Series Information:
The State of Welfare

The black heart of human exploitation and the brave few seeking change

A child is sold for sex every ten miles on Brazil's BR-116 motorway. This 2,700-mile road is "The Highway to Hell" for the thousands of children, some as young as nine, who are trapped in sophisticated child prostitution rackets organized by businessmen and politicians.

An experienced journalist, Matt Roper has witnessed the extent of the trafficking firsthand. Highway to Hell documents his journey on this road. He meets the girls and hears their stories; he interviews truck drivers, pimps, brothel owners, and traffickers; and talks to the brave souls who are trying to make a difference.

Part documentary, part personal memoir, Matt honestly shares his struggles to understand what his Christian faith has to say about the things he encounters and how God wants him to respond.

Tom was the only adult who gave me the attention and affection that I so badly needed. I loved his caresses and the times he comforted me. I loved talking to him because he was the only adult who listened and understood. - Neil's Story From Victim to Offender shows how victims of child sexual abuse become juvenile and adult offenders. The stories told by these offenders reveal the vulnerability of boys to paedophiles and pederasts who provide the male attention lacking in some children's home lives. They show how early sexualisation damages children's sexual development, their relationships and their adult lives. The story of a female offender reveals that this problem is not confined to boys. These stories highlight the inadequacy of current child protection programs for the protection of boys. The editor's introduction and the chapter from a psychologist who specialises in the treatment of offenders emphasise the need to improve child protection and treatment programs for offenders.From Victim to Offender offers unique insights into the experiences of victims and offenders of sexual abuse, and is essential reading for professionals who are concerned about child protection and those responsible for the rehabilitation of offenders.

This book deals with four types of abuse: neglect, emotional abuse, physical abuse, and sexual abuse. For each type of abuse, selected works of fiction, literary, and professional perspectives are juxtaposed along with applications for utilizing the stories in a hypothetical therapy setting. In addition, reports of mental health workers, organizations, agencies, statistics, cases studies, and important research findings regarding each type of abuse are summarized. Web links are provided as well as information on finding the professional print resources cited. Suggestions for additional fiction suitable for bibliotherapy are provided. This is an invaluable resource for teachers, parents, and any adults interested in helping teens battling with the damage of abuse.

The sexual abuse of children is now seen as an enormous problem; first, because there is an increasing awareness that it is more prevalent than previously thought, and second, because it gives rise to so many complex questions. How is sexual abuse to be defined? What are the effects of abuse? How can the victim be helped? How can abuse be prevented? These two comprehensive volumes cover a wide spectrum of basic and applied issues. Expert contributors -- including physicians, attorneys, psychologists, philosophers, social workers, and engineers -- address such relevant topics as epidemiology, animal models, legal reforms, feminist scholarship, child pornography, medical assessment, and diverse models of psychotherapeutic intention.

The sexual abuse of children is now seen as an enormous problem; first, because there is an increasing awareness that it is more prevalent than previously thought, and second, because it gives rise to so many complex questions. How is sexual abuse to be defined? What are the effects of abuse? How can the victim be helped? How can abuse be prevented? These two comprehensive volumes cover a wide spectrum of basic and applied issues. Expert contributors -- including physicians, attorneys, psychologists, philosophers, social workers, and engineers -- address such relevant topics as epidemiology, animal models, legal reforms, feminist scholarship, child pornography, medical assessment, and diverse models of psychotherapeutic intention.

This seminal book in the literature of child protective services stimulates critical thinking and informed discussion for those professionals and educators concerned with the quality of children's protective services. The first book of its kind to present scholarly reports on false allegations, Assessing Child Maltreatment Reports tackles the age-old problem of deciding which reports, verbal or written, represent truth and which represent falsehood. When one deals with accusations in the area of child maltreatment, special problems are posed. This vital resource brings home the complexity and seriousness of confronting the need to separate true reports from false reports. Given the serious consequences of reports of maltreatment, determining the accuracy or inaccuracy of such reports is of major critical importance to all concerned and the parents, children, and professionals directly involved. This book deals effectively and practically with the everyday work of assessing the validity and reliability of maltreatment reports and guides professionals through rough waters of finding truth with helpful research.This courageous book provides hope for establishing a deeper understanding of the broad system of child protection and consequently, enables professionals to better handle individual crises and cases. Containing a range of chapters--authored by leading academic researchers and practitioners in child welfare services in the United States--which examine the policy and practice issues related to false allegations of child abuse and neglect, this volume provides guideposts for further research and discussion. College and university students in child welfare and related programs, human service practitioners working in child protective and welfare services, and the larger public--both parents and professionals working with children--who have an interest in this important issue, will find Assessing Child Maltreatment Reports a compassionate approach to a sensitive issue.

