Understanding Child Maltreatment

Every ten seconds a child is being abused or neglected. But while child abuse and neglect are not new, the problem has become monumental in today's society. But why? Perhaps we live in a more violent society, or maybe the child protection system is not working. This book explores the issues surrounding abuse and neglect from several vantage points, addressing both the problems and the possible solutions that are crucial to the proper protection of our children This book provides a comprehensive overview of child abuse and neglect. It covers recognition, case management, and treatment for abused and neglected children, adding real-life vignettes to bring the statistics to life. It details the history of child welfare, an overview of families that are both functional and dysfunctional, and contrasts healthy child development with development hampered by abuse and neglect. Every type of maltreatment is discussed, from neglect and physical abuse to emotional abuse, sexual abuse, and domestic violence. The book concludes by providing a discussion of prevention, along with a consideration of the future. Social workers, psychologists, social services professionals, and educators.

Child maltreatment professionals from all disciplines struggle to find better ways of understanding and treating the families and children affected by maltreatment. Since the mid-1960s, the "battered child syndrome," and recent high-profile abuse cases, a plethora of research and literature on child maltreatment has emerged, yet this is the first volume to offer a comprehensive integrated analysis for understanding, assessing, and treating child maltreatment within the ecological framework in a developmental context. This framework systematically organizes and integrates the complex empirical literature in child maltreatment and development, including the often-overlooked period of adolescence. Viewing child maltreatment from an ecological perspective, this volume identifies the risk and protective factors correlated with abuse and neglect. The authors present a comprehensive assessment framework, addressing the multiple developmental and environmental factors unique to each case. This framework fully considers risk and protective factors and their relationship to individuals, families, and environmental elements, presenting a much-needed perspective for today's child protective services workers. Understanding Child Maltreatment is the first of its kind. While most books broadly address the developmental consequences of maltreatment, this volume goes further by proposing assessment and intervention strategies based on a deep understanding of each stage of a child's development. Interventions center on the caregiver and the family, with particular attention to parenting skills and the challenges the child may experience within his or her developmental stage. Each chapter emphasizes empirically based interventions and includes a case illustration that guides readers in applying these concepts to their own practice. Providing a comprehensive, nuanced perspective on maltreatment, this book will be invaluable to students, researchers, and professionals.

Each year, child protective services receive reports of child abuse and neglect involving six million children, and many more go unreported. The long-term human and fiscal consequences of child abuse and neglect are not relegated to the victims themselves -- they also impact their families, future relationships, and society. In 1993, the National Research Council (NRC) issued the report, Under-standing Child Abuse and Neglect, which provided an overview of the research on child abuse and neglect. New Directions in Child Abuse and Neglect Research updates the 1993 report and provides new recommendations to respond to this public health challenge. According to this report, while there has been great progress in child abuse and neglect research, a coordinated, national research infrastructure with high-level federal support needs to be established and implemented immediately. New Directions in Child Abuse and Neglect Research recommends an actionable framework to guide and support future child abuse and neglect research. This report calls for a comprehensive, multidisciplinary approach to child abuse and neglect research that examines factors related to both children and adults across physical, mental, and behavioral health domains--including those in child welfare, economic support, criminal justice, education, and health care systems--and assesses the needs of a variety of subpopulations. It should also clarify the causal pathways related to child abuse and neglect and, more importantly, assess efforts to interrupt these pathways. New Directions in Child Abuse and Neglect Research identifies four areas to look to in developing a coordinated research enterprise: a national strategic plan, a national surveillance system, a new generation of researchers, and changes in the federal and state programmatic and policy response.

This innovative collection extends the emerging field of stress biology to examine the effects of a substantial source of early-life stress: child abuse and neglect. Research findings across endocrinology, immunology, neuroscience, and genomics supply new insights into the psychological variables associated with adversity in children and its outcomes. These compelling interdisciplinary data add to a promising model of biological mechanisms involved in individual resilience amid chronic maltreatment and other trauma. At the same time, these results also open out distinctive new possibilities for serving vulnerable children and youth, focusing on preventing, intervening in, and potentially even reversing the effects of chronic early trauma. Included in the coverage: Biological embedding of child maltreatment Toward an adaptation-based approach to resilience Developmental traumatology: brain development and maltreated children with and without PTSD Childhood maltreatment and pediatric PTSD: abnormalities in threat neural circuitry An integrative temporal framework for psychological resilience The Biology of Early Life Stress is important reading for child maltreatment researchers; clinical psychologists; educators in counseling, psychology, trauma, and nursing; physicians; and state- and federal-level policymakers. Advocates, child and youth practitioners, and clinicians in general will find it a compelling resource.

