Chapters one and two look at the main failures in the history ofprofessional responses to child abuse and how children have beensilenced by media bias.
Chapters three to five talk about the strengths of a child-centredapproach and of a qualitative research method that focuses on children'sown meanings, understandings and descriptions of events.
Chapters six to eight quote the children interviewed and highlight thecomplexities of child abuse, raising such issues as the ambivalentregard one girl has for her abusive father, and how some professionalinterventions are experienced as abusive.
Chapter nine is a concise look at child abuse as analogous tohostage-taking, as perpetrators and victims of both have comparablepsychological profiles. It also looks at various strategies that victimsuse to survive, such as disassociation, illustrated by a boy who isScorpion, an all-powerful fictitious character.
Finally, chapters 10 to 12 examine childhood as an historical andcultural construct, arguing that society currently views andincorporates children in a way that renders them vulnerable toabuse.
This is a challenging book and it conveys a need to address child abusein a sensitive and taboo-tackling way. The authors advocate professionalstrategies that recognise children as complex and able beings yet alsoas needing protection and nurturing.
However, in the broader discussions the authors do not maintain aconsistent distinction between adulthood and childhood, and sometimessuggest there is no difference. In this respect the book misses theopportunity to address the healthy and essential boundaries necessaryfor children, which may lead to them being construed as illiberal andavoided within practice.
- Reviewed by Jonathan Wildman, therapeutic care worker, The AmicusCommunity
The Truth is Longer than a Lie: Children's Experiences of Abuse and
Professional Interventions
By Neerosh Mudaly and Chris Goddard
Jessica Kingsley Publishers
ISBN 1843103176
192pp
18.99
