Domestic abuse continues to be a growing concern across the globe where the overwhelming majority of victims are women. Women also tend to experience more severe forms of violence, which includes murder. There is growing recognition that children who live in households where domestic abuse exists are directly harmed and often show psychological…

Disabled children experience increased risk of abuse and neglect. Concurrently, serious concerns and practical impediments persist regarding the capacity of statutory child protection and welfare services to respond adequately to their needs. Specifically, the focus in this article is on the assessment stage of the social work process within child…

In the Republic of Ireland Section 3(1) of the Child Care Act 1991 places an obligation and legal duty upon the State child protection services "to promote the welfare of children in its area who are not receiving adequate care and protection." This article focuses on a specific element of this duty; the social worker's responsibility to…

The report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse (Government of Ireland, 2009)--the Ryan Report--shocked Ireland and the wider world with its chilling descriptions of abuse that was systemic, pervasive, chronic, excessive, arbitrary and endemic. Subsequent debate has, rightly, centred on the "religious" arena, highlighting the…

In recent decades, the history of childhood and history of education have gained status as political concerns through the establishment of numerous truth commissions and inquiries into historical institutional child abuse. This article discusses the methodological and ethical dilemmas that arise when writing the history of abused children with the…

This study reports a grounded theory study of the process of how children tell of their experiences of child sexual abuse from the perspectives of young people and their parents. Individual interviews were conducted with 22 young people aged 8 to 18, and 14 parents. A theoretical model was developed that conceptualises the process of disclosure as…

In response to the diverse number of child sexual abuse (CSA) prevention programs currently implemented in school contexts, this paper examines key considerations for selecting such initiatives and the multiplicity of understandings required to inform facilitation of contextually relevant prevention curriculum. First, the paper examines concerns…

The voices of adults and children with disabilities who have experienced violence and abuse are slowly beginning to surface in the public domain. Segregated residential institutions run by religious congregations appear to be dangerous places for children with disabilities and perceived differences--according to the former residents, speaking and…

This paper deals with the topic of child protection in Irish primary schools, and reports on a recently completed survey of newly qualified teachers' knowledge of and familiarity with their school's child protection policies and procedures. The study was undertaken by means of a questionnaire survey, and conducted with 103 teachers from different…

Due to the historical arrangement between Church and State, the Irish State has always discharged its duty to provide for free primary education exclusively through the provision of funding to privately owned and managed schools. Consequently, in "O'Keeffe" v. "Hickey," where a woman sued the State in respect of sex abuse she…

The links between literacy and care have received little attention. A general neglect of the affective domain in the academe is strongly echoed in traditional analyses of unmet adult literacy needs where economic causes and consequences dominate debates. The findings from a study of people who are survivors of institutional abuse and neglect…

Objective: To document the adult adjustment of survivors of childhood institutional abuse. Method: Two hundred and forty-seven adult survivors of institutional abuse with a mean age of 60 were interviewed with a protocol that included the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, modules from the Structured Clinical Interview for Axis I Disorders of DSM IV…

This paper explores the work of an ongoing research project at University College Cork (UCC) which has sought to further the understanding of students in the BA Early Childhood Studies (BAECS) programme on issues of global diversity, set within childhood contexts. It tracks the process of development of the project thus far, highlighting key…

The present paper provides an overview of child sexual exploitation in Northern Ireland and related issues. It focuses on Barnardo's response to the problem of sexual exploitation and sets it in both a historical and a contemporary context. The paper considers the importance of recognising exploitation as child abuse and addresses specific myths…

This paper uses a case example to illustrate the need for robust arrangements manage violent offenders against children in Northern Ireland. It compares the legislative and policy framework used to deal with such offenders in England and Wales, demonstrating the more limited provisions in Northern Ireland. Within Northern Ireland, differing…