How successful have recent government initiatives been in preventing child harm and family breakdown?

The NSPCC recently conducted a large-scale two-year evaluation study with families in difficulty, to explore the content and effectiveness of family support services.

Looking at the services from all stakeholder perspectives – children, parents, staff – Ruth Gardner presents the findings of the study and asks to what extent specific problems such as parental stress, vulnerability, isolation and child behaviour were resolved over six months of interventions including group work, parent training and volunteer home visiting.

Using the voices of all the stakeholders, Supporting Families reviews the national policy for family support since the inception of social services departments and, through best practice and policy recommendations, points the way forward to more inclusive provision.

Bringing together NSPCC research with key practice-based solutions, Ruth Gardner's timely study is required reading for everyone working to prevent child harm.

As recently as 1970, child sexual abuse was seen as extremely rare and usually harmless. Over thirty years later, the media regularly covers child sexual abuse cases, many survivors speak openly about their experiences, and a thriving network of public and private organizations seek to prevent child sexual abuse and remedy its effects. This is the story of these dramatic changes and the activists who helped bring them about.
The Politics of Child Sexual Abuse is the first study of activism against child sexual abuse, tracing its emergence in feminist anti-rape efforts, its development into mainstream self-help, and its entry into mass media and public policy. Nancy Whittier deftly charts the development of the movement's "therapeutic politics," demonstrating that activists viewed tactics for changing emotions and one's sense of self as necessary for widespread social change and combined them with efforts to change institutions and the state. Though activism originated with feminists, as the movement grew and spread to include the goals of non-feminist survivors, opponents, therapists, law enforcement, and elected officials, participants were pulled toward formulations of child sexual abuse as a medical or criminal problem and away from emphases on gender and power. In the process, the movement both succeeded beyond its wildest dreams and saw its agenda transformed in ways that were sometimes unrecognizable.
A lucid and moving account, The Politics of Child Sexual Abuse draws powerful lessons about the transformative potential of therapeutic politics, their connection to institutions, and the processes of incomplete social change that characterize American politics today.

A house full of whispers is a true account of my struggle through unimaginable abuse, firstly by my foster parents and in a cruel twist of fate by my biological mother. Step-daddy loved me in a special way that became a secret. Mother allowed appalling things to happen, and played torturous games with my mind. I fought hard to survive as he broke my bones but never achieved my soul. The night devil was going to punish me for daring to speak out, I knew if he held me captive again I would die from the struggle, the dark abyss I had escaped was safer than the streets I was thrown into, propelling me into despair and suicide.

The second edition of this successful handbook, edited by well-known experts in this field, includes core questions in the field of child abuse and neglect. It addresses major challenges in child maltreatment work, starting with "What is child abuse and neglect?" and then examines why maltreatment occurs and what are its consequences. The handbook also addresses prevention, intervention, investigation, treatment as well as civil and criminal legal perspectives. It comprehensively studies the issue from the perspective of a broader, international and cross-cultural human experience. Apart from a thorough revision of existing chapters, this edition includes many new chapters covering recent developments in this area and other issues not covered in the first edition. There is more focus on substance abuse, psychological abuse, and on social and community involvement and public health provisions in the prevention of child maltreatment. The handbook examines what is known now and more importantly what remains to be researched in the coming decades to help abused and neglected children, their families and their communities, thereby taking the field forward.

"The major strengths of this book are the manual format, the comprehensiveness of the text, the direct focus on medical practitioners, the diagrams, and the photo-illustrations. The sections on normal anatomy, normal sexual growth, and development are excellent as is the section on conducting the physical examination. The concise listing of treatments and drug doses for various conditions is invaluable."

This clear and compelling textbook provides a complete survey of the field of child abuse and neglect from the perspective of modern developmental attachment theory. It starts by describing the ways in which attachment difficulties manifest themselves in children's behaviour, and goes on looking at abuse, neglect, and compound cases of abuse and neglect, backing it all up with empirical research evidence and vivid case material. In its final section, it provides a comprehensive review of attachment-based interventions. Written by an extremely respected and successful author, this book, anchored in research evidence, places its emphasis on practice implementation and aims at answering all the kinds of questions practitioners and student practitioners specialising in child welfare are most likely to ask.

'Grooming' and the Sexual Abuse of Children: Institutional, Internet and Familial Dimensions critically examines the official and popular discourses on grooming, predominantly framed within the context of online sexual exploitation and abuse committed by strangers, and institutional child abuse committed by those in positions of trust. Set against the broader theoretical framework of risk, security and governance, this book argues that due to the difficulties of drawing clear boundaries between innocuous and harmful motivations towards children, pre-emptive risk-based criminal law and policy are inherently limited in preventing, targeting and criminalising 'grooming' behaviour prior to the manifestation of actual harm. Through examination of grooming against the complexities of the onset of sexual offending against children and its actual role in this process, the author broadens existing discourses by providing a fuller, more nuanced conceptualisation of grooming, including its role in intra-familial and extra-familial contexts. There is also timely discussion of new and emerging forms of grooming, such as 'street' or 'localised' grooming, as typified by recent cases in Rochdale and Oldham, and 'peer-to-peer' grooming. The first inter-disciplinary, thematic, and empirical investigation of grooming in a multi-jurisdictional context, 'Grooming' and the Sexual Abuse of Children draws on extensive empirical research in the form of over fifty interviews with professionals, working in the fields of sex offender risk assessment, management or treatment, as well as child protection or victim support in the four jurisdictions of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. Impeccably presented and meticulously considered, this book will be of interest to criminologists and those working and studying in the field of policing and criminal justice studies, as well as policy makers and practitioners in the areas of child protection and sex offender management.

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 current system of protecting society's children from abuse is failing miserably. In this volume, scholars affiliated with universities and professional associations nationwide pinpoint a better strategy. Their research spotlights neighborhood-based child protection systems and provides a comprehensive approach for creating procedures that meaningfully address child maltreatment.

The volume discusses the challenges of moving toward such a system within the current legal, political, and cross-cultural contexts of child protection. Examples of promising applications of a community-based approach are cited. Also cited are the legal and practical structural steps to be taken in creating caring communities that effectively address child abuse and neglect.

Developmental Trauma offers a comprehensive introduction to the research findings that help us understand the effects on human development of early childhood trauma and adaptation to stress. It explains how DTD differs from PTSD and emerges from a toxic seed planted at the beginning of an individual's lifespan development. This important volume examines relational traumas and adverse childhood experiences, such as exposure to family and community violence, polyvictimization (multiple repeated childhood traumas), and disruptions to parent-child bonds, which lay the foundation for future relationships. The volume considers how DTD affects self-regulation capacities, identity development, self-esteem, and faith in oneself and others andincreases the likelihood of comorbidities including ADHD and autism spectrum disorders. Individuals with indications of developmental trauma face lifelong challenges in their ability to develop and maintain trusting relationships, to build and utilize healthy coping strategies, and to adjust to school and, eventually, the workplaceUniquely, Daniel Cruz goes beyond individual levels of analysis that focus almost exclusively on patients and explores toxic stress embedded in social systems and institutional policies and procedures that cause individuals to suffer, experience psychiatric and medical problems, and that lead to social and economic adversities such as poverty, homelessness, and involvement in criminal activity. Key topics explored include institutional betrayal, such as sexual assaults and workplace bullying, and judicial betrayal when failures from the legal system do not adequately protect victims of trauma, for example in cases of domestic violence. Developmental Trauma is for students of child and adolescent psychology, developmental psychology, clinical psychology, primary care and health psychology, education, social work, and urban studies. It is relevant for graduate students in applied fields such as clinical and counseling psychology, and those working with diverse children, and public health and policy.

