Child Abuse & Neglect

Historically, child protection has been commonly perceived to be a matter of concern to professionals in specialized social service, health, mental health, and justice systems. However, Child Abuse & Neglect: The International Journal also welcomes contributors and readers interested in children's safety in the settings of everyday life - homes, day care centers, schools, playgrounds, youth clubs, health clinics, places of worship, and so forth. Child Abuse & Neglect also invites the engagement of other social scientists (e.g., anthropologists, economists, historians, planners, political scientists, and sociologists) and humanists (e.g., ethicists, legal scholars, political theorists, and theologians) whose studies may contribute to an understanding of (a) the evolution of concepts of - and strategies for - child protection and (b) the responsibilities of individual adults and the institutions of which they are a part to ensure children's safety and their humane care.

Limited by neither geography, profession, nor setting, the readers of Child Abuse & Neglect have diverse education, experience, interests, and needs for information. Accordingly, the journal seeks the expression of authors' ideas and their empirical findings clearly and cogently, so that articles are accessible to a broad audience. The journal also expects authors to approach problems of child abuse and neglect with a level of care commensurate with the fundamental importance of children's rights to the protection of their personal security, the promotion of their sense of dignity, and the assurance of love and respect in the relationships most important to them.

Toward those ends, Child Abuse & Neglect invites research and commentary on the following topics, among others:


•the conditions that foster or threaten children's safety and sense of personal security in their homes and other settings of everyday life;


•the conditions that enable or hinder parents', extended family members', other caregivers', and other community members' efforts to ensure children's personal security;


•programs and practices to facilitate children's protection from harms or wrongs, their recovery from violations of their personal security, or both;


•community, societal, and international systems to promote children's safety, enhance the quality of their care, and/or facilitate the mitigation of harms and wrongs that they may suffer;


•children's, parents', and other caregivers' own experiences, attitudes, and beliefs in regard to all of these topics.

Child Abuse & Neglect recognizes that child protection is a global concern and that the state of the art continues to evolve. Accordingly, the journal is intended to be useful to scholars, policymakers, concerned citizens, and professional practitioners in countries that are diverse in wealth, culture, and the nature of their formal child protection system. Thus Child Abuse & Neglect welcomes contributions grounded in the traditions of particular cultures and settings. However, international and cross-cultural studies and commentary are of special interest.