While social work practice with child abuse is a well-documented topic, this revised edition of Social Work and Child Abuse actually challenges and changes the focus of existing literature. Instead of concerning itself with the ways in which the task of preventing and detecting child abuse can be more effectively undertaken, it presents a critical analysis of the task itself.

There has been much new guidance and regulation since the first edition of Social Work and Child Abuse was published in 1996, making this a timely new edition. With a brand new introduction and conclusion, this fully revised text discusses:

the implications of the Victoria Climbie Inquiry, the Laming Report, the Green Paper Every Child Matters and the 2004 Children Act
the 1989 Children Act and the conflicting duties of the social worker to prevent and intervene in child abuse and also to promote 'the family'
the emergence of official discourses of prevention, treatment and punishment
the 1975 Children Act and the role of moral panic.

Concluding with a call for the full implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child to strengthen the child protection system by giving children and young people a much stronger voice, this book is essential reading for all professionals in social and probation work, and for students in social work, social policy and criminology.

Books by Dave Merrick (The Open University, UK)