The field of child sexual abuse has dramatically changed since Understanding Child Sexual Maltreatment was published in 1990. Considerable developments in child and offender research have emerged. But more significantly, a backlash against child abuse victims, Child Protective Services, and mental health professionals has impacted nearly every aspect of research, diagnosis, and intervention. Understanding and Assessing Child Sexual Maltreatment, Second Edition updates its comprehensive coverage of child sexual abuse definitions and indicators, interview and questioning techniques, and diagnosis guidelines to include an insightful response to the building social backlash against the so-called "child abuse industry." Distinguished scholar and experienced practitioner Kathleen Coulborn Faller applies twenty-five years of clinical experience and state-of-the-art research to offer authoritative guidance to both novice and experience practitioners. This Second Edition has been extensively revised to include A completely rewritten section on data gathering and analysis Updated assessment techniques and instruments Detailed coverage of post assessment intervention strategies Revised chapters that reflect up-to-date research and practice Extensive analysis of the backlash against child abuse cases Understanding and Assessing Child Sexual Maltreatment, Second Edition presents a wealth of practical information and field-tested tools. Author Kathleen Coulborn Faller uses clear language and numerous case studies to address all aspects of child sexual abuse including: the scope of the problem, professional collaboration, data analysis and diagnosis, and sexual abuse in special contexts. An essential resource for child protection workers, mental health practitioners, lawyers, and law enforcement personnel, Understanding and Assessing Child Sexual Maltreatment, Second Edition is also an ideal supplementary text for graduate courses in child welfare practice, social work, and psychology.

Child Maltreatment, Third Edition, by Cindy Miller-Perrin and Robin Perrin, is a thoroughly updated new edition of the first textbook for undergraduate students and beginning graduate students in this field. The text is designed to provide a comprehensive introduction to child maltreatment by disseminating current knowledge about the various types of violence against children. By helping students understand more fully the etiology, prevalence, treatment, policy issues, and prevention of child maltreatment, the authors hope to further our understanding of how to treat child maltreatment victims and how to prevent future child maltreatment.

This Handbook examines core questions still remaining in the field of child maltreatment. It addresses major challenges in child maltreatment work, starting with the question of what child abuse and neglect is exactly. It then goes on to examine why maltreatment occurs and what its consequences are. Next, it turns to prevention, treatment and intervention, as well as legal perspectives. The book studies the issue from the perspective of the broader international and cross-cultural human experience. Its aim is to review what is known, but even more importantly, to examine what remains to be known to make progress in helping abused children, their families, and their communities.

This clear-sighted reference offers a transformative new lens for understanding the role of family processes in creating — and stopping — child abuse and neglect. Its integrative perspective emphasizes the interconnectedness of forms of abuse, the diverse mechanisms of family violence, and a child/family-centered, strengths-based approach to working with families. Chapters review evidence-based interventions and also model collaboration between family professionals for effective coordination of treatment and other services. This powerful ecological framework has major implications for improving assessment, treatment, and prevention as well as future research on child maltreatment. Included among the topics:• Creating a safe haven following child maltreatment: the benefits and limits of social support.• “Why didn’t you tell?” Helping families and children weather the process following a sexual abuse disclosure.• Environments recreated: the unique struggles of children born to abused mothers.• Evidence-based intervention: trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy for children and families.• Preventing the intergenerational transmission of child maltreatment through relational interventions.• Reducing the risk of child maltreatment: challenges and opportunities. Professionals and practitioners particularly interested in family processes, child maltreatment, and developmental psychology will find Parenting and Family Processes in Child Maltreatment and Intervention a major step forward in breaking entrenched abuse cycles and keeping families safe.