Levels of violence, abuse and neglect in early childhood are reported internationally as having reached epidemic proportions. The prevalence of all forms of violence to children has been difficult to establish, particularly in low and middle income countries. However, even in countries with a high GDP, the sexual abuse of children and young people by predatory adults may continue undetected for decades. In parts of Africa young children are mutilated and killed for religious reasons. Physical beatings that injure and break bones are still common in the Western world. Pornography and sexual abuse involving young children is propagated worldwide through the internet. The prevention of this violence will require substantial shifts in parental and public attitudes to children and the development and support of national systems of preventive legislation. The last 20 years has seen the emergence of a body of material which interrogates early childhood violence and neglect in a wider range of global settings, particularly those countries with a low GDP. This book aims to highlight important features of national and international initiatives which are rooted in findings from systematic research. The continued abuse and neglect of children has been attributed to social acceptance, not understanding the importance of reporting abuse, and the limitations of child welfare systems. This book will be of interest to practitioners in health care, education, and social work services, as well as field workers implementing programmes to address all forms of abuse at family, community and national level. This book was originally published as a special issue of Early Child Development and Care.

A Step-by-Step Guide for Working with Violent Clients

Renowned family therapist Cloe Madanes presents a therapy of social action, a proven model of therapeutic intervention developed for professionals who work with violent men. At the very heart of this approach is the conviction that the offAnder is fully responsible for his actions. As evidence of this core belief, a therapy of social action requires the offAnder to acknowledge his violent actions, demonstrate authentic repentance, make amAnds to the victim, and find acceptable alternative behaviors.

This collection is the first major exploration of the issues related to young people who are affected by child sexual exploitation (CSE) and child trafficking for exploitation. These include consideration of the language we currently use to construct and understand CSE; how to conceptualise CSE and sexual violence that takes place in gangs or between peers; issues of how 'consent' relates to young people in abusive or exploitative sexual relationships; how young people themselves might participate in work to improve service delivery; why some looked after young people are at greater risk of CSE than others and how they might keep safe. The volume also reviews policy and practice developments in Scotland; the risk of CSE for young women who go missing to escape forced marriages; the importance of including young people at risk of CSE in decision-making about their care; how and why trafficking and CSE came to be defined as objects of international policy concern and how community organizations might be mobilized to protect young people from the risk of trafficking for CSE.
This volume is essential reading for academics, students, practitioners and policymakers in the fields of social work and social policy, child protection and youth work, criminology and sociology and the health care services.

This book provides the first full-length, English-language investigation of the multiple and often contradictory ways in which mothers who kill their children were portrayed in 1970s Japan. It offers a snapshot of a historical and social moment when motherhood was being renegotiated, and maternal violence was disrupting norms of acceptable maternal behaviour. Drawing on a wide range of original archival materials, it explores three discursive sites where the image of the murderous mother assumed a distinctive visibility: media coverage of cases of maternal filicide; the rhetoric of a newly emerging women's liberation movement known as uman ribu; and fictional works by the Japanese writer Takahashi Takako. Using translation as a theoretical tool to decentre the West as the origin of (feminist) theorizations of the maternal, it enables a transnational dialogue for imagining mothers' potential for violence. This thought-provoking work will appeal to scholars of feminist theory, cultural studies and Japanese studies.

This book represents a significant contribution to the highly contested debate surrounding how allegations of child sexual abuse should be evaluated. Despite decades of substantial research in this sensitive area, professional consensus remains elusive. A particular source of contention is the sensitivity vs. specificity debate; whether evaluators should give priority to reducing the number of true allegations that are labelled false or to reducing the number of false allegations that are labelled true. This edited collection aims to address directly and offer new insights into this debate. It responds directly to Kuehnle and Connell's edited volume, The Evaluation of Child Sexual Abuse Allegations: A Comprehensive Guide to Assessment and Testimony (2009), which included chapters which advocated strong specificity positions at the expense of sensitivity. The chapters in this collection feature both challenges to, and replies by, the authors in Kuehnle and Connell's book, making this an essential resource that moves the debate forward. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Child Sexual Abuse.

