This volume provides readers around the globe with a focused and comprehensive examination of how to prevent and respond to child maltreatment using evidence-informed public health approaches and programs that meet the needs of vulnerable children, and struggling families and communities. It outlines the system failures of contemporary forensically-driven child protection practice. Detailed guidance is provided about how to re-think earlier intervention strategies, and establish stronger and more effective programs and services that prevent maltreatment at the population level. Service user and stakeholder perspectives, particularly from marginalized groups including Indigenous peoples, highlight how public health approaches can better support families and keep children safe. Case studies from different countries grapple with the fraught nature of large system change and the various strategies needed to effect multi-level reforms. Presenting the reader with an array of innovative services used in different institutional and community context, this volume confronts the complex challenges found in implementing successful prevention programs that are aligned with diverse cultural and political environments and community expectations.

This volume provides readers around the globe with a focused and comprehensive examination of how to prevent and respond to child maltreatment using evidence-informed public health approaches and programs that meet the needs of vulnerable children, and struggling families and communities. It outlines the system failures of contemporary forensically-driven child protection practice. Detailed guidance is provided about how to re-think earlier intervention strategies, and establish stronger and more effective programs and services that prevent maltreatment at the population level. Service user and stakeholder perspectives, particularly from marginalized groups including Indigenous peoples, highlight how public health approaches can better support families and keep children safe. Case studies from different countries grapple with the fraught nature of large system change and the various strategies needed to effect multi-level reforms. Presenting the reader with an array of innovative services used in different institutional and community context, this volume confronts the complex challenges found in implementing successful prevention programs that are aligned with diverse cultural and political environments and community expectations.

The second edition of this successful handbook, edited by well-known experts in this field, includes core questions in the field of child abuse and neglect. It addresses major challenges in child maltreatment work, starting with “What is child abuse and neglect?” and then examines why maltreatment occurs and what are its consequences. The handbook also addresses prevention, intervention, investigation, treatment as well as civil and criminal legal perspectives. It comprehensively studies the issue from the perspective of a broader, international and cross-cultural human experience. Apart from a thorough revision of existing chapters, this edition includes many new chapters covering recent developments in this area and other issues not covered in the first edition. There is more focus on substance abuse, psychological abuse, and on social and community involvement and public health provisions in the prevention of child maltreatment. The handbook examines what is known now and more importantly what remains to be researched in the coming decades to help abused and neglected children, their families and their communities, thereby taking the field forward.

This book provides an account of the experience of a multifaceted system-change programme to strengthen the capacity of Ireland’s statutory child protection and welfare agency in the areas of prevention, early intervention and family support. Many jurisdictions globally are involved in system change processes focused on increasing investment in services that seek to prevent children’s entry into child protection and welfare systems, through early intervention, greater support to families, and an increased emphasis on rights and participation. Based on a four-year in-depth study by a team of University-based researchers, this text adds to the emerging knowledge-base on developing, implementing and evaluating system change in child protection and welfare. Study methodological approaches were wide ranging and involved a number of key stakeholders including children, parents, social workers and social care workers, service managers, agency leaders and policy makers. Since the change process involved an agency-university partnership encompassing design, technical support and evaluation, the book also contributes to understandings of the potential and limits of such partnerships in the child protection and welfare field. Uniquely, the book gives voice to the experience of both agency personnel and academic in the accounts provided. It will be of interest to all scholars, students and practitioners in the areas of child protection and welfare.

Adverse Childhood Experiences and Their Life-Long Impact explores how these experiences influence cognitive, behavioral and social experiences in adulthood. The book conceptualizes the types of violence, abuse, neglect, and/or trauma that factor into ACEs. It also explores the psychopathological outcomes of ACEs among children, including neurodevelopmental and psychosocial mechanisms. By drawing on cross-cultural perspectives, the authors provide insight into the variations between the adversity and trauma children experience. Sections also cover preventive measures, risk factors and various forms of interventional treatment, making this book a core read for psychologists, physicians, social workers, educators and researchers in the field. - Provides a comprehensive framework for understanding adverse childhood experiences - Reviews the link between ACE and homelessness, substance abuse, and physical and/or sexual violence in adulthood - Highlights key components of cross-cultural perceptions on child abuse and neglect, including differences of gender - Explores options for prevention and intervention for those who experience adverse childhood experiences

Vulnerability is not a fixed state; people and families can move in and out of experiencing vulnerability throughout their lives. All families are at risk of experiencing vulnerability at some point, which means that social workers and other professionals must be equipped with the skills to effectively provide them with support. Working with Families Experiencing Vulnerability: A Partnership Approach provides a comprehensive, evidence-based guide to family-centred practice for the social work, human services, health and education professions. This edition has been comprehensively revised and features new chapters on working with families affected by natural disasters, families experiencing poverty, Māori families, LGBTQIA+ families and families where a parent has an intellectual disability. Emphasis is placed on promoting a rights-based, relational approach to working with children and young people, who are most at risk of experiencing vulnerability. Each chapter includes case studies, reflective questions and activities.

This volume explores methods for studying child maltreatment in the context of neighborhoods and communities, given their importance in the lives of families. It discusses the ways in which neighborhoods have changed over time and how this that has impacted parenting in the modern context. It also highlights the ways in which policies have contributed to persistent poverty and inequality, which indirectly impacts child maltreatment. An important focus of this volume is to examine the multitude of ways in which the neighborhood context affects families, including structural factors like poverty, segregation, residential instability, and process factors like social cohesion. The volume takes a critical look at the ways in which culture and context affect maltreatment through a community-based approach, and uses this approach to understand child maltreatment in rural areas. The editors and contributors explore innovative prevention approaches and reflect on the future of this field in terms of what remains unknown, how the information should be used to guide policy in the future, and how practitioners can best support parents while being mindful of the importance of context. Addressing an important topic, this volume is of relevance and interest to a wide readership of scholars and students in the social and behavioral sciences, as well as to practitioners and policy makers working with neighborhoods and communities.