim or as perpetrator; identification with the aggressor; masochistic self-blame; and the seeking of object contact though sex or violence. The interweaving of these patterns creates what Dr. Prior calls 'relational dilemmas.' According to him, these four basic relational patterns are held in place by the child's profound fear of falling into primitive states of unrelatedness and consequent annihilation anxiety. For example, the abused child believes that victimization by or identification with the bad object, no matter how horrible that may be, is preferable to the psychic disintegration that complete nonrelatedness creates. Dilemmas of this nature tear apart the child's psyche, leading to unstable and tormented models of self, other, and relationship. Object Relations in Severe Trauma provides sensitive understanding of childhood traumatization and a conceptual and technical framework for the treatment of patients both children and adults who have suffered from it."

This powerful book recounts the process of a study that examines personal narratives of abuse survivors by assessing the relationship between narration and teller empowerment. The narratives, which include survival stories of rape, incest, and battery, were collected in personal interviews, transcribed, and coded for emergent themes. Results of the study indicate that narrating experiences of victimization and abuse is a necessary step in moving from victimization and survivorship, and is an essential way for victims of abuse to become empowered. The book discusses in detail the fundamental steps in acquiring narrative research. Special attention is paid to the precautions and implications of conducting research on sensitive material. Through its examination of the data collection and analysis processes, Taking Narrative Risk will be beneficial in coursework in communication studies, performance methodology, and narrative analysis.

Written by a psychologist who has worked with families and foster children for 11 years, Treating Families and Children in the Child Protective System is designed for therapists, social workers, family preservationists, court officers, attorneys, judges, and others caught up in the interplay of child protection. Using theory and compelling case studies, the author posits child abuse as an ultimate form of family injustice, requiring intervention at every level of the system. The author proposes a critically optimistic stance, approaching each case as a family-friend with practical and powerful tools to direct the overwhelming power of the system into a force for the restoration of family justice.

The turn of the 1990s saw a number of high profile public inquiries into the handling of child sexual abuse cases in Great Britain. Governing Child Sexual Abuse examines the implications of these inquiries on the regulation of relationships between families and the state. In so doing, Samantha Ashenden brings a number of contemporary debates in social and political theory to bear upon the governance of child sexual abuse. In particular, drawing on the work of Foucault and Habermas, she looks at:

*how to analyze the boundary between public and private spheres
*the legal and scientific determination of legitimate intervention
*the relationship between democracy and expertise in the governance of social life.

This book will be of particular interest to scholars and students of social and political theory, political sociology, the sociology of law, and social policy.

Helping teens to work through trauma resolution and emerge as healthy survivors can prove frustrating for therapists who find there is so little material or references available for this age group. By adolescence, boys and girls have already identified themselves with the role of victim and skilled support is required if they are to move beyond their perceived helplessness to achieve a real sense of empowerment and control of their lives. As an outgrowth of their own professional struggles with this issue, Cheryl L. Karp, Traci L. Butler, and Sage C. Bergstrom have compiled Treatment Strategies for Abused Adolescents and the accompanying activity manual, which together provide a practical and accessible package of theory and hands-on activities, specifically designed for use by practitioners in either individual or group settings. Case studies are included in each chapter of the treatment manual to demonstrate just how some of the activities have been used in actual therapeutic situations and the authors highlight their four-phase approach to recovery that covers building the therapeutic relationship, processing the abuse, repairing the sense of self, and becoming more "future oriented." Providing the major tools needed to successfully work with this age group as they journey toward healing, Treatment Strategies for Abused Adolescents and its companion activity manual are truly a must-have package for mental health practitioners as well as advanced students and interns who work with physically, sexually, and emotionally abused teenagers.

It is conservatively estimated that one in every seven boys will be sexually abused before the age of eighteen. Since mental health care providers are faced with treating the victims of these statistics, there is a real and continuing need for this book. Also, the number of courses focusing on abuse and violence are rapidly increasing in schools across the country. Sexual Abuse of Males is one of the first books to explore the sexual abuse of boys, in all its complexity, within a psychosocial context of multiple vantage points. It is based on the life histories of hundreds of sexually abused boys and adult men with histories of sexual abuse. It incorporates the perpetrator in order to develop a multi-dimensional understanding of dynamics and effects, the model itself guided and informed by practice and research.

