Abstract
The disease model of child abuse, with its emphasis on individualised treatment, cure and prediction, is the dominant paradigm in research, policy and practice. Child abuse is conceptualised as a pathological phenomenon with roots in the personality or psychodynamics of abusing parents. While social factors are taken into account these are seen in terms of the characteristics or factors associated with abusive individuals or families. The model ignores the social arrangements in which people live, and denies that social and economic factors have any responsibility for the problem. In the process it fails to explore the social context in which abuse arises. This leads to two major lacunae. It fails to recognise the importance of inequality and the sense of frustration, repression and aggression that results: by concentrating on dangerous people it ignores dangerous conditions. And it blinds us to the abusive but non-individualistic practices of industrial, corporate and government agencies. In seeing abuse as being manifested and caused at the individual level we do not critically analyse the abuse that institutions, organisations and the wider society practise and legitimate.
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Notes and References
But see M. Chatterton, ‘The social context of violence’, in M. Borland (ed.), Violence in the Family (Manchester University Press, 1976);
D. Marsden, ‘Sociological Perspectives on Family Violence’, in J. P. Martin (ed.), Violence and the Family (John Wiley, 1978);
and R. Dingwall, J. Eekelaar and T. Murray, The Protection of Children: State Intervention and Family Life (Blackwells, 1983).
L. H. Pelton, ‘Child Abuse and Neglect: The Myth of Classlessness’, American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, no. 48, 1978, pp. 608–17,
reprinted in L. H. Pelton (ed.), The Social Context of Child Abuse and Neglect (Human Sciences Press, 1981).
See in particular for Britain: R. Rose, P. Owtram, J. Pickett, B. Marran and A. Maton, Registers of Suspected Non-Accidental Injury: A Report on Registers maintained in Leeds and Manchester by NSPCC Special Units (NSPCC, 1976);
S. Creighton and P. Owtram, Child Victims of Physical Abuse: A Report on the Findings of NSPCC Special Unit Registers (NSPCC, 1977).
Pelton, ‘Child Abuse and Neglect: The Myth of Classiessness’, p. 610.
As suggested by the NSPCC studies in note 3.
As demonstrated by D. Gil, Violence against Children (Harvard University Press, 1970).
Also S. M. Smith, The Battered Child Syndrome (Butterworths, 1975), reports that a British study of 134 abused children under five found that the parents were predominantly from the lower social classes and concluded that ‘battering is mainly a lower class phenomenon’.
Pelton, ‘Child Abuse and Neglect: The Myth of Classlessness’, p. 613.
Pelton (ed.), The Social Context of Child Abuse and Neglect, introduction, P-21.
J. Garbarino and G. Gilliam, Understanding Abusive Families (Lexington Books, 1980).
See also R. Volpe, M. Breton and J. Mitton (eds), The Maltreatment of the School-Aged Child (Lexington Books, 1980).
Garbarino and Gilliam, Understanding Abusive Families, p. 21.
Garbarino and Gilliam argue that the systems framework proposed by Urie Bronfenbrenner is the most useful approach to the study of human development. U. Bronfenbrenner, The Ecology of Human Development (Harvard University Press, 1979).
J. Garbarino, ‘An Ecological Approach to Child Maltreatment’ in Pelton, The Social Context of Child Abuse and Neglect.
Garbarino and Gilliam, Understanding Abusive Families, p. 29.
Apart from Garbarino and Gilliam, Understanding Abusive Families, and Garbarino, ‘An Ecological Approach to Child Maltreatment’, see J. Garbarino and A. Crouter, ‘Defining the community context of parent-child relations: the correlates of child maltreatment’, Child Development, no. 49, 1978, pp. 604–16;
J. Garbarino, ‘The Price of Privacy in the Social Dynamics of Child Abuse’, Child Welfare, no. 56, 1977, pp. 565–75;
J. Garbarino and D. Sherman, ‘Identifying high-risk neighbourhoods’, in J. Garbarino and S. H. Stocking (eds), Supporting Families and Protecting Children (Centre for the Study of Youth Development, 1978).
