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Child Maltreatment as Social Harm

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Re-Visioning Public Health Approaches for Protecting Children

Part of the book series: Child Maltreatment ((MALT,volume 9))

Abstract

This chapter takes forward an approach to child protection first outlined by the author in The politics of child protection: Contemporary developments and future directions (2014, Palgrave/Macmillan). It argues that traditional child protection systems have a number of major weaknesses. In particular there has been a failure to recognise that the prevalence of child maltreatment is much greater than the number of cases that are ever known to official child protection agencies. There has been a failure to recognise that the social problem of child maltreatment is much larger and more pervasive than is officially recognised and that there are key social and structural dimensions to the problem. The chapter sets out some of the key principles on which a public health approach to child maltreatment should be based. It argues that approaches which attempt to address the wide-spread social harms to children have the best chances of overcoming current problems and in the process improving the well-being of children and the overall social capital of the societies in which they live.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Human and Health Sciences, University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield, UK

    Nigel Parton

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  1. Nigel Parton
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Correspondence to Nigel Parton .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Health, University of New England, Armidale, NSW, Australia

    Bob Lonne

  2. Senior Research Fellow, Monash University, Victoria, VIC, Australia

    Deb Scott

  3. Institute of Child Protection Studies, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Daryl Higgins

  4. Marion Elizabeth Blue Professor of Child and Family, University of Michigan School of Social Work, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Todd I. Herrenkohl

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Parton, N. (2019). Child Maltreatment as Social Harm. In: Lonne, B., Scott, D., Higgins, D., Herrenkohl, T.I. (eds) Re-Visioning Public Health Approaches for Protecting Children. Child Maltreatment, vol 9. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05858-6_27

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05858-6_27

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-05857-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-05858-6

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