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Approximately 1,750–2,000 children die in the United States annually because of child abuse or neglect. Official statistics show that women are more often the perpetrators of abuse and neglect-related deaths, even though child welfare professionals largely attribute these deaths to men. Either acting alone or with another individual, mothers are responsible for roughly 60% of deaths and either together or alone, fathers are responsible for roughly 40% of deaths. Despite the consistency of this information, it is not widely accepted by child welfare workers – the professional group whose job it is to identify risk factors and to protect children from harm. Previous research shows that workers are more likely to believe that men are responsible for children’s deaths and that deaths are perpetrated by non-family members. In this chapter, we explore the potential explanations for workers’ misperceptions including the role of gender norms, ideology, confusion concerning how children die, and also which kinds of cases result in criminal charges and thus, shape the public’s understanding of fatal child maltreatment. Incomplete and inadequate information about the perpetration of maltreatment deaths potentially puts children at risk for future fatalities. Implications for child welfare and social service professionals, their training, and practice are discussed.

In this chapter, the authors focus on a range of Australian news articles selected for their relevance to key themes in the area of child abuse and examine two high profile cases of child abuse deaths that were extensively reported on by the media and led to system reform. Challenges for media reporting on child abuse in Australia including a changing media landscape, lack of available child abuse data and lack of publicly available serious case reviews are discussed. The authors argue that there is a need for attention to be paid to children's resistance and agency in the context of violence and abuse to counter the objectification of children and uphold their rights. Following Finkelhor (2008), the authors argue that media reporting on child abuse in Australia reflects a general approach to child abuse that is fragmented, with different types of abuse viewed as separate from one another, and call for a more integrated understanding of child abuse. The authors highlight the complexity of media responses to child abuse in Australia, noting that while the social problem of child abuse can be misrepresented by the media, media reporting has also triggered significant systemic reform and advocated for children in cases where other systems failed them.

A parent who continuously physically abuses her/his child doesn't aim to kill the child but commits an accidental filicide in a more violent outburst of anger. Fatal abuse deaths are prevented by recognition of signs of battering in time. Out of 200 examined intra-familial filicides, 23 (12%) were caused by child battering and 13 (7%) by continuous battering. The medical and court records of the victim and the perpetrator were examined. The perpetrator was the biological mother and the victim was male in 69 per cent of the cases. The abused children were either younger than one year or from two-and-a-half to four years old. Risk factors of the victim (being unwanted, premature birth, separation from the parent caused by hospitalization or custodial care, being ill and crying a lot) and the perpetrator (personality disorder, low socioeconomic status, chaotic family conditions, domestic violence, isolation, alcohol abuse) were common. The injuries caused by previous battering were mostly soft tissue injuries in head and limbs and head traumas and the battering lasted for days or even an year. The final assault was more violent and occurred when the parent was more anxious, frustrated or left alone with the child. The perpetrating parent was diagnosed as having a personality disorder (borderline, narcissistic or dependent) and often substance dependence (31%). None of them were psychotic. Authorities and community members should pay attention to the change in child's behavior and inexplicable injuries or absence from daycare. Furthermore if the parent is immature, alcohol dependent, have a personality disorder and is unable to cope with the demands the small child entails in the parent's life, the child may be in danger.

Much social policy research today is commissioned, published and publicised by organisations with direct involvement in that particular aspect of policy. Whilst much good can result from such “advocacy research”, at times the tactics employed by some groups have been criticised for exaggerated claims making and sensationalist reporting as they attempt to get their particular issue into the political and public domain and also generate more government funding and/or increase public donations. The purpose of this paper is to investigate such claims.

In this paper the author wishes to look at some of the tactics utilised by advocacy groups in order to establish the legitimacy of their particular concern. The author focuses on material published by Action for Children and the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children and between 2010 and 2012 in relation to child maltreatment, critically analysing them from a social constructionist standpoint and drawing on aspects of moral panic theory.

