Beyond Blame
Child Abuse Tragedies Revisited

Summarizes the major inquiries intochild sexual abuse. It includes 35 reports available since 1973, which are examined and set in their social context.

What can we learn from inquiries into cases of fatal child abuse? Beyond Blame offers a new way of looking at such cases and shows that it is possible to draw important lessons from them. The authors, all three experienced in child protection work, summarise thirty-five major inquiries since 1973, setting them in their social context and discussing the implications both for practical work in the field and for future inquiries. They stress the need for those who work day to day in child protection to develop and apply a more sophisticated level of analysis to assessment and intervention. They identify common themes within abusing families, in the relationships between members of the professional networks, and in the interactions between the families and the professionals.

Foreword by Professor Olive Stevenson. Acknowledgements. Introduction. The Wider Context. Tragedies Revisited. The Families. The Meaning of the Child. Inter-professional Communication. The Professional Networks. The Assessment Process. The Family-professional Systems. The Case as a Whole. Beyond Blame. Appendix: Summaries of the Cases. Bibliography. Name Index. Subject Index.