Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T07:21:50.614Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Child protection, risk assessment and blame ideology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 February 2012

Philip Gillingham  and
Leah Bromfield
Philip Gillingham
Affiliation:
School of Social Work, Deakin University Waterfront Campus, Geelong, Victoria, Email: [email protected]
Leah Bromfield
Affiliation:
National Child Protection Clearinghouse, Australian Institute of Family Studies, Melbourne, Victoria, Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In this article we use qualitative data drawn from a sample of child protection cases to demonstrate how the process of attributing blame to parents and carers for child maltreatment is a significant influence on decisionmaking, sometimes to the detriment of assessing the future safety of children. We focus on two cases which both demonstrate how the process of apportioning blame can lead to decisions which might not be considered to be in the best interests of the children concerned. We conceptualise blame as an ‘ideology’ with its roots in the discourse of the ‘risk society’, perpetuated and sustained by the technology of risk assessment. The concept of blame ideology is offered as an addition to theory which seeks to explain the influences on decision making in child protection practice.

Type
Research Article
Information
Children Australia , Volume 33 , Issue 1 , 2008 , pp. 18 - 24
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Beck, U. (1992) Risk society: Towards a new modernity, London: Sage.Google Scholar
Bransford, C. & Bakken, T. (2001) ‘Organization theory and the utilization of authority in social work’, Social Work and Social Sciences Review, 9 (1), 3–21.Google Scholar
Bromfield, L.M. (2005) Chronic child maltreatment in an Australian statutory child protection sample, unpublished PhD Thesis, Deakin University, Geelong.Google Scholar
Bromfield, L.M. & Higgins, D.J. (2004) ‘The limitations of using statutory child protection data for research into child maltreatment’, Australian Social Work, 57 (1), 19–30.Google Scholar
Bromfield, L.M., Gillingham, P. & Higgins, D. (2003) What are we protecting children from? Harm, risk and blame in child protection practice: Research based on an Australian sample, 8th International Family Violence Research Conference, July 14th-July 16th, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, USA, http://www.unh.edu/frl Google Scholar
Buckley, H. (2003) Child protection work: Beyond the rhetoric, London: Jessica Kingsley.Google Scholar
Carter, J. (1974) ‘Problems of professional belief’, in Carter, J. (ed.), The Maltreated Child, London: Priory Press, 51–57.Google Scholar
Corby, B. (2006) Child abuse: Towards a knowledge base, 3rd edition, Maidenhead: Open University Press.Google Scholar
Children's Research Center (1999) The improvement of child protective services with structured decision making: The CRC Model, Children's Research Center, A Division of the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, Madison, Wisconsin, USA, http://www.nccd-crc.org/crc/c_pubs_main.html Google Scholar
D'Cruz, H. (2002) ‘Constructing the identities of “responsible mothers, invisible men” in child protection practice’, Sociological Research Online, 7 (1), http://www/socresonline.org.uk/7/l/d'cruz.html Google Scholar
D'Cruz, H. (2004) Constructing meanings and identities in child protection practice, Croydon, Victoria: Tertiary Press.Google Scholar
Dingwall, R., Ecklehaar, J. & Murray, T. (1983) The protection of children: State intervention and family life, Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Douglas, M. (1992) Risk and blame: Essays in cultural theory, London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Elliott, A. (1998) ‘When a child needs protection: What does it matter why?’, Children Australia, 23 (4), 5–8.Google Scholar
Farmer, E. & Owen, M. (1998) ‘Gender and the child protection process’, British Journal of Social Work, 28 (4), 545–564.Google Scholar
Ferguson, H. (1997) ‘Protecting children in new times: Child protection and the risk society’, Child and Family Social Work, 2, 221–234.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gillingham, P. (2006) ‘Risk assessment in child protection: Problem rather than solution?’, Australian Social Work, 59 (1), 86–98.Google Scholar
Goddard, C. & Liddell, M. (1995) ‘Child abuse fatalities and the media: Lessons from a case study’, Child Abuse Review, 4, 356–364.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goddard, C.R., Saunders, B.J., Stanley, J.R. & Tucci, J. (1999) ‘Structured risk assessment procedures: Instruments of abuse?’, Child Abuse Review, 8, 251–263.Google Scholar
Gough, D. (1996) ‘Defining the problem: comment’, Child Abuse and Neglect, 20(11), 993–1002.Google Scholar
Hallett, C. (1989) ‘Child abuse enquiries and public policy’, in Stevenson, O. (ed.), Child abuse: Public policy and professional practice, Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf.Google Scholar
Hasenfeld, Y. (1992) Human services as complex organizations, Newbury Park, California: Sage.Google Scholar
Kelly, N. & Milner, J. (1996) ‘Child protection decision-making’, Child Abuse Review, 5, 91–102.Google Scholar
Kemshall, H. (2002) Risk, social policy and welfare, Buckingham: Open University Press.Google Scholar
Leeks, M. (2006) ‘The implementation of Structured Decision Making (SDM) in child protection practice in Queensland, Australia’, paper presented at 10th Australasian Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect, Wellington, New Zealand.Google Scholar
Maidment, J. & Egan, R. (2004) Practice skills in social work and welfare: More than just common sense, Crows Nest, NSW: Allen and Unwin.Google Scholar
Mendes, P. (2001) Blaming the messenger: The media, social workers and child abuse, Australian Social Work, 54 (2), 27–36.Google Scholar
Munro, E. (1999) ‘Common errors of reasoning in child protection work’, Child Abuse and Neglect, 23 (8), 745–758.Google Scholar
Otway, O. (1996) ‘Social work with children and families: From child welfare to child protection’, in Parton, N. (ed.), Social theory, social change and social work, London: Routledge, 152–171.Google Scholar
Parton, N. (1985) The politics of child abuse, Basingstoke: Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parton, N. (1991) Governing the family: Child care, child protection and the state, Basingstoke: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Parton, N. (1998) ‘Risk, advanced liberalism and child welfare: The need to rediscover uncertainty and ambiguity’, British Journal of Social Work, 28, 5–27.Google Scholar
Parton, N., Thorpe, D. & Wattam, C. (1997) Child protection: Risk and the moral order, Basingstoke: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Reder, P., Duncan, S. & Gray, M. (1993) Beyond blame: Child abuse tragedies revisited, London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Schwalbe, C. (2004) ‘Re-visioning risk assessment for human service decision-making’, Children and Youth Services Review, 26, 561–576.Google Scholar
Scourfield, J.B. (2002) ‘Reflections on gender, knowledge and values in social work’, British Journal of Social Work, 32, 1–15.Google Scholar
Sinclair, T. (2005) ‘Mad, bad or sad? Ideology, distorted communication and child abuse prevention’, Journal of Sociology, 41 (3), 227–246.Google Scholar
Spratt, T. & Houston, S. (1999) ‘Developing critical social work in theory and in practice: Child protection and communicative reason’, Child and Family Social Work, 4, 315–314.Google Scholar
Stanley, J. & Goddard, C. (2002) In the firing line: Violence and power in child protection work, Chichester: Wiley.Google Scholar
Thompson, N. (2005) Understanding social work: Preparing for practice, 2nd Edition, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Thorpe, D. (1994) Evaluating child protection, Buckingham: Open University Press.Google Scholar
Tilbury, C. (2005) ‘Child protection services in Queensland poste-Forde Inquiry’, Children Australia, 30(3), 10–16.Google Scholar
Trevithick, P. (2005) Social work skills: A practice handbook, 2nd Edition, Maidenhead, Berkshire: Open University Press.Google Scholar
Webb, S. (2006) Social work in a risk society: Social and political perspectives, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar