Child Welfare and Protection

Abstract

As a definition of child abuse, the quotation above accords with both the spirit of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and with our own approach within this book. In that respect we have seen in other chapters the extent to which UK social policy can be said to contribute to the neglect and abuse of children at a societal level.

Any act of commission or omission which deprives children of equal rights and liberties and/or interferes with their optimal development. (Gil, 1975)