The paper concludes by warning of the dangers for both social policy and related practice that can arise from uncritically accepting the claims of contemporary moral entrepreneurs.

This paper uses theoretical concepts to analyse contemporary campaigns by two charity organisations.

All parents need social and emotional support to ensure optimal outcomes for children. For the majority of families, this support comes through family and social networks and the institutions of education and health. The challenge for society is to protect and assist parents and children when things are going wrong. Although there are known indicators for risk, it can be hard to be sure of when and how to intervene in family life to protect children and support parents. Such interventions may have to be made in relation to episodic events, for example a recurrence of a depression in one of the parents, and in the face of continuing difficulties, for example poverty or social exclusion.This paper examines two, quite different, challenges for professionals trying to support parents. First, it makes some suggestions about how it is that professionals can fail to recognise signs of child maltreatment. The identification of child maltreatment is critical in taking appropriate steps to protect children. Second, it considers the complexity of the task of supporting parents, including whether support should be based on the parents views about services that they would like, or on professional and policy‐makers judgements about how to meet the parents' needs.

Ireland is now the hub of much activity around children's services ‐ at central and local government levels, involving the primary statutory and voluntary agencies, and engaging some of the more disadvantaged communities. Previous articles in the series have looked at the origins and work of the government Office of the Minister for Children, which is overseeing the reform programme (Langford, 2007), the role of $200 million philanthropic investment in this work (Little & Abunimah, 2007) and how the new approach is translating into practice in local communities (Zappone, 2007).Here, Owen Keenan, former Chief Executive of Barnardos1, offers his personal perspective on the work. He starts by tracing how Ireland moved from having under‐developed services and limited suitable research capacity to having the potential within the next 10 years to become one of the best places in the world for children to grow up in. He highlights the roles played by international collaborations, indigenous advocacy (focused on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child) and philanthropic investment in helping to usher in a new paradigm of evidence‐based, outcome‐focused services. He then outlines the main challenges as he sees them if the potential is to be realised ‐ for example, improving relationships between stakeholders and strengthening service design and evaluation capacity. Finally, he summarises what has been learnt about undertaking (and undergoing) such farreaching change processes.

The objectives of this paper are to examine national police suicide rates, to compare police suicides with fire‐fighters and military personnel, and to examine suicide in women and minority officers.

The National Occupational Mortality Surveillance (NOMS) (1984‐1998) was used as a data source. Descriptive statistics and proportionate mortality ratios (PMRs) were calculated.

Overall, the police suicide rate was four times that of fire‐fighters. Minority officers had 4.5 times and policewomen 12 times the number of suicides than did fire‐fighters. Police suicides outnumbered homicides by 2.36 times. Police had significantly higher than expected PMRs for suicide.

NOMS data are presently available up to 1998, and data in the study are descriptive only. Although suggestive of risk, statistically significantly elevated PMRs cannot be interpreted directly as indicating a causal relationship between police work and suicide. Confounders are not recorded in NOMS and may lend considerable weight to suicide.

The paper reflects the need to look deeper into police suicides and their root causes. Police organizations are advised to initiate suicide awareness training and psychological assistance to officers.

The paper is among the first nationally to compare suicide among similar hazardous occupations, suggesting the need for prevention.

This paper seeks to report on education, health, and social care practitioners' experiences of working across traditional boundaries and establishing new relationships in the context of the Common Assessment Framework (CAF) in UK children's services.

Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with a total of 20 education, health and social care practitioners, and operational managers using the qualitative methodology of interpretative phenomenological analysis.

The article highlights how change in the composition of teams has provided stimulus for new relationships, learning, and ways of working.

The study is based upon a relatively small number of interviews conducted within one county.

Consideration of relationships and learning within multi‐agency practice contexts is underdeveloped within the literature. As new forms of partnership may result from ongoing reconfiguration of services, this research into partnership working around the CAF offers insights and learning for future interprofessional teamworking.