Preface

#### **Developments in Child Protection: Foreword(s) for Three Book Volumes**

The last forty years has witnessed increasing public, political and media concern about the problem of child maltreatment and what to do about it. This is now evident in most jurisdictions and is receiving serious attention from many international and trans-national organisations. While the '(re)discovery' of the problem in the USA was particularly associated with the 'battered baby syndrome' this has now broadened to include: physical abuse, sexual abuse, neglect, emotional abuse, abuse on the internet, child trafficking, female genital mutilation, sexual exploitation and refers to all children and young people, not just babies. Similarly, the focus of attention has broadened from intra-familial abuse to abuse in a whole variety of settings including schools, day care centres, churches, youth and sports clubs and the wider community more generally. There has also been a broadening of concern from not simply protecting children and young people from serious harm to also attempting to prevent the impairment of their health and development and to ensure that they are able to grow up in circumstances which are consistent with the provision of safe and effective care so that all children can achieve the best outcomes.

In the process, the laws, policies, practices and systems which have been developed to try to identify and prevent child maltreatment have become much more wide-ranging and complex and have themselves been subject to continual criticism and review. A wide range of professionals and members of the community are all seen to have key roles to play in both protecting children and young people and also assessing and monitoring actual and potential perpetrators.

However, while these issues have been subject to often heated and high profile media and political debate, rarely have they received sustained analytic and research attention in the social sciences. It was in this context that the internet journal *Social Sciences,* in 2013, invited papers for publication in a *Special Issue* dedicated to the topic and these were published from July 2014 onwards. In the event thirty papers were accepted for publication—far and away the highest number of papers submitted and accepted previously for a *Special Issue* in the journal. Authors came from a range of countries including: Australia, Belgium, Canada, England, Ethiopia, France, Netherlands, New Zealand, Scotland, South Africa, Spain, and the USA. Sixteen of the thirty papers were based on original research, ten provided a policy analysis, two were based on particular practice developments, one was a literature review, and one provided a more theoretical/conceptual piece. Authors came from a wide range of disciplinary backgrounds including: sociology, history, social policy, sports science, psychology, social work, education, law and various branches of health and medicine. The focus of the papers was diverse, though they did tend to cluster around a number of themes and it is these that have provided the rationale for the organisation of the papers into the three published volumes; however, the process of organising and ordering the papers proved a particular challenge. There are ten papers in each volume.

#### **Volume 1: Policy Changes and Challenges**

Volume 1 takes as its central theme the ongoing and challenging issues which child protection agencies have to address and the policy and practice initiatives that are developed to try and address these. The volume includes papers on: the relationship between the decline in the rate of 'unnatural' deaths and the growth of concern about child abuse in the USA between 1940 and 2005; mandatory reporting; the balance between providing urgent intervention and meeting chronic need; risk and the Public Law Outline in England; the nature and implications of 'child centred' policies; the impact of intimate partner and family violence; the intended and unintended consequences of high profile child abuse scandals; developing multi-disciplinary team work in a health setting; and the possibilities of technology-based innovations in prevention programmes.

#### **Volume 2: Issues in Child Welfare**

Volume 2 is primarily concerned with how best to respond to maltreatment 'within' the family and hence has a range of papers which are much more concerned with the area of policy and practice more traditionally framed in terms of 'child welfare' and social work with children and families. It also includes a paper on how to respond to child maltreatment and neglect in a large hospital context.

#### **Volume 3: Broadening Challenges in Child Protection**

Volume 3 takes a somewhat broader brief and reflects many of the changes over the past twenty five years in terms of the broadening of concerns from maltreatment within the family to maltreatment in a variety of extra-familial contexts, including: sport, the internet, various institutional settings and is much more concerned with sexual abuse and the challenges for criminal justice and public protection.

> Nigel Parton *Guest Editor*