He was my religious teacher. I should have been able to trust him. But he made me do unspeakable things... At seven years old, Nabila Sharma began her lessons at the mosque as every good Muslim girl does. But from the minute she looked up at her Imam, the man who held her spiritual future in his hands, she knew something was wrong. Over the next five years Nabila's life became unbearable. While she was behind the doors of the mosque, the most sacred of places, the Imam brutally molested her on the slightest whim. Each day he would make her perform unspeakable acts, physically and mentally torturing her into compliance, to fulfil his perverse desires. Nothing would stop him; no plea would make him relent. But he was a respected member of the community, trusted by everyone; if Nabila cried for help she would risk the honour of her family, an unthinkable act. There was nowhere she could turn, no one she could talk to. As a young Muslim girl, Nabila was powerless. Brutal is the shocking, revelatory and heart-rending account of one girl's plight in a society where honour and shame are a matter of life and death. It is a tale of innocence lost and a life shattered, but above all it is a tale of survival, of a young girl who found love and hope in the darkest of places.

The key missing piece of Jon Krakauer's multi million, multi territory bestseller and widely acclaimed Sean Penn film Into the Wild is finally revealed by his best friend and sister, Carine. The story of Chris McCandless, who gave away his savings, hitchhiked to Alaska, walked into the wilderness alone, and starved to death in 1992, fascinated not just New York Times bestselling author Jon Krakauer, but the rest of the nation too. Krakauer's book and a Sean Penn film skyrocketed Chris McCandless to worldwide fame, but the real story of his life and his journey has not yet been told - until now. Carine McCandless, Chris's sister, featured in both the book and film, was the person with whom he had the closest bond, and who witnessed firsthand the dysfunctional and violent family dynamic that made Chris willing to embrace the harsh wilderness of Alaska. Growing up in the same troubled and volatile household that sent Chris on his fatal journey into the wild, Carine finally reveals the broader and deeper reality about life in the McCandless family. For decades, Carine and Chris's parents, a successful aerospace engineer and his beautiful wife, raised their children in the tony suburbs of Northern Virginia. But behind closed doors, her father beat and choked her mother. He whipped Carine and Chris with his belt. He cursed them, belittled their accomplishments, and told them they were nothing without him. Carine and Chris hid under the stairs, hoping to avoid his wrath. They were teenagers before they learned they were conceived while their father was still married and having babies with his first wife, who finally summoned the courage to leave him after he broke her back in a fight. In the 20-plus years since the tragedy of Chris's death, she has searched for some kind of redemption. But in this touching and deeply personal memoir, she reveals how she has learned that real redemption can only come from speaking the truth. Finally, she has found the truth not just in her brother's story, but also her own.

Katie's memories of her childhood were patchy. She'd always remembered her father's physical abuse, his anger and violence. But there was a lot she had forgotten. And, at the age of 24, after the birth of her son, the memories that were gradually unlocked with the help of a psychiatrist were far more terrible. Katie had grown up living in fear. She'd never forgotten the icy coldness that used to spread through every vein in her body each time her father grabbed her roughly by the arm, or punched and kicked her mother. Or the occasion when she was 3 and he'd locked her in a bedroom for an entire weekend, without food or water. Or the night when he'd brought home a young woman he'd met at a bar, pushing her mother down the stairs when she dared to complain and then locking mother and daughter out in the snow, dressed only in their nightdresses. There were many, many incidents of violence and cruelty that Katie had never forgotten. But when she started a family of her own, and began to see a psychiatrist to help her cope with the debilitating post-natal depression she was suffering, she was forced to recall memories that were even more horrifying. Memories of the sexual abuse her father had subjected her to from the age of 3, which her mind had locked away for over twenty years. And memories of all the other horrific incidents from her childhood that she'd dared not remember until then. During the months that Katie remained in the psychiatric hospital, the locked doors in her mind gradually opened, releasing the trauma from her past and finally enabling her to start to understand the reason for her self-disgust. This is Katie's story - the sometimes harrowing but ultimately inspiring true story of her journey as she comes to terms with memories too painful to remember but impossible to forget.