The inspiring true story of a man who moved on from a background of shame to sue the Roman Catholic Church over its systematic cover-ups of child abuse scandals involving its priests--and won"" ""I was living in a world where a priest who spoke the words of God used me for sex, and there was no one to tell. The world where this horror happened didn't exist for anyone else."" As a boy in Ireland where everyone--from his own neighbors to the powers of church and state--chose to deny that a priest could sexually assault a child, Colm O'Gorman felt only shame, guilt, and fear at the regular rape and abuse he suffered. But Colm would go on to make history, successfully suing the Roman Catholic Church, asking questions of the Pope himself, and creating a watershed in history as hundreds more victims around the world found the courage to report their abuse. This powerful story of a young man's shame turning to outrage demonstrates that, whatever our past hurts, there is hope for the future if we are prepared to stand for truth.

Despite mounting references to the "transgenerational transmission of violence," we still lack a compelling understanding of the linkage between the interpersonal violence of early life and the criminal violence of adulthood. In Prologue to Violence, Abby Stein draws on the gripping narratives of 65 incarcerated subjects and extensive material from law enforcement files to remedy this lacuna in both the forensic and psychodynamic literature. In the process, she calls into question prevailing beliefs about criminal character and motivation. For Stein the early trauma to which adult criminals are subjected remains unformulated and, as such, unavailable for reflection. Contrary to common belief, these criminals, especially sex murderers, do not commit their crimes in a rational or fully conscious way. They are not driven by deviant fantasy, their psychopathy is not inborn, and they rarely commit acts of violence "without conscience." Stein's interdisciplinary analysis of her data infuses contemporary relational psychoanalysis with the insights of neuroscience, traumatology, criminology, and cognitive and narrative psychology. A powerful challenge to offender treatment programs to address the shaping impact of childhood trauma rather than merely to "correct" the cognitions of violent offenders, Prologue to Violence will be equally compelling to researchers and academics investigating child abuse and adult violence. Its mental health readership will be broad and deep, ranging beyond clinicians who work with offender populations to all therapists who wrestle with experiences of dissociation and aggressive enactment in everyday life.

A gripping chronicle of psychological manipulation and abuse at a "therapeutic" boarding school for troubled teens, and how one young woman fought to heal in the aftermath. At fifteen, Elizabeth Gilpin was an honor student, a state-ranked swimmer and a rising soccer star, but behind closed doors her undiagnosed depression was wreaking havoc on her life. Growing angrier by the day, she began skipping practices and drinking to excess. At a loss, her parents turned to an educational consultant who suggested Elizabeth be enrolled in a behavioral modification program. That recommendation would change her life forever. The nightmare began when she was abducted from her bed in the middle of the night by hired professionals and dropped off deep in the woods of Appalachia. Living with no real shelter was only the beginning of her ordeal: she was strip-searched, force-fed, her name was changed to a number and every moment was a test of physical survival. After three brutal months, Elizabeth was transferred to a boarding school in Southern Virginia that in reality functioned more like a prison. Its curriculum revolved around a perverse form of group therapy where students were psychologically abused and humiliated. Finally, at seventeen, Elizabeth convinced them she was rehabilitated enough to "graduate" and was released. In this eye-opening and unflinching book, Elizabeth recalls the horrors she endured, the friends she lost to suicide and addiction, and-years later-how she was finally able to pick up the pieces of her life and reclaim her identity.

"Why does God hate me?" "How can I believe in a God who has allowed my suffering?" These are just two of the difficult spiritual questions that survivors of child sexual abuse struggle with. In addition, survivors often have mixed feelings about the church because of perceived judgment and indifference, their own shame, or their discomfort with certain aspects of worship. Of the many after-effects of sexual abuse, spiritual wounds are the least talked about, yet they are central to adult survivors who seek to heal and find faith and meaning in their lives. With grace and gentleness, this book seeks to answer survivors' spiritual questions and address some of the common misconceptions that often develop when young victims attempt to understand what has happened to them. Healing the Ravaged Soul explores the origins of their spiritual issues with clear psychological insights and guides survivors on a spiritual journey toward healing, wholeness, and a deeper relationship with God.

Providing an evidence-based understanding of the causes and consequences of violence against children, experts in the field examine the best practices used to help protect children from violence. Various types of violence are reviewed including physical and sexual abuse, (cyber-)bullying, human trafficking, online predators, abductions, and war. In addition, it reviews the various perpetrators of such violence including parents and relatives, strangers, other children, and societal institutions. The possible outcomes of such violence including physical injuries, death, depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorders, and damage to the social fabric of the local community are also explored.

