Aisling Creegan's childhood was dominated by an abusive, alcoholic mother, who tortured her at every turn. From insults through beatings and being threatened with a butcher's knife, Aisling endured unthinkable suffering at the hands of the woman who should have loved her unconditionally. Yet in the midst of this trauma, Aisling was able to rely on the one person she knew she could trust - herself. Possessed of an incredible imagination and remarkable resilience, Aisling found escape in the little things in life: lying in a field on a sunny day; drawing; Matchbox cars; and her teddy bear, Panda. Aisling's power to imagine an alternative world enabled her to hold on and make it to adolescence and the freedom she had longed for since childhood. But the scars of the past take time to heal, and when Aisling suffered a breakdown it took her on a surprising path to freedom - and forgiveness. I Am Someone is an extraordinary memoir about female cruelty, and ultimately female strength and endurance. 'Searingly honest ... brings you straight into the inner world of someone pushed to the limits' Lynn Ruane

As a child, Victoria Spry was brutally beaten, neglected and starved by the woman she called Mummy. To the outside world Eunice Spry was a devoted parent, but behind closed doors she was an evil tyrant. Instead of protecting, loving and caring for Victoria, she forced bleach and urine down her throat, knocked out her teeth, tied her up naked and made her live in squalor. It took eighteen years of heartache and despair before she found the courage to expose her mum. Tortured is Victoria's gripping story of survival.

'I was nine and the big sister. I wanted to keep her safe. He basically promised me that if I let him abuse me, he wouldn't touch my sister again.' Debbie Grafham's childhood had been far from normal, but when she was just nine years old her life changed forever. Debbie discovered that her neighbour was abusing her younger sister, Laraine - and there was a price to pay to make him stop. Alone and scared, she made a decision that was to haunt her life, and send her spiralling out of control. But after nearly forty years of harbouring her shocking secret, Debbie found the courage to tell her sister and together they made the decision to fight for justice.

Bo has been at war with his father for as long as he can remember. The rage he feels gives him the energy as a triathlete to press his body to the limit, but it also translates into angry outbursts toward his teachers.

Now dangerously close to expulsion from school, Bo has been assigned to Anger Management sessions with the school "truants." With an eclectic mix of hard-edged students, Bo may finally have to deal with his long-brewing hatred for his father -- before it eats away at him completely.

In The Case of the Pope Geoffrey Robertson QC delivers a devastating indictment of the way the Vatican has run a secret legal system that shields paedophile priests from criminal trial around the world. Is the Pope morally or legally responsible for the negligence that has allowed so many terrible crimes to go unpunished? Should he and his seat of power, the Holy See, continue to enjoy an immunity that places them above the law? Geoffrey Robertson QC, a distinguished human rights lawyer and judge, evinces a deep respect for the good works of Catholics and their church. But, he argues, unless Pope Benedict XVI can divest himself of the beguilements of statehood and devotion to obsolescent canon law, the Vatican will remain a serious enemy to the advance of human rights. 'Robertson is an adept QC and this is a devastating case' Daily Telegraph 'Combines moral passion with steely forensic precision ... It is one of the most formidable demolition jobs one could imagine on a man who has done more to discredit the cause of religion than Rasputin and Pat Robertson put together' Terry Eagleton, Guardian 'Forceful, wide-ranging' The Tablet 'Robertson has not become a successful lawyer by muddling his arguments and distorting his facts ... He writes clearly, at times passionately, as counsel for the prosecution' John Lloyd, Financial Times Geoffrey Robertson QC is founder and head of Doughty Street Chambers, the largest human rights practice in the UK. In 2008, he was appointed as a distinguished jurist member of the UN Justice Council. His books include Crimes Against Humanity: The Struggle for Global Justice, a memoir, The Justice Game and The Tyrannicide Brief, an award winning study of the trial of Charles I.

Even good parents often underestimate the dangers their children face. Research indicates that one in four females and one in six males are sexually abused before age 18. In most cases, the enemy is not a faceless stranger; it's someone you know and trust--a neighbor, a coach, or even a family member.

This book provides practical steps to ensure you're doing all you can to reduce the risks of abuse. But since you cannot be with your children 24/7, it goes beyond what you can do as a parent to teach you how to increase your child's own awareness and strategies in the face of potential dangers--without making them fearful.

Dr. Robinson, whose decades-long practice focuses on abused and endangered children, calls on her own case studies to show age- appropriate conversation starters for parents, teaching them how to ask the right questions and provide the right boundaries. This book will help you move from fear to confidence on this heavy topic that is just too important to ignore.

