Child Abuse As A Social Problem

Discuss the emergence of child abuse as a social problem

Child abuse has always been a part of society. However, it was not until recently that laws were created to protect children from any form of abuse. The first law created can be traced all the way back to 1906 with the introduction of the Beveridge proposal for the regulation of work in which children might be engaged, although it did change the types of work that children are allowed to do, it did not protect them from other forms of abuse. Injury to children was diagnosed by doctors as either rickets, brittle bones or enthuastic discipline and neglect by the caretaker of the child and it was not until researches Dr. Henry Kempe published his book on ‘The Battered Child’ in 1968. Child

John Caffey. He was a paedriatic radiologist and through his study of the case mentioned above he showed the condition of the fractures that occurred were traumatic but did not provide a firm label. It was not until 1955 that Woolley and Evans said that the trauma was caused by an “undesirable vectors of force” and made a link to parental aggression to the child. However, the major breakthrough in America was in 1962 when Helfer and Kempe published an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association titled ‘the battered child syndrome’. . The Battered child syndrome is explained in medical terms to be caused by “emotionally immature, pathologically inadequate parents” (Howe, 1992 p.493). In this article both Kempe and Helfer discussed why they felt that doctors were ignoring the fact that child abuse existed and that it was one of the main causes of child death in society. They also recommended that accidents were reported to child protection agencies or law

The public began questing social workers regarding the deaths of many children and together they identified two main failures and weaknesses for social workers and management of administration. One of the failures according to society was that social workers were unable to identify or sport the warning signs of a child’s situation. It was believed that the social workers concentrated on working with the parents rather than protecting the child from danger, they were accused by the society to be “regarding the parents of children in care as the clients, rather than the children in their own right”(Howe, 1992 p.494). Management and administration by the welfare department was another area in which society failed to protect children, they were unable to manage and monitor the information gathered by the social workers in a sufficient manner. Findings shows that The ” in spite of there being indications that a child was not safe, there were failures to note and record, coordinate and collect such information and this produced an incomplete overall picture leading to mistakes and poor judgements” (Howe, 1992 p.495). .Welfare agents should be alerted if risk hazards to children are detected within the family