Garbarino, ‘An Ecological Approach to Child Maltreatment’.
Garbarino, ‘An Ecological Approach to Child Maltreatment’, p. 47.
National Institute of Social Work, Social Workers: Their Role and Tasks (Bedford Square Press, 1982) particularly ch. 13 and appendix A.
Garbarino, ‘The Price of Privacy in the Social Dynamics of Child Abuse’, p. 573.
Much of this is reminiscent of the ecological perspective developed by the Chicago School in the 1930s with its emphasis on social disorganisation and differential association.
As with the initial policy of Community Development Projects in Britain in the late 1960s.
Recent examples of this critique include A. Walker (ed.), Community Care (Blackwells, 1982) particularly chs 1 and 2;
M. Clarke, ‘Where is the community which cares?’, British Journal of Social Work, vol. 12, no. 5, 1982, pp. 453–69.
See also for a Weberian critique of the ecological approach to the city J. Rex and R. Moore, Race, Community and Conflict: a study in Sparkbrook (Oxford University Press, 1967).
First Report from the Select Committee on Violence in the Family, Violence to Children, Session 1976–77 (HMSO, 1977).
R.J. Gelles, ‘Demythologizing Child Abuse’, The Family Coordinator, vol. 25, no. 2, April 1976, pp. 135–41.
M. A. Straus, ‘A Sociological Perspective on the causes of Family Violence’, in M. R. Green (ed.), Violence in the Family (Boulder, 1980) p. 8.
For a full report on the research and its findings see M. A. Straus, R. J. Gelles and S. K. Steinmetz, Behind Closed Doors: Violence in the American Family (Anchor/Doubleday, 1980);
R.J. Gelles, ‘A Profile of Violence towards Children in the United States’, in G. Gerbmer, C.J. Ross and E. Zigler (eds), Child Abuse: An agenda for action (Oxford University Press, 1980);
R. J. Gelles, ‘Violence towards children in the United States’, American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, no. 48, October 1978, pp. 580–92; R.J. Gelles, ‘Violence in the American Family’, in Martin (ed.), Violence and the Family.
According to Straus, Gelles and Steinmetz the term ‘beaten up’ was defined by its place in the list of violence items. It came after the items dealing with kicking, biting, hitting with a fist, and hitting with an object, and before the items dealing with a knife or gun. Therefore it is something more than just a single event but its precise meaning would vary between respondents.
With the exception of being threatened with a knife or gun or having a gun used on them.
Gelles, ‘A Profile of Violence towards Children in the United States’, p. 88.
Original italics.
These findings very much reflect those from studies in Britain. See for example Rose, Owtram, Pickett, Marran and Maton, Registers of Suspected Non-Accidental Injury, Creighton and Owtram, Child Victims of Physical Abuse; Smith, The Battered Child Syndrome.
A modified version of the Holmes and Rake Stressful Life Events Scale was used. See T. H. Holmes and R. H. Rake, ‘The social readjustment rating scale’, Journal of Psychosomatic Research, vol. 11, no. 2, 1967, pp. 213–18.
Apart from references in note 25, see S. K. Steinmetz, The Cycle of Violence: Assertive, Aggressive and Abusive Family Interaction (Praefer, 1977);
R.J. Gelles and M. A. Straus, ‘Determinants of Violence in the Family: Towards a Theoretical Integration’, in W. R. Burr, R. Hill, F. Ivan Nye and I. C. Reiss (eds), Contemporary Theories about the Family: Research-Based Theories, vol. 1 (Free Press, 1979);
M. A. Straus (1974) ‘Cultural and Social Organizational Influences on Violence between Family Members’, in R. Prince and D. Barrier (eds), Configurations (Lexington Books, 1974).