This volume culls the most important and provocative research and policy analysis in the child welfare field and is an essential guide for understanding the burgeoning field of children's services.

Based on the experiences of hundreds of survivors, this work profiles victims who share the challenges and triumphs of their personal healing processes. Inspiring and comprehensive, it offers mental, emotional and physical support to all people who are in the process of rebuilding their lives. It offers hope, encouragement and practical advice to every woman who was sexually abused as a child and answers some vital questions including where the decision to heal starts, how you can break the silence, who will listen and the therapy, support groups and organizations that are available.

Eileen Munro, author of the seminal Munro Review, returns in this fully revised and updated third edition. With new chapters on 'Child Protection Agencies as Complex Adaptive Systems' and 'How organisations can support more effective practice', this new edition shifts its focus from individual workers to look at the critical role that organisations play in child protection, and how individuals are affected by the complex enterprise of people, processes, cultures and agencies. It remains an essential guide to strengthening analytic and intuitive skills to improve children's safety.

Thoroughly revised and expanded, the 4th edition offers a practical, objective, evidence-based guide to the medical diagnosis and management of child abuse. Written and edited by a vast array of the world's leading experts on child abuse and neglect, this indispensable resource clearly explains the signs, symptoms, and injuries of the abused child. Features hundreds of photographs and illustrations and a wealth of medical, surgical, radiographic, and laboratory information. New chapters include: Sentinel Injuries Burns Medical Neglect and Obesity Environmental Neglect and Social Determinants of Health Supervisional Neglect/Fatal Neglect Drug-Endangered Children Psychological Abuse Family Violence Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation via Electronic Media Reporting Abuse, Managing Uncertainty, and Other Legal Issues Professional Considerations for Those Who Care for the Potentially Abused Child Caring for the Child in Out-of-Home Care Trauma-Informed Care and Treatment Identifying Child Maltreatment Creating Change Through Advocacy

The fourth edition of this best-selling reference is a valuable resource to clinicians and child advocates serving children and families affected by suspicions of child sexual abuse. Fully updated and revised by leading experts on child abuse, this resource covers what a complete and comprehensive medical evaluation entails, when to seek an examination, the importance of conducting a medical history, how discrepancies between a child's history and physical findings can be explained, how the child's medical record should be structured, what types of documentation should be expected, and how a medical diagnosis is formulated. New Topics Include Telemedicine in the child sexual abuse medical evaluation Human trafficking International issues in child sexual abuse Enhanced focus on findings that mimic sexual abuse and on developmental considerations

Exploring specific experiences, circumstances and events that can put children at risk, this book provides practical guidance for early years practitioners working with vulnerable children. It covers supporting children who are abused and neglected, those with special educational needs, children from ethnic minorities, those with emotional or health difficulties, children affected by poverty and children in care. Each chapter draws on current research and theories to set out clear advice and strategies for supporting the wellbeing and development of vulnerable children, including working in partnership with parents, carers and communities.

The two volume APA Handbook of Trauma Psychology is the most comprehensive guide, text, and reference work on the subject to date. It provides a survey of all the major areas and subtopics of empirical knowledge and practical applications in the field of trauma psychology, written by top experts in the field. Volume 1 is divided into sections on the nature of trauma, its psychological impact, major conceptual frameworks for understanding traumatization, and trauma as viewed from the diverse perspective of various disciplines. Volume 2 covers various applications of trauma psychology, including various modalities of trauma assessment, major treatment approaches across the lifespan, and multi-client and organizational practice. The APA Handbook of Trauma Psychology will be an essential resource to specialists in trauma who need comprehensive information, to practitioners who seek to familiarize themselves with the range of approaches for trauma assessment and treatment, or for students as a graduate level or advanced undergraduate level textbook.

Charmaine Richardson's highly personal and revealing account describes how she was abused as a child within her comfortable, middle-class London home. It describes the `time bomb' for her and her family, something that led to depression, counselling and a chance meeting with sex-offender expert Ray Wyre, who she married in 1999. A large part of the book is given over to her life with Ray, his work at the Gracewell clinic and an analysis of his book, The Murder of Childhood (2nd Edn., Waterside Press, 2018) and the failure of politicians to heed his warnings about how we need to understand and deal with perpetrators. The book also contains the author's own views on bringing-up children to feel safe, comfortable and resistant to the devious ways in which paedophiles operate, including by the language we use with `little people'. Shows how the author was left to unpick the chaos of Wyre's personal life, his debts incurred in pursuit of his mission, gambling and the free-spending lifestyle that stood at odds with and was an escape from his intense professional commitment.

