As social work instructors, we have observed students increasingly wanting to engage in critical conversations about mandated reporting. Few resources are available to support instructors in facilitating these conversations. This teaching note offers content and lesson plans for exploring mandated reporting as a moral duty, a harm, an ethical…

School counselors experience various emotions, such as anxiety, when in the role of mandated reporter of child abuse. This manuscript addresses how early career school counselors might experience distress because of the lack of established child abuse reporting procedures, fear of repercussions for the school counselor or student, and limited…

Sexual abuse is a public health issue with long-term consequences for children's lives and education. The Convention on the Rights of the Child is a key reference point in safeguarding, increasingly incorporated into domestic law. This article aims to strengthen safeguarding theory and practice by reviewing human rights education (HRE) theory and…

Families are diverse, and so are children's needs. For children in the child welfare system, there are many layers of regulations that serve to protect the family and child. These regulations can be challenging to navigate when a child is referred to early intervention services. The authors describe how their coordination team collaborated with…

While it should be obvious on moral grounds that abusing children in any shape or form is wrong, biological, medical and economic arguments have been necessary to bring attention to the long-standing impact of early childhood trauma. In particular, stemming from the mental health field, a trauma-informed approach seems to have become a privileged…

For this sixth article in a series reviewing recent court decisions concerning appropriate school psychology practice from both professional and legal perspectives, the author summarizes a case in which an Oregon school psychologist provided foster care for a child with severe behavior problems and subsequently was reported for gross neglect of…

This article draws attention to international evidence that highlights the value and challenges of promoting youth participation among and for young people affected by, or at risk of, sexual violence. The article draws on evidence from two pan-European projects that took place between 2013 and 2017 and aimed to give young people a voice in order…

This article reflects on methodological and ethical issues that have shaped a collaborative project which aims to chart social, legal and political responses to child sexual abuse in England and Wales across the twentieth century. The etymological problem of searching for child sexual abuse in the historical archive is discussed, given that the…

This Parameter addresses the key concepts that differentiate the forensic evaluation of children and adolescents from a clinical assessment. There are ethical issues unique to the forensic evaluation, because the forensic evaluator's duty is to the person, court, or agency requesting the evaluation, rather than to the patient. The forensic…

Environmentalism, an ethical imperative to preserve and protect nature, has become in the last decade a central ethical, political and pedagogic theme. Against this background, this article focuses on the postwar philosophy of the German-Jewish scholar Hans Jonas (1903-93). It points to Jonas's radical theory of pedagogic responsibility, and to…

While most of the national focus following charges of child sex abuse at Pennsylvania State University has centered on its coaches and administrators, the scandal has reached deep into the professoriate as well. Responding to constant questions has taken an emotional toll on the university's faculty members, who have been asked by neighbors,…

Researching actual or purported sexual contact between teachers and students raises many difficult ethical issues, questions and dilemmas, which may help to explain why few have ventured into the field. This experientially based paper addresses key problem areas under the headings of: the ethics of researching a sensitive taboo topic; the ethics…

In this article I discuss my growing worry over the use (and nonuse) of photographs of young children in social research. Taking a view of child protection as paramount, I situate the discussion in the context of ethical governance of research, young children as research participants, changing views of childhoods, and the juxtaposition of the Arts…

Confidentiality presents particular challenges to practitioners working with young people, on account of the latter's vulnerability and emotional immaturity. Ethical codes place a key importance on confidentiality, from deontological and teleological perspectives. However, young clients may rely on a more pragmatic approach in deciding whether to…

Educator sexual misconduct has received increasing attention over the past decade. The attention has exposed a number of concerning issues, including a lack of formal research in the area and difficulties in recognizing and prosecuting cases. Public responses to high profile cases of sexual misconduct involving female teachers suggest that…