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History of Child Protection in Britain: A Theoretical Reformulation

NCJ Number
163204
Author(s)
R Burke
Date Published
1996
Length
53 pages
Annotation
This paper reformulates the history of child protection in Britain in terms of a theoretical framework that shows the framing of the problem of child abuse and the characteristics of welfare intervention to be a reflection of historically specific paradigms.
Abstract
Four distinctive child-protection paradigms are identified. The coercive intervention paradigm was the dominant child protection orthodoxy from the 1880's until 1945. It was a strategy centered in a coercive intervention in the lives of abusing families; perpetrators were prosecuted and children were permanently removed from their homes. The natural family paradigm was the dominant child protection orthodoxy from the end of World War II until 1974. The focus of this approach was that the normal place for a child was with its birth parents, and it was the task of the welfare services to provide support to maintain this family. The bureaucratic paradigm was dominant from 1974 to 1991 and involved a two-part focus. First, the interests of the child would be paramount and take priority over those of the birth parents. Second, there was an emphasis on the bureaucratic multidisciplinary management systems. The family rights paradigm emerged in 1991 and is the current child protection orthodoxy. The focus is that the interests of both parents and their children must be considered by welfare professionals at every stage of a case. This contemporary orthodoxy relies on the judiciary to balance these interests. 75 references