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Today, any regular newspaper reader is likely to be exposed to
reports on manifold forms of (physical, emotional, sexual) child
abuse on the one hand, and abnormal behavior, misconduct or
offences of children and minors on the other hand. Occasionally
reports on children as victims and children as offenders may appear
on the same issue or even the same page. Rather seldom the more
complex and largely hidden phenomena of structural hostility or
indifference of society with a view to children are being dealt
with in the press. Such fragmentary, ambiguous, incoherent or even
contradictory perception of children in modem society indicates
that, firstly, there is a lack of reliable information on modem
childhood, and secondly, children are still treated as a
comparatively irrelevant population group in society. This
conclusion may be surprising in particular when drawn at the end of
The Century of the Child proclaimed by Ellen Key as early as 1902.
Actually, there exist unclarities and ambiguities about the
evolution of childhood in the last century not only in public
opinion, but also in scientific literature. While De Mause with his
psycho-historic model of the evolution of childhood, comprising
different stages from infanticide, abandonment, ambivalence,
intrusion, socialisation to support, underlines the continuous
improvement of the condition of childhood throughout history and
thus rather confirms Key's expectations, Aries, with his social
history of childhood, seems to hold a more culturally pessimistic
view.
Today, any regular newspaper reader is likely to be exposed to
reports on manifold forms of (physical, emotional, sexual) child
abuse on the one hand, and abnormal behavior, misconduct or
offences of children and minors on the other hand. Occasionally
reports on children as victims and children as offenders may appear
on the same issue or even the same page. Rather seldom the more
complex and largely hidden phenomena of structural hostility or
indifference of society with a view to children are being dealt
with in the press. Such fragmentary, ambiguous, incoherent or even
contradictory perception of children in modem society indicates
that, firstly, there is a lack of reliable information on modem
childhood, and secondly, children are still treated as a
comparatively irrelevant population group in society. This
conclusion may be surprising in particular when drawn at the end of
The Century of the Child proclaimed by Ellen Key as early as 1902.
Actually, there exist unclarities and ambiguities about the
evolution of childhood in the last century not only in public
opinion, but also in scientific literature. While De Mause with his
psycho-historic model of the evolution of childhood, comprising
different stages from infanticide, abandonment, ambivalence,
intrusion, socialisation to support, underlines the continuous
improvement of the condition of childhood throughout history and
thus rather confirms Key's expectations, Aries, with his social
history of childhood, seems to hold a more culturally pessimistic
view.
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