Culture and Child Protection

Dr Marie Connolly holds the position of Chief Social Worker within the New Zealand government. Until recently she was Associate Professor and Director of the Te Awatea Violence Research Centre at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. She has published four other books including Effective Participatory Practice: Family Group Conferencing in Child Protection and New Zealand Social Work: Contexts and Practice. Yvonne Crichton-Hill is a New Zealand-born Samoan and is a lecturer with the Department of Social Work at the University of Canterbury. She has extensive experience of working in the areas of child protection social work and youth justice, and in particular work with Samoan families. She is committed to the development of practice models that are responsive to cultural values and experience. Yvonne has previously published in the area of cross-cultural practice and ethnocentric explanations of domestic violence. Dr Tony Ward is Professor in Forensic Psychology in the Department of Criminology, and Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Melbourne. He has extensively published on male sex offending, and, with D. Richard Laws and Stephen M. Hudson, recently edited Sexual Deviance: Issues and Controversies.

Culture and Child Protection is a concise exploration of the close links between social service practices and cultural values which offers a culturally sensitive model of child protection practice. The authors demonstrate the ways in which a combination of personal, professional and societal attitudes often influence practice decisions.

Preface. Part One: Culture and Child Protection Work. 1. Culture, the Client and the Practitioner in Child Protection Work. 2. Culturally Reflexive Responses in Abuse Work. 3. Ethnic Culture, Child Protection and the Professional Environment. Part Two: Working with Cultures in Child Protection. 4. Childhood Cultures, Care and Protection Work. 5. Family Cultures and Protecting Children. 6. Cultures of Risk, Offending and Good Lives. 7. Culturally Reflexive Theory and Practice in Child Protection. 8. Further Thoughts. References. Index.