This book examines the modern pandemic of online child sexual exploitation (OCSE). It explores the prevalence, perpetration, impact, and victimization of as well as therapy for child sexual exploitation and its interaction with child sexual abuse. Chapters discuss OCSE from neuropsychological, epidemiological, neurological, behavioral, psychological, clinical, neurobiological and epigenetic perspectives. The volume also addresses the physical and mental impact of early exposure to pornography. The book serves as a resource on an issue that is proving exponentially complex as technology ceaselessly evolves at a faster rate than its consequences can be understood and addressed. Key areas of coverage include: Neuropsychological changes and dysfunctional coping mechanisms resulting from both online and offline child sexual abuse. The psychological, emotional, and physical impacts (e.g., depression, anxiety, PTSD, and self-harm) of child sexual abuse. Prevention and early intervention strategies, including scalable technological responses. Developing a public health approach to preventing and addressing online child abuse and exploitation. Porn culture and its impact on children, adolescents, and emerging adults. The neurobiology and epigenetic impact of trauma. This book is a must-have resource for researchers, clinicians, and graduate students in child and school psychology, public health, social work as well as interrelated disciplines, including neuropsychology, neurobiology, sociology, anthropology, and educational policy and politics.

Childhood, Identity and Masculinity: The Boarding School Boys examines the lives of ten Iranian men who were sent to boarding schools in England during the 1960s and 1970s. Their stories, situated at the intersection of Eastern and Western cultural values, signify their passage to manhood, and highlight the meaning of masculinity then and now. The reflective narratives explore issues of physical and emotional abuse received from administrators and peers, as well as the "man up" motto that pressured them to persevere in the spirit of meeting expectations and becoming a man. Narrated within the context of the traditional role of men in both Iranian and British societies, the book highlights key themes of trauma, survival and resistance, power and privilege, and their impact on the men over their lifespan. The volume offers rich insight into understanding the developmental challenges that adolescent boys face as they attempt to deal with the trauma of separation from their parents, while conforming to strict rules and regulations of boarding school education, and societal expectations of them. The volume will be of interest to scholars of developmental psychology, childhood trauma, education, cultural psychology, men’s studies, and gender. Individuals and parents interested in, and considering boarding school education will also find the narratives informative and educational.

Child Abuse and Neglect: Forensic Issues in Evidence, Impact and Management provides an overview of all aspects of child abuse and neglect, approaching the topic. from several viewpoints. First, child abuse is considered from both victimization and offending perspectives, and although empirical scholarship informs much of the content, there is applied material from international experts and practitioners in the field-from policing, to child safety and intelligence. The content is presented to align with university semester timetables in three parts, including 1) Typologies, methods and platforms for abuse, 2) Impacts and prevention, and (3) Issues surrounding recognition and management of child abuse. This book fills a void in the available university-level classroom-targeted literature, promoting the inclusion of child abuse as a standalone subject within university curricula. As such, readership includes undergraduate and postgraduate students, teachers and wider scholarship, as well as practitioners; including those from psychology, criminology, criminal justice and law enforcement.

This is the first book to address the issue of child sexual abuse within a region of the world constructed as a "paradise" in the language of global travel and thus makes a significant contribution to the international literature on the topic. The book follows on the heels of the most recent research into the topic and draws extensively from previously unpublished material. While child sexual abuse occurs in all countries, few books explore the nuanced conceptual, cultural and social behaviours which underpin it. The book is distinctive in that it addresses the limitations of dominant models for child protection that have emerged out of the richer countries of the West and which are often ineffective in the majority world and provides practice and policy examples for transforming child protection in sustainable ways. This edited volume includes contributions from a wide range of disciplines such as psychology, psychotherapy, law, social work, sociology, early childhood education and counselling.

Child Protection in the Church investigates whether, amidst publicised promises of change from church institutions and the introduction of "safe church" policies and procedures, reform is actually occurring within Christian churches towards safeguarding, using a case study of the Anglican Diocese of Tasmania, Australia. Through the use of interviews and document analysis, the book provides an insight into the attitudes and practices of "ordinary clergypersons" towards child sexual abuse and safeguarding to understand how safe ministry is understood and executed in everyday life in the Church, and to what extent it aligns with policy requirements and criminological best practice. It adopts organisational culture theory, the perspective used to explain how clerical culture enabled and concealed child sexual abuse in the Church to the present, in order to understand how clerical attitudes (cognition) and practice (conduct) today is being shaped by some of the same negative cultures. Underlying these cultures is misunderstandings of abuse causation, which are shown here to negatively shape clerical practice and, at times, compromise policy and procedural requirements. Providing an insight into the lived reality of safeguarding within churches, and highlighting the ongoing complexities of safe ministry, the book is a useful companion to students, academics, and practitioners of child protection and organisational studies, alongside clergy, church leaders, and those training for the ministry.