Compassion vs control. Conceptual and practical pitfalls in the broadened definition of child abuse
A. A. Rosenfeld and E. H. Newberger
A broadened understanding of child abuse has enabled practitioners to think
of the parents of abused children not as evil murderers but as human beings
caught in a complex web of social isolation and deprivation. Concomitantly,
child abuse laws have changed dramatically in the last decade to include
virtually all childhood physical symptoms of family crisis; physical,
sexual, and emotional abuse and child neglect are now reportable by nearly
all professionals who have contact with children. There has been a dramatic
increase in case reports, but the services for which families become
eligible do not approach the humane rhetoric and intent of child abuse
legislation. Society and the helping professions are caught in a dilemma
that we characterize and address clinically as compassion vs control.