To enhance accessibility, each contributor addresses common themes:

• Opening case studies dramatically illustrate the human cost of abuse and neglect
• Empirically driven estimates of the scope of problem to better understand who is at risk and why
• Empirically driven testing of interventions to maximize effectiveness of programs
• How current research compares to public perception and the impact on public policy
• The worldwide problem of violence against children ?
• Evidence-based recommendations for reducing violence against children.

The book opens with a review of the history of the problem, the methodological approaches used to study it, and current "best practice" prevention strategies. The methods used to identify peer victims are then explored. Next child eyewitness memory is examined including the most effective techniques for maximizing the retrieval of information. This is followed by the research on missing and abducted children including the effectiveness of recovery programs such as supermarket campaigns and forensic age profiles. Next how the Internet is used in the victimization of children is explored including tips to help protect children online. Public attitudes toward sex offender registration laws are then reviewed followed by vulnerabilities that include genetic, neuropsychological, temperamental, cognitive, perceptual and social factors. International perspectives on protecting children from violence and global health inequities are then addressed. The book concludes with recommendations for future research.

Contributors are noted scholars from a broad range of disciplines. As such, the book appeals to researchers and advanced students in developmental, counseling, clinical, cognitive, evolutionary, and social psychology, as well as sociology, social work, criminal justice, education, and law enforcement.

Work with sexually exploited young people can be rewarding yet difficult. They can be hard to access, often presenting challenging behaviour. Sometimes it is painful to hear their life stories, whether these include abuse through the Internet or exploitation experienced through having been trafficked into and within the country. Jenny J. Pearce draws on young people's voices to explore the difficulties that arise for researchers and for practitioners when working with sexually exploited young people. While child protection interventions must guide social work, she argues that other agencies such as health, education, housing and training each have a role to play in supporting a sexually exploited young person. Challenging the uncritical acceptance of the child as victim, the book suggests 'therapeutic outreach' as an approach to working with sexually exploited young people that can complement child protection procedures, support practitioners in the field and enhance the young person's sense of autonomy and responsibility during their transition to adulthood. The book advocates the relationship between practitioners and the young people they aim to support to be one of the most important resources in practice. Young People and Sexual Exploitation will be essential reading for anyone interested in preventing the sexual exploitation of children and young people. It will be particularly relevant for academics, students, practitioners and policymakers in the fields of social policy and social work, child and family work, child protection and youth work.

Work with sexually exploited young people can be rewarding yet difficult. They can be hard to access, often presenting challenging behaviour. Sometimes it is painful to hear their life stories, whether these include abuse through the Internet or exploitation experienced through having been trafficked into and within the country. Jenny J. Pearce draws on young people's voices to explore the difficulties that arise for researchers and for practitioners when working with sexually exploited young people. While child protection interventions must guide social work, she argues that other agencies such as health, education, housing and training each have a role to play in supporting a sexually exploited young person. Challenging the uncritical acceptance of the child as victim, the book suggests 'therapeutic outreach' as an approach to working with sexually exploited young people that can complement child protection procedures, support practitioners in the field and enhance the young person's sense of autonomy and responsibility during their transition to adulthood. The book advocates the relationship between practitioners and the young people they aim to support to be one of the most important resources in practice. Young People and Sexual Exploitation will be essential reading for anyone interested in preventing the sexual exploitation of children and young people. It will be particularly relevant for academics, students, practitioners and policymakers in the fields of social policy and social work, child and family work, child protection and youth work.

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?

The true story of 2 year-old Anna, abandoned by her natural parents, left alone in a neglected orphanage. Elaine and Ian had travelled half way round the world to adopt little Anna. She couldn't have been more wanted, loved and cherished. So why was she now in foster care and living with me? It didn't make sense. Until I learned what had happened. ... Dressed only in nappies and ragged T-shirts the children were incarcerated in their cots. Their large eyes stared out blankly from emaciated faces. Some were obviously disabled, others not, but all were badly undernourished. Flies circled around the broken ceiling fans and buzzed against the grids covering the windows. The only toys were a few balls and a handful of building bricks, but no child played with them. The silence was deafening and unnatural. Not one of the thirty or so infants cried, let alone spoke.

