Children who Commit Acts of Serious Interpersonal Violence: Messages for Best Practice
| Date | 01 November 2007 |
| Pages | 74-75 |
| Published date | 01 November 2007 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/17466660200700028 |
| Author | Fred Gravestock |
74 Journal of Children’s Services
Volume 2 Issue 3 November 2007
© Pavilion Journals (Brighton) Ltd
One of the most significant challenges facing social
care services is to meet the needs of children with a
history of interpersonal violence while also facilitating
socially acceptable change in those children’s
behaviour. While services have improved over recent
years, a crime and punishment model prevails.
This edited volume explores general policy issues
and research-based interventions for these
challenging children. It resulted from a conference in
London that drew together representatives from
numerous European organisations who worked with
these difficult-to-manage children. Most contributors
are based in England but a subtle international
flavour can be obtained from articles originating in
the Netherlands, Germany and Greece.
The stated intentions of this volume (p16) are
ambitious, being to: highlight the plight of, and extent
of the problem posed by, potentially dangerous
children who fall between agencies and are difficult to
place; document current strategies for dealing with
them; encourage agencies and policy-makers to think
creatively about how to intervene and to support good
practice; and raise the quality of discussion over issues
of managing risk and public protection, while actively
managing care and providing successful interventions.
The editors have ordered the 13 articles into two
parts. In Part One, ‘Backgrounds and characteristics’,
Bailey (Chapter 2) introduces the multi-dimensional
problems associated with diagnosing and providing
effective treatment responses to children with severe
behavioural problems. She highlights the significant gap
that exists between social services and mental health
services, with neither equipped to manage the problems
on their own. Indeed, important research exploring the
assessment and treatment of psychopathology in
childhood is in its early days, and the question about
what turns a challenging child into an adult with severe
mental health problems remains unanswered.
The first part of the book is rounded off with a review
of particular subgroups, namely children with sexually
abusive behaviour (Vizard, Chapter 4) and minors
involved in manslaughter and murder (Nieuwbeerta and
van der Laan, Chapter 5). Both provide useful insights
into their respective subjects; for example, 30% of all
sexual abuse of children is perpetrated by other
children, and the majority of children in judicial
treatment centres have developmental delays. The
authors conclude that additional research is vital before
targeted and effective interventions can be determined.
Part Two, ‘Outcomes and considerations’, holds the
most promise for providers of services for violent
children. A range of intervention options are provided in
articles by Boswell (Chapter 7) and Epps (Chapter 8),
while Hagell and Hill (Chapter 12) surveyed local
authorities in England and Wales to find out how they
managed the hardest-to-place children. Data from this
survey showed that these children could be loosely
grouped as follows: an emerging personality disorder;
developmental disabilities; persistent offenders; and
extremely badly treated but otherwise unclassifiable.
The international data provided demonstrates that these
problems are common across different jurisdictions.
In the concluding chapter (13), Jeyarajah-Dent and
Hagell provide a useful summary of crucial and
recurring themes contained within the book, with
these serving as pointers for best practice. While this
chapter highlights the limitations of current research
and practice structures, it fails to offer a thorough
analysis of the content of the previous 195 pages and
is therefore unable to offer solid, hard-hitting and
savvy policy and practice recommendations.
Overall, this is a timely and well-presented book.
It engages with the very important and topical issue
of managing the most challenging and vulnerable
children in society. However, it missed an opportunity
to analyse data presented throughout the text and to
provide highly targeted recommendations to
practitioners, policy-makers and politicians. Without
significant political change, the status quo continues,
with decisions on appropriate provision determined
by economic expediency – apparent in increasing
pressures on overstretched local authority budgets
and intervention options being based on available
funds. Incorporating experiences from several other
Book reviews
Children who Commit Acts of Serious Interpersonal Violence:
Messages for Best Practice
Ann Hagell and Renuka Jeyarajah-Dent (Editors)
London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2006
256 pages, £19.99 (paperback)
ISBN: 9781843103844
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