Beyond blame: child abuse tragedies revisited

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.

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It is often said that despite the time, expense and heartache expended on child abuse inquiries, little new comes out of them. In Beyond Blame thirty-five reports, which have been available since 1973, are reviewed within a systemic framework to see whether family systems ideas, with their interest in relationships, would help a re-analysis of each case at the centre of the inquiry and whether this would allow new lessons to emerge. This is the first book to summarise all the major inquiries and set them in their social context. As well as acknowledging professional responsibility and accountability, the authors go well beyond these concerns in order to make sense of professional behaviour and decision taking and to break new ground in understanding events leading up to the children's deaths. Common themes within abusing families are identified, in the relationships between members of the professional networks, and in the interactions between the families and professionals. These patterns are discussed and illustrated with extracts from the relevant cases. The authors suggest how their inferences can be applied in order to enhance professional practice.