Child Sexual Abuse critically evaluates the development of policy and legislative measures to control sex offenders. The last fifteen years has seen increasing concern on the part of the government, criminal justice agencies, the media and the public, regarding child sexual abuse. This concern has been prompted by a series of events including cases inviting media attention and involving the abduction, sexual abuse and murder of young children. The response to this wave of child sexual abuse revelation has been to introduce increasingly punitive legislation regarding the punishment and control of sex offenders (sex offenders are the only group of offenders in British legal history to have their own act), both in custody and in the community. But this response, it is argued here, has developed in a reactionary way to media and public anxiety regarding the punishment and control of sex offenders (who have abused children) and the perceived threat of such offenders in the community.

Child Sexual Abuse critically evaluates the development of policy and legislative measures to control sex offenders. The last fifteen years has seen increasing concern on the part of the government, criminal justice agencies, the media and the public, regarding child sexual abuse. This concern has been prompted by a series of events including cases inviting media attention and involving the abduction, sexual abuse and murder of young children. The response to this wave of child sexual abuse revelation has been to introduce increasingly punitive legislation regarding the punishment and control of sex offenders (sex offenders are the only group of offenders in British legal history to have their own act), both in custody and in the community. But this response, it is argued here, has developed in a reactionary way to media and public anxiety regarding the punishment and control of sex offenders (who have abused children) and the perceived threat of such offenders in the community.

The state is increasingly experienced as both intrusive and neglectful, particularly by those living in poverty, leading to loss of trust and widespread feelings of alienation and disconnection. Against this tense background, this innovative book argues that child protection policies and practices have become part of the problem, rather than ensuring children's well-being and safety. Building on the ideas in the best-selling Re-imagining child protection and drawing together a wide range of social theorists and disciplines, the book: * Challenges existing notions of child protection, revealing their limits; * Ensures that the harms children and families experience are explored in a way that acknowledges the social and economic contexts in which they live; * Explains how the protective capacities within families and communities can be mobilised and practices of co-production adopted; * Places ethics and human rights at the centre of everyday conversations and practices.

How can professionals build constructive relationships with families where the parents dispute professional allegations of serious child abuse? How can meaningful safety for children be created in these families? How can professionals work together constructively in such cases? Situations where parents refute child abuse allegations made against them are often deemed to be impossible or untreatable by statutory and treatment professionals. These cases can consume enormous amounts of professional time and energy and frequently become bogged down by ongoing professional-family mistrust and dispute. Often, the decision to close such cases comes about not because the children are safe, but rather because the professionalsrun out of ideas, time and energy.

"Working with 'Denied' Child Abuse" presents an innovative, safety-focused, partnership-based, model called Resolutions, which provides an alternative approach for responding rigourously and creatively to such cases. It describes each stage of this practical model and demonstrates the approach through many case examples from therapists, statutory social workers and other professionals working in Europe, North America and Australasia. The book is key reading for legal, health and social care professionals working in the area of child protection.

A powerful, moving true story from Sunday Times bestseller, Maggie Hartley, Britain's most-loved foster carer. Perfect for fans of Cathy Glass and Casey Watson. Foster carer Maggie Hartley is finally enjoying a well-earned holiday from fostering, savouring time with her brand new baby granddaughter. One night, though, the peace and quiet is interrupted by an urgent call from Social Services. A man has been stabbed, and Social Services need to find an emergency placement for his little girl. Maggie is used to children arriving on her doorstep at all times of the day and night, but nothing can prepare her for the sight of eleven-year-old Nancy. The little girl arrives in her pyjamas, covered in blood, and mute with shock. With her mother missing and her father in intensive care, the police are desperate for answers. Who stabbed Nancy's father? Where is her mother? And what is Nancy hiding about her seemingly perfect family? The longer Maggie spends with her little girl, the clearer it becomes that all is not as it seems. Can Maggie discover the terrible truth of what's been happening behind closed doors?

A reissue of the now-classic anthology (with more than 60,000 copies sold) of deeply moving testimonies by survivors of child sexual abuse--with a new afterword by Ellen Bass, co-author of The Courage to Heal.

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.