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This thought-provoking volume defines child abuse and neglect as a public health crisis, both in terms of injuries and mental health problems and as a link to poverty and other negative social outcomes. The author identifies key factors contributing to this situation-in particular juvenile ageism, the pervasive othering of children and youth-coupled with the assumption of parental competence until severe abuse or neglect proves otherwise. The book's practical answers to these complex issues involve recognizing and balancing the rights of parents and children, and responding to the diverse needs of new, competent, and dysfunctional families. To this end, a comprehensive prevention model is outlined, featuring primary, secondary, and tertiary interventions. Included in the coverage: * Child abuse and neglect in the United States * The impact of juvenile ageism on individuals * The devaluation of parenthood * The rights and needs of newborn babies and young children * Overcoming our crisis-recoil response * Barriers to change and hope for the future Dealing with Child Abuse and Neglect as Public Health Problems should engage professionals in the public health, healthcare, and social services sectors. It should also attract parents in struggling families as well as other laypersons, such as policymakers and child advocates, interested in improving current social conditions.

Child pornography, particularly that available via the Internet, has become a cause of huge social concern in recent years. This book examines the reality behind the often hysterical media coverage of the topic. Drawing on extensive new research findings, it examines how child pornography is used on the Internet and the social context in which such use occurs, and develops a model of offending behaviour to better help understand and deal with the processes of offending. Detailed case studies and offenders' own accounts are used to illustrate the processes involved in offending and treatment.
The authors argue that we need to refine our ideas of offending, and that while severe deterrents need to be associated with possession of child pornography, a better understanding is needed of the links between possession and committing a contact offence. Only by improving our understanding of this complex and very controversial topic can we hope to deal effectively with offenders and with their child victims. This is a book which will become an essential read for anyone involved with offenders or victims from a psychological, judicial or social background.

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The latest title from the internationally bestselling author and foster carer Cathy Glass. Beth is a sweet-natured child who appears to have been well looked after. But it isn't long before Cathy begins to have concerns that the relationship between Beth and her father is not as it should be. Little Beth, aged 7, has been brought up by her father Derek after her mother left when she was a toddler. When Derek is suddenly admitted to hospital with psychiatric problems Beth is taken into care and arrives at Cathy's. Beth and her father clearly love each other very much and Derek spoils his daughter, treating her like a princess, but there is something bothering Cathy, something she can't quite put her finger on. Meanwhile Cathy's husband is working away a lot and coming home less at weekends. Then, suddenly, everything changes. Events take a dramatic turn for both Beth and Cathy and her family; as Cathy strives to pick up the pieces all their lives are changed forever.

Beginning in the 1990s, the contentious "memory wars" divided psychologists into two schools of thought: that adults' recovered memories of childhood abuse were generally true, or that they were generally not, calling theories, therapies, professional ethics, and survivor credibility into question. More recently, findings from cognitive psychology and neuroimaging as well as new theoretical constructs are bringing balance, if not reconciliation, to this polarizing debate. Based on presentations at the 2010 Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, True and False Recovered Memories: Toward a Reconciliation of the Debate assembles an expert panel of scholars, professors, and clinicians to update and expand research and knowledge about the complex interaction of cognitive, emotional, and motivational factors involved in remembering-and forgetting-severe childhood trauma. Contrasting viewpoints, elaborations on existing ideas, challenges to accepted models, and intriguing experimental data shed light on such issues as the intricacies of identity construction in memory, post-trauma brain development, and the role of suggestive therapeutic techniques in creating false memories. Taken together, these papers add significant new dimensions to a rapidly evolving field. Featured in the coverage: The cognitive neuroscience of true and false memories. Toward a cognitive-neurobiological model of motivated forgetting. The search for repressed memory. A theoretical framework for understanding recovered memory experiences. Cognitive underpinnings of recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse. Motivated forgetting and misremembering: perspectives from betrayal trauma theory. Clinical and cognitive psychologists on all sides of the debate will welcome True and False Recovered Memories as a trustworthy reference, an impartial guide to ongoing controversies, and a springboard for future inquiry.

