There has been much new guidance and regulation since the first edition of Social Work and Child Abuse was published in 1996, making this a timely new edition. With a brand new introduction and conclusion, this fully revised text discusses:

• the implications of the Victoria Climbié Inquiry, the Laming Report, the Green Paper Every Child Matters and the 2004 Children Act
• the 1989 Children Act and the conflicting duties of the social worker to prevent and intervene in child abuse and also to promote 'the family'
• the emergence of official discourses of prevention, treatment and punishment
• the 1975 Children Act and the role of moral panic.

Concluding with a call for the full implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child to strengthen the child protection system by giving children and young people a much stronger voice, this book is essential reading for all professionals in social and probation work, and for students in social work, social policy and criminology.