Get the tools to coordinate a plan in your community! The highly anticipated Ending Child Abuse: New Efforts in Prevention, Investigation, and Training presents an exciting vision: to end or significantly reduce child abuse. Respected social scientists and legal scholars discuss empirically sound short- and long- term multidisciplinary strategies that can be implemented in our society. Innovative and well-established concepts and approaches are clearly presented, such as specialized education, rational preventative methods, effective investigation and prosecution strategies, and the analysis of factors that influence law enforcement investigations and child abuse prevention efforts. Several obstacles stand in the way of the elimination of child abuse, such as the failure to investigate most child abuse reports, inadequate training of frontline child protection professionals, lack of financial resources, and the dilemma that child abuse is not addressed at the youngest ages. Ending Child Abuse: New Efforts in Prevention, Investigation, and Training tackles these problems and others with practical guidelines and aggressive creative strategies that can be applied to every community in the United States. This collection is impeccably referenced and soundly supported with research. Ending Child Abuse: New Efforts in Prevention, Investigation, and Training discusses: implementation of a model curriculum in child advocacy for undergraduate and graduate institutions forensic interview training extensive education of the nation's child protection professionals development and funding of prevention programs at the community level educational reforms of Montclair State University in New Jersey designed to better prepare professionals who advocate for children research-based interview techniques with best practice guidelines possible broader social and system-level reforms vertical prosecution of child abuse caseswith a model for its operation Ending Child Abuse: New Efforts in Prevention, Investigation, and Training is an ambitious eye-opening source perfect for social services professionals, mental health professionals, practitioners, researchers, educators, students, and medical and legal professionals who deal with child abuse and children's welfare.

Explore current social developments, issues, and controversies concerning young victims! The Victimization of Children: Emerging Issues keeps students and practitioners working with young victims on the cutting edge of the latest research developments regarding crimes against children. Leading experts from the legal, medical, and sociological communities explore some of the most urgent issues involving child victims. Researchers and practitioners in victim services, social work, mental health, public health, and criminal justice will all benefit from this useful resource. While numerous books have been written on the topic of child abuse and neglect, few delve into the more contemporary issues and problems. The Victimization of Children fills a large void in the literature by offering advanced discussions of today's most relevant topics, making this book an in-depth supplement to generic textbooks. Forward-thinking and thought-provoking, this timely resource provides sound research to expand your knowledge base. This book provides insights into such contemporary issues as: the victimization of youths on the Internet children as victims of war and terrorism spatial patterns of child maltreatmentthe concentration of child maltreatment within certain geographical areas religion-related child abuse the role of health care professionals in response to child victimization children with disabilitiesabuse, neglect, and the child welfare system fetal homicideemerging statutory and judicial regulation of third-party assaults legal and social issues surrounding closed-circuit television testimony of child victims and witnesses juvenile courts and their role in addressing family violence The Victimization of Children provides tables, figures, and the latest statistics of various aspects of child victimization to complement the experts' contributions. This book offers new and different responses and interventions to meet the increasingly diverse contexts and situations within which child maltreatment occurs. Emerging trends are explored within this book from a cross-section of disciplines, including law, sociology, criminal justice, psychology, and health services.

Successfully navigate the minefield of misinformation that can prevent justice from being done in child sexual abuse cases From the Foreword, by Robert Geffner, PhD, editor of the Journal of Child Sexual Abuse: "Too often, the public and some professionals have been misled by media publicity and articles . . . that appear scientific, but in reality, are biased opinions or over-generalized research. Forensic cases are being decided in many courts based upon the recommendations of so-called expert witnesses'who do not actually know the clinical research or understand the dynamics of such abusive relationships." This much-needed book points out and corrects misinformation that everyone who works with victims, offenders, or families in which sexual abuse has occurred needs to understand clearly. Especially vital in today's political climate, Misinformation Concerning Child Sexual Abuse and Adult Survivors gives you state-of-the-science information on such myths as "false memory syndrome," "recovered memory therapy," and the "lack of harm" to some sexually abused boys. Misinformation Concerning Child Sexual Abuse and Adult Survivors examines: forensic issues, including the "false memory" defense and how the long-term impact of childhood sexual abuse is often misrepresented in court three separate expert examinations of Rind, Tromovitch, and Bauserman's well-known--and often misrepresented--review of long-term child sexual abuse outcomes treatment recommendations and guidelines for addressing the memory controversy in clinical practice the fascinating case history/cautionary tale of the child molester Robert Halsey, who was convicted and sentenced to two life sentences in 1993, and how public and academic resources were misused to claim he was wrongly convicted.