From the inner-city to the suburbs, thousands of school children are being systematically subjected to mandatory classroom policies which inflict both physical and emotional harm. Hundreds of school officials from across the country have been found guilty of sexual harassment, the illegal use of undercover agents, strip searches, corporal punishment, verbal abuse, punitive isolation, and other forms of institutional abuse. In Dangerous Schools, Professor Irwin Hyman and Pamela Snook, passionate advocates against the institutional maltreatment of children, reveal exactly what is going on in our nation's schools and what we must do about it.

"This book makes a strong argument against school abuses and offers clear and proven strategies for change. It will appeal to parents who suspect that their children have been maltreated by educators and for advocates who desire a blueprint for social change."---James Garbarino, codirector, Family Life Development Center, Cornell University; author, What Children Can Tell Us

Discover research from across the United States and around the world on children exposed to domestic violence If you are a member of a helping, medical, or legal profession, Children Exposed to Domestic Violence: Current Issues in Research, Intervention, Prevention, and Policy Development will help you explore research, assessments, interventions, and policy and prevention for children, victims of battering, batterers, and their families. This important book focuses on various aspects of spousal/partner abuse and child maltreatment. Comprehensive and thorough, Children Exposed to Domestic Violence focuses on three major sections: theoretical and research issues, intervention and prevention strategies, and policy development from an international perspective. Some of the important issues you will examine include: exploring the importance of partnerships between the domestic violence front-line workers and researchers at universities addressing the thorny issues of parenting in abused women assessing all areas of children's adjustment as well as their various relationships that may be problematic investigating the results of a quarter century research on men who batter by focusing on the crucial link between exposure to violence in childhood and adult marital behavior understanding the role of physiological and environmental factors as central to the role in domestic violence exploring the challenges faced by shelter staff in providing services to children who accompany their mother to find refuge examining new ideas for primary prevention programs in schools understanding policy and legislative implications of the growing body of literature on the impact of exposure to violence on children Children Exposed to Domestic Violence exemplifies the serious challenges faced by social workers, educators, policymakers, psychologists and others in helping professions working with children who have been exposed to domestic violence. You will gain insight into the vast amount of research that has taken place in the last ten years on this problem that will assist you with creating research ideas, interventions, prevention programs, and policies concerning children exposed to domestic violence.

Contents:
Forward. Preface. Part I: Abuse in Context: The Conceptual Framework. Abuse: The Trauma Model. Family: Beyond the Trauma Model. Alone: Growing Up in an Ineffective Family. Unprepared: The Legacy of an Ineffective Family Background. Impact: Intersecting Varieties of Abuse and Deficient Family Context. Society: Beyond Family Context. Part II: Treatment in Context: Foundations of the Therapeutic Model. Collaboration: Forming a Therapeutic Alliance. Conceptualization: Constructing Order from Chaos. Planning: Prioritizing Treatment Goals. Part III: Skills-Based Intervention: Implementation of the Therapeutic Model. Security: Managing and Modulating Distress. Focus: Fostering Experiential Presence and Continuity. Reasoning: Learning to Exercise Critical Thinking and Judgment. Coping: Breaking and Replacing Maladaptive Patterns. Liberation: Resolving the Trauma of Abuse. Transformation: The Miracle of Living Well. Part IV: Conclusion. Epilogue: The Inextricable Tie. References.

Childhood is ideally a time of safety, marked by freedom from the economic, sexual, and political demands that later become part of adult life. For many children, however, particularly those who live in our inner cities, childhood is increasingly a time of danger. In the urban war zones of Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington, D.C., children grow up with firsthand knowledge of terror and violence. This book examines the threat to childhood development posed by living amid chronic community violence. Most importantly, it shows caregiving adults such as teachers, psychologists, social workers, and counselors how they can work together to help children while they are still children—before they become angry, aggressive adults.