""I hated the thought of his child growing inside me . . . but at least I'd soon have somebody to love and, finally, somebody to love me back." "Tina has never had a stable upbringing. Aged seven, she has a paranoid schizophrenic for a mother and her father is a distant memory. So when Tina gets a new step-dad, who lavishes sweets and cuddles upon her, she feels wanted for the first time ever. Sadly, her new daddy isn't all that he seems. He begins to sexually abuse Tina, using chilling threats to scare her into silence. Tina is so terrified, she even gives birth to four of her stepfather's children without breathing a word. Her world becomes so warped the cruelty she endures seems normal--until eventually, the tragic death of one her innocent children makes her see otherwise. This is the inspiring true story of how one frightened little girl grew into a fighter and finally found the strength to escape the man who stole her childhood.

Aged thirteen, Martha is rescued by the courts from the clutches of her evil stepfather, Jackser, and her feckless mother, Sally. After numerous arrests for shoplifting, a judge rules that she is to be sent to a convent school with the instruction that she is to get an education. Her initial relief at escaping the abuse and neglect she suffered at home is, however, short-lived, as she soon realises that there are many forms of cruelty in this life. As she says, 'You can have a full belly, but your heart can be very empty.' Ostracised by the other children for being a 'street kid' and put to back-breaking work by the nuns, she leads a lonely existence, her only joy coming from the books she devours and her mischievous sense of humour. Desperate for love and a little place where she feels she belongs, despite all that she has suffered Martha retains her compassion for others and still continues to hope for a brighter future when she will be free to make her own way in life.

Richard McCann's account of his childhood became a massive UK bestseller. In it he told the harrowing story of how he and his sisters were left motherless when the Yorkshire Ripper killed his first victim, Richard's mother Wilma McCann. Just A Boy was praised for its unflinching and unself-pitying account of a neglected childhood at the hands of an abusive father and uncaring authorities. The Boy Grows Up is an account of how Richard used the success of Just A Boy to try and save his sister, and of his attempts to make sense of his past whilst learning more about the effects of traumatic childhoods and loss.

This book seeks to educate principals, counselors, teachers, coaches, support staff, and students about sexual misconduct, while providing a training model to prepare school staff to avoid sexual misconduct, to encourage school leaders to upgrade their supervision efforts, and to provide needed outreach and intervention before sexual misconduct occurs. To help eliminate sexual misconduct in schools, this book provides step-by-step training procedures that can be used as part of the schools' staff development program to teach educators about the importance of setting boundaries. Real-life case studies documenting inappropriate teacher-student relationships are included. The major focus of this second edition is to alert educators to the effects of unrelenting school reform efforts, which have become a distraction at best and a barrier at worst to dealing with problems such as sexual misconduct. This book provides a roadmap of what needs to be done to restore each educator's mission to being committed to their students' well-being before it is too late.

In the 19th century, a greater understanding of childrens rights was acknowledged, and in the 20th century, child abuse was discovered in 1962 after many years of turning a blind eye. The number of reported cases of child abuse worldwide has since exploded into a public health epidemic with a much higher incidence than better-funded diseases such as juvenile cancer. The evaluation of child abuse and neglect is complex, with many professionals and agencies involved to try and decrease these incidences. This can be one of the reasons why the field has not been able to attract appropriate resources for prevention, treatment, education and research. Child abuse must be looked upon as a major public health problem, and professionals must make the 21st century a century for the child. In this book, the authors have given a short review of the field.

One October night in 1975 Richard, aged five, was alone in the house with his three sisters. It was 3am and their mother hadn't come home yet, so he and his eldest sister set off through the foggy streets to find her. At dawn they returned home alone. Next morning, the police arrived to take the children away. Their mother had become the first victim of a serial killer soon to become known as the 'Yorkshire Ripper'. Passed from one violent home to another, the children were forgotten by all except the press. As the salacious headlines multiplied, Richard and his sisters were never able to recover from their mother's murder. Whilst Richard tried to handle the terror of his violent upbringing, his sister struggled to deal with memories of sexual abuse. Without love or support they spiralled away from help or happiness. Until one day when Richard McCann, having reached suicidal rock bottom, decided no one was going to rescue their lives but him. It was the beginning of an inspirational transformation. Now he is able to tell the story of how the forgotten children of violence suffer, and how they can heal. A heartbreaking, uplifting story of survival and hope.