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Issue:  Volume 26 Issue 5, 2017

Editorial: All You Need is Love (Plus a Good Evidence Base, a Healthy Dose of Scepticism, and Patience and Perseverance in Working with Families!)

Featured in this issue:

  • How father love motivates change in violent men
  • Safeguarding in a domestic abuse context
  • Midwives’ experiences of assumption of care
  • Psychosocial adaptation of victims of neglect
  • Help-seeking experiences of survivors of institutional abuse
  • Social worker interaction and sense-making
Special Issue:  Comparing International Approaches to Safeguarding Children (Volume 26 Issue 4, 2017)

Editorial: Comparing International Approaches to Safeguarding Children: Global Lesson Learning

Featured in this issue:

  • Applying international safeguarding standards in Africa
  • Policy and child protection reforms in Taiwan
  • Cross-country comparison of national child welfare systems
  • Attitudes to corporal punishment in Finland, Sweden and Suriname

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Recently published:

 

Original Article: Assessing Capacity to Change in High-Risk Pregnant Women

Authors: Paul H. Harnett, Jane Barlow, Chris Coe, Caroline Newbold and Sharon Dawe

First published online: 3 OCT 2017 | DOI: 10.1002/car.2491

  • The current project found that a community-based pre-birth assessment and care pathway with high-risk pregnant women was feasible and acceptable for practitioners and service users.
  • The pathway began mid-pregnancy and support was provided following the birth of the infant for up to 12 months.
  • Over 40 per cent of infants whose mothers were allocated to the pre-birth risk assessment pathway showed improvements in child safeguarding status at 12 months.

 

Short Report: A Qualitative Evaluation of Community Nurses’ Experiences of Child Safeguarding Supervision

Authors: Moira Little, Tracey Baker and Annette M. Jinks

First published online: 27 SEP 2017 | DOI: 10.1002/car.2493

  • Safeguarding supervision was viewed as a child-focused, helpful activity that has led to practice improvements.
  • Negative comments were in the minority and related to perceptions of its intrusive and punitive nature, the time involved and competing priorities.
  • Improvements advocated were that safeguarding supervision should include discussion about children whose care is problematic but who are not subject to formal child protection proceedings.

 

Original Article: Academic Disputes about Adult-Child Sexual Contact: A Critical Realist Appraisal

Author: David Pilgrim

First published online: 12 SEP 2017 | DOI: 10.1002/car.2497

  • A minority academic position is that adult-child sexual contact is usually harmless and ethically and psychologically warranted in society. Public and professional concern about the contact is depicted as a ‘moral panic’.
  • The recent history of that minority position is examined and justifications from policy libertarians and pro-paedophile groups summarised.
  • Using resources from the philosophy of critical realism, this position is critiqued for its unwarranted reliance on the assumption that adult-child sexual contact has become a moral panic.

 

Short Report: ‘This is Not Just About History…’ Addressing the Disconnect in Historic (Non-Recent) Child Abuse Investigations

Author: Jo Aldridge

First published online: 4 SEP 2017 | DOI: 10.1002/car.2492

  • Historic (non-recent) child abuse investigations need to consider the effects of investigative processes on victims and survivors.
  • Such investigations include those undertaken by the police and by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA).
  • Victim and survivor accounts need to be taken seriously and investigated thoroughly in order for victims/survivors not to feel let down by, and disconnected from, criminal justice and IICSA processes.

 

Short Report: Media Coverage, Public Awareness and State Intervention in Child Abuse in China – An Analysis of High-Profile Cases

Authors: Dong Ping Qiao, Andrew Jonathan Whittaker and Tong Zhang

First published online: 31 AUG 2017 | DOI: 10.1002/car.2488

  • Child abuse is a complex social problem that is often deeply rooted in the cultural, economic and social practices of the country in which it exists.
  • Child abuse in China is understood as deliberate and harmful acts, while many Western societies also include acts of omission such as neglect.
  • There is a complex relationship between public awareness, media coverage and state intervention.

 

Original Article: Multiagency Response to Childhood Sexual Abuse: A Case Study that Explores the Role of a Specialist Centre

Authors: Lindsay Voss, Helen Rushforth and Catherine Powell

First published online: 10 AUG 2017 | DOI: 10.1002/car.2489

  • Medico-legal considerations may dominate health assessment of children when CSA is suspected and yet only a small proportion of cases proceed to court.
  • A specialist centre can provide a child-friendly environment and enhance interprofessional communication.
  • A high proportion of children referred to statutory services following suspected CSA have a range of health and psychosocial needs that require further follow-up.
  • Roles that cross professional boundaries may enhance CSA services but this concept requires further research.