Social Work and Child Abuse: Still Walking the Tightrope?

Social Work and Child Abuse challenges the conventional views of this well documented topic. Instead of concerning itself with the ways in which the task of preventing and detecting child abuse can be more effectively undertaken, this book presents a critical analysis of the task itself as it is currently conceived in the light of the 1989 Children Act.There have been a number of public inquiries, often after tragic deaths, in which social workers have been severely criticised, and as a result the social work profession itself has been stigmatised. David Merrick argues that it is the statutory duty of social workers to prevent and detect child abuse and also to rehabilitate children with abusing parents/caretakers that at times will produce situations in which social workers are focused to a greater extent on any one of these duties at the expense of the others. This leaves them vulnerable to the periodic charge that they are either intervening to too great or too little an extent.This is an insightful and highly topical text that is essential reading for all professionals in social and probation work, and students in social work, social policy and criminology.