See in particular D.J. Owens and M. A. Straus, ‘The Social Structure of Violence in Childhood and Approval of Violence as an Adult’, Aggressive Behaviour, vol. 1, no. 2, 1975, pp. 193–211.
Straus, ‘A Sociological Perspective on the causes of Family Violence’, p. 23.
R.J. Gelles, ‘The social construction of child abuse’, American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, no. 44, April 1975, pp. 363–71
R.J. Gelles, ‘Community Agencies and Child Abuse: Labelling and Gatekeeping’, in R. J. Gelles, Family Violence (Sage, 1979);
A. W. Frank, ‘Therapeutic and Legal Formulations of Child Abuse’, in H. H. Irving (ed.), Family Law: An Interdisciplinary Perspective (Carswell, 1981).
Dingwall, Eekelaar and Murray, The Protection of Children. Also A. Lawson, ‘Taking the decision to remove the child from the family’, Journal of Social Welfare Law, May 1980, pp. 141–63;
J. M. Giovannoni and R. M. Beccerra, Defining Child Abuse (Free Press, 1979).
Dingwall, Eekelaar and Murray, The Protection of Children, pp. 101–2.
Dingwall, Eekelaar and Murray, The Protection of Children, p. 31.
Gil, Violence against Children.
Gil, Violence against Children, p. 137.
In Britain there are various estimates of the incidence of child abuse. The First Report from the Select Committee on Violence in the Family, Violence to Children, quotes the evidence received from the Royal College of Psychiatrists and work from Dr Oliver in Wiltshire (see J. E. Oliver, J. Cox, A. Taylor and J. A. Baldwin, Severely ill-treated Young Children in North-East Wiltshire, Unit of Clinical Epidemiology, Oxford Record Linkage Study, Oxford Regional Health Authority Research Report, No. 4, August 1974.
J. A. Baldwin and J. E. Oliver, ‘Epidemiology and Family Characteristics of Severely Abused Children’, British Journal of Preventive Medicine, no. 29, 1975, pp. 205–221, concluded that: (1) for each 10 000 children under the age of 4 years in England and Wales 10 will be severely injured each year. (2) 1 of these 10 will die as a result of the severity of the injury. (3) In England and Wales it is estimated that some 3000 children will be injured each year and 6 of them will die each week. (4) It is much more difficult to estimate the number of moderate or mild cases, since they may not be sent to hospital etc. but as many as 40–60 children in 10 000 will be so injured — or 40 000 children in England and Wales. The Office of Population, Census and Surveys estimates that out of 10 877 children aged 1–14 years who died from accidents and violence between 1968 and 1974, 417 or 3.8 per cent were homicides. In addition it is suggested that the 2.1 per cent (223) of deaths described as undetermined also included a high proportion of homicides.
(See A. Macfarlane and J. Fox, ‘Child deaths from accidents and violence’, Population Trends, no. 12, pp. 22–7, (OPCS, 1978).)
See E. Elmer, ‘A follow-up study of traumatic children’, Paediatrics, no. 59, 1977, pp. 273–9;
E. Elmer, Fragile Families: The Aftermath of Infant Trauma (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1977). E. Elmer, ‘Traumatized Children, Chronic Illness and Poverty’ in Pelton (ed.), The Social Context of Child Abuse and Neglect.
Elmer, Fragile Families, pp. 83–4.
Elmer, ‘Traumatized Children, Chronic Illness and Poverty’.
H. P. Martin and P. Beezley, ‘Behavioural Observations of Abused Children’, Developmental Medicine and Child Neurologi, vol. 19, 1977, pp. 373–87.
Elmer, ‘Traumatized Children, Chronic Illness and Poverty’, p. 206. More recent research in this country has included a control group and claims to have found specific long term consequences arising from abuse. However the control group was only matched for age and failed to match for race, sex and class. R. Calam, ‘Five Years after the event’, Community Care, no. 433, 14 October 1982, pp. 17–18.
