Book Review: Child Abuse: A Community Concern

AuthorCharles H McCaghy
DOI10.1177/000486588401700416
Published date01 December 1984
Date01 December 1984
Subject MatterBook Reviews
BOOK REVIEWS
287
The authors have prepared amost useful record of alittle known aspect of
Australian and New Zealand policing and in
so
doing have made auseful
contribution to the police historical record.
BRUCE
SWANTON
Canberra
Child Abuse: ACommunity Concern, edited by Kim Oates, North Ryde, New
South Wales, Butterworths
(1982)
xiv,
321
pp,
$35.
The expressed purpose of this work
is
to "place child abuse in abroad
perspective,
as
aproblem concerning the whole community". The authors ofthe
26
selections indicate that many types of professionals are seeking child abuse
remedies: anthropologists, journalists, lawyers, nurses, physicians, psychiatrists,
psychologists, sociologists, and various types of social service personnel. And their
solutions are equally diverse, ranging from the strengthening of mother-infant
attachments in the hospital, to using community nurses
in
family intervention, to
the destruction of patriarchy.
The editor's opening chapter briefly reviews the history of public recognition of
child abuse and touches on the themes of the chapters to come. The next eight
selections deal primarily with in-hospital research and programmes concerning the
earliest contacts between parents and infants. The assumption of these chapters
is
that the nature of early contacts affects the likelihood of future abuse.
Chapter 10, by the editor, reviews the literature on some family characteristics
which might distinguish abusing from non-abusing families. Unfortunately, stress,
which many social science researchers believe to be of primary importance,
is
not
discussed in detail anywhere
in
the book. Chapter 11, also by Oates, describes
non-organic causes of growth lack among children - a phenomenon known
as
"failure to thrive". Chapter
13
considers avariety of physiological and emotional
consequences of physical abuse. Chapters
12
and
14
through
19
describe various
community programmes: Child Sexual Abuse Treatment Program of Santa Clara
County, California; New South Wales Child Life Protection Unit; community nurse
programmes; aTasmanian child abuse management programme; New South Wales
Child Abuse Prevention Service; family day centres; and American media
campaigns designed to educate and mobilize the public on the issue of child abuse.
Amajor omission among these chapters
is
the description of aschool programme
designed to help teachers identify victims of abuse and to educate children about
avoiding sexual molestation.
The final seven chapters lean toward speculation and theory. The best of these
articles address children's rights, differences across cultures and time about what
constitutes inappropriate treatment of children, and the limitations and goals ofthe
movement to protect children from violence. These chapters
will
be
thought-provoking, if not controversial, for readers interested in the philosophical
and social questions involved
in
defining child abuse.
The book's diversity
is
both its strength and its weakness. Since the editor has
attempted to cover agood deal of material, the articles, with a
few
exceptions, lack
the depth and detail expected
by
researchers or practitioners familiar with the basic
child abuse literature. But for the uninitiated and those seeking an introduction to
programmes dealing with abuse, the book
will
be ahelpful primer.
CHARLES
H
MCCAGHY
Bowling Green, Ohio

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