Combating Child Abuse

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. This edited collection explores the background and implementation of the Nordic Barnahus (or 'Children's House') model – recognised as one of the most important reforms related to children who are the victims of crime in the Nordic region. This book discusses both its potential to affect change and the challenges facing it. The model was introduced as a response to a growing recognition of the need for more integrated and child-centred services for children exposed to violence and sexual abuse. In the Barnahus structure, different professions work together to ensure that victimized children receive help and treatment and that their legal rights are met. This original study is organised into four broad themes: child-friendliness, support and treatment; the forensic child investigative interview; children’s rights perspectives; and interagency collaboration and professional autonomy. Each themed section includes in-depth chapters from different Nordic countries, outlining and analysing the practice and outcomes of the collaborative work engaged in by Barnahus from different perspectives. The introductory and concluding chapters offer a comparative lens useful for policy and practice implementation within the Nordic welfare state context and beyond, ensuring this book has global academic and practical appeal.

Many countries are struggling with issues involving the definition of child maltreatment, reporting requirements, processes for responding to reports, and services to abused children and their families. This book illustrates approaches to dealing with these problems by examining and comparing the designs of child abuse systems.

This book offers insights and perspectives from a study of “Cultural Encounters in Intervention Against Violence” (CEINAV) in four EU-countries. Seeking a deeper understanding of the underpinnings of intervention practices in Germany, Portugal, Slovenia and the United Kingdom, the team explored variations in institutional structures and traditions of law, policing, and social welfare. Theories of structural inequality and ethics are discussed and translated into practice.

"When we think of child abuse, we imagine several different forms of harmful parenting and injuries to children. Most are not visible to the naked eye, but can be seen if you look more deeply. X-rays can detect fractures and other imaging can find internal injury and bleeding, but most maltreated children have more long-lasting harm that reveals itself through behavioral and emotional maladjustment, developmental delay, sadness, and other destructive behaviors later in childhood, adolescence and into adulthood. These injuries to their personality, sense of self, relationship to society and mental health change the trajectory of their lives and dim their potential, with social and financial costs for safety, treatment and their lost personal growth. We think of these as affecting everybody's children and that the responsibility lies with everyone to respond. This is why we put together this book: to address prevention from a number of perspectives and a variety of professions. We hope that it successfully brings together a number of disciplines and perspectives to address child abuse and neglect among the world's families, governments and cultures. We hope that those reading these chapters will realize that there are replicable best practices that can be reliably implemented based on child and family experiences and needs rather than single approaches designed to attack single forms of maltreatment, and we look forward to the day that books like these are not needed"--

The problem of child abuse has become increasingly evident in North America and Western Europe. Many countries are now struggling with issues involving the definition of child maltreatment, reporting requirements, processes for responding to reports, substantiation rates, and services to abused children and their families. This book illustrates alternative approaches to dealing with these problems by examining and comparing the designs of child abuse systems in nine countries: the US, English, Canada, Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Belgium, and Sweden.

This work deals with the issues surrounding child sexual abuse, and is aimed at practitioners in social work, psychology and medicine, students in professional fields and researchers.