See also M. A. Lynch and J. Roberts, Consequences of Child Abuse (Academic Press, 1982).
D. G. Gil, ‘Unravelling Child Abuse’, American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, vol. 45, no. 3, 1975, pp. 346–56. See also Gil’s foreward to Volpe, Breton and Mitton (eds), The Maltreatment of the School-Aged Child.
D. G. Gil, ‘Societal Violence and Violence in Families’, in J. M. Eekelaar and S. N. Katz (eds), Family Violence: An International and Interdisciplinary Study (Butterworths, 1978);
D. G. Gil, Unravelling Social Policy (Schenkman Publishing, 1973);
D. Gil, The Challenge of Social Equality (Schenkman Publishing, 1976).
D. Webb, ‘Sociology’, in P. Hardiker and M. Barker (eds). Theories of Practice in Social Work (Academic Press, 1981), p. 135.
The work of Bob Holman has been particularly significant. See R. Holman, Inequality in Child Care (CPAG/FRG, 2nd edn 1980);
R. Holman, Poverty: Explanations of Social Deprivation (Martin Robertson, 1978);
R. Holman, ‘The Place of Fostering in Social Work’, British Journal of Social Work, vol. 5, no. 1, 1975, pp. 3–29.
A number of American writers have explicitly attempted to develop class analyses of child care. See B. R. Mandel, Where are the Children? A Class Analysis of Foster Care and Adoption (Lexington Books, 1973);
S. Jenkins and E. Norman, Filial Deprivation and Foster Care (Columbia University Press, 1972);
A. L. Schorr (ed.), Children and Decent People (Allen & Unwin, 1975).
This section draws upon: P. Townsend, Poverty in the United Kingdom: A survey of household resources and standards of living (Penguin, 1979);
M. Brown and N. Madge, Despite the Welfare State (Heinemann, 1982);
J. Roll, ‘Facts and Figures’, Poverty, no. 56, December 1983, pp. 8–10.
See for example: Brown and Madge, Despite the Welfare State; M. Rutter and N. Madge, Cycles of Disadvantage: A Review of Research (Heinemann, 1976);
F. Coffìeld, P. Robinson and J. Sarsby, A Cycle of Deprivation? A Case Study of Four Families (Heinemann, 1980).
M. Blaxter, The Health of Children: A Review of Research on the Place of Health in Cycles of Disadvantage (Heinemann, 1981) p. 219.
See P. Townsend and N. Davidson, Inequalities in Health (Penguin, 1982) pp. 127–8.
Also Coffield, Robinson and Sarsby, A Cycle of Deprivation?, p. 185; S. Dowling, Health for a change: The Provision of Health care in pregnancy and early childhood (CPAG, 1983);
Report of the Committee on Child Health Services (Court Report), Fit for the Future, Cmnd 6684 (HMSO, 1976).
See J. Packman, Child Care: Needs and Numbers (Allen & Unwin, 1968);
V. George, Foster Care: Theory and Practice (Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1970);
R. Holman, Trading in Children (Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1973).
DHSS Personal Social Services Local Authority Statistics, Children in Care of Local Authorities Tear Ending 31 March 1981 England, Table 1.01 (A/F81/12).
R. Fuller and O. Stevenson, Policies, Programmes and Disadvantage: A Review of the Literature (Heinemann, 1983) p. 88.
Brown and Madge, Despite the Welfare State, pp. 160–1.
H. Wilson and G. W. Herbert, Parents and Children in the Inner City (Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1978), p. 183;
H. Wilson, ‘Parenting in Poverty’, British Journal of Social Work, vol. 4, no. 3, 1974, pp. 241–54.
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© 1985 Nigel Parton
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Parton, N. (1985). Poverty, Social Structure and Child Abuse. In: The Politics of Child Abuse. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-17830-8_7
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