Child Abuse and Neglect, Vol. 3, pp. 51 - 60. Pergamon Press Ltd., 1979. Printed in Great Britain.

ILL-TREATMENT OF CHILDRFN : THE: SOCIAL AND LEGAL CONTEXT IN ENGLAND AND

WALES

Jack Chapman Court Welfare Officer

Royal Courts of Justice, London, WC2

The Varying Definitions of a 'Child'

In discussing Child Abuse in its social and legal aspects, it must first be acknowledged that there is a real problem - not just a semantic one - in arriving at an agreed definition of the

term 'child'. This partly because, in England and Wales, the statutes concerned with the education and protection of children have been far from uniform in their statement of the age at which the child or 'minor' ceases to be regarded as such and becomes an adult. In 1880, when the first compulsory Education Act fixed the school leaving age at 13, this was regarded as a landmark after a long period of child exploitation during the early industrial age. Since then, the frontiers of childhood have been pushed forward steadily by legislation. One such advance was signalled b y the 1933 Children and Young persons Aet, which created the English Juvenile Courts, g_ iving them jurisdiction in respect of all young people, whether offenders or in need of care, up to their seventeenth birthday. The concept of Wardship in the High Court, and the laws regulating it, apply to 'minors' up to their eighteenth birthday, as do Care Orders made in the Juvenile Court. However, 'the age of consent' is sixteen years, this being also the threshold point for marriage: and the present legal provision for edu- cation fixes the school leaving age at the sixteenth birthday also. Finally, the age of criminal responsibility remains at ten years, though existing legislation (1) contains pro- visions to raise this by stages to fourteen years.

These varying concepts of what constitutes the appropriate age-span of childhood reveal not only a considerable range of officially expressed attitudes but also, of equal importance, a deep-seated sense of uncertainty in Western industrialised societies about the right methods of dealing with the transition from 'childhood' to adulthood. Contributing to this un- certainty have been a number of factors which have only emerged clearly within the past fifty years. One such development has been the well-attested earlier physical(but not emotional) maturing of older children. The dilemmas posed by this and other problems will be discussed later in relation to the increased anxieties which they bring, as the atmosphere of society becomes both more permissive and at the same time more censorious.

The Risks to Older Children

The ever-increasing output of written material concerning non-accidental injury to children has dealt predominantly with the detection, treatment and prevention of physical injury to infants and children under three years of age. There are doubtless good and compelling reasons for this: all of us, specialists and laymen alike, experience feelings of horror and revulsion on hearing of gross cruelty to helpless and innocent children of tender years. Yet the strength of our feelings, when we are confronted with such situations, tends to obscure the fact that children in all age groups are suffering abuse and that in the case of older children the infliction of physical cruelty, or even the 'witnessing of domestic violence, is likely to have traumatic effects. Any serious injury to a very small child, especially if it is repeated, is bound to attract the attention and concern of adults and to be referred to a doctor, whether it is accidental or not. In contrast, as a child gets older the signs of

'Children and Young Persons Act 1969

51

ili,jllry or stress become more 11i rt'icult to detect a~:tl ~Lagnose '1' the abserce 0s a11 i!:t_,natc kvlowledge of the ir:teractiorls wlthir the family co~cerrled. T!1e I:ew; to res;,ect t:1e 1" ivwc;: or the home, ar.d the ability of parents to create elaborate systems of iiefence, ofte! make ::ron,, t sctio!-1 clifficult so that quite serious abuse of older children tear. corrtiI:le over reiatively long periods, as was seer in the case of Maria Colwell a,:~:, more recer.+l::,Ste~ile 1 Ke:lher:i ott , ~110 'was 18 years 011: ?!hen he died.

?-?rri?v Ira&;mer~tation : its Extent and Effects

rile onl:y official statistics relating to family breakdown which car 5e quote_' >with confiiience are those for divorce decrees, Juuicial separations anti matrislorlial orders in magistrates' courti;. Sjhile the two latter categories have remainea static in recent years, the number of divorces has riser :nore or less steeply year by year since 1970 when neiw legislation came into effect. 'Table I shows, in addition, the percer!tage of divorces ir.volving childrer. axd the rhu,nbers of such children.

TABLE 1

Childrer; involved in Divorces during the period 1970 - 1975

of No. No. of Divorce Divorce Decrees involving Petitions children

Total No. of children conserved

1970 71,700 35,900 71,300 1971 110,900 42,000 82,300 1972 110,700 66,830 130,900 1973 115,491 73,800 126,900 1974 131,700 68,600 135,300 1975 140,100 73,900 145,100 (1976) 146,400 N/A N/A (1977) 167,000 N/A N/A

Source : Office of Population Censuses and Surveys 1978 Series FM2. No. 2. All figures to the nearest

hundred.

However, the marriage figures during the same period show that the number of remarriages after divorce have also increased sharply and it is estimated that approximately 60% of divorcees are now remarrying, many within a short time. Thus there has been a cumulative increase in the number of children growing up in either one-parent families, or in family groups where there is a step-parent because of a previous separation. Estimates of the present number of such children must necessarily be tentative, but it is thought to be in the

region of 950,000 if one includes those whose parents have parted without legal process. In all such cases there has been a break in the continuity of loving care by united parents, which so many writers regard as a fundamental postulate of healthy child development. It is

worth noting the finding of one study quoted by Rutter(1975), that children suffer less dis- turbance through the loss of a parent by death than from prolonged disharmony in the home, whether or not this ends in the separation of their parents. To most children, especially

younger ones, such experiences are traumatic because they are incomprehensible, and all that the children are aware of is the impending break-up of their familiar world, bringing an end to the routine which spells security for them.

Social and Legal Context in England and Wales 53

The main reason for the lack of firm evidence about the extent of family breakdown, both

statistically and in qualitative terms, is that so much of what goes on withiathe four walls of a home is regarded as private and is therefore not easily susceptible to scientific analysis. Only when there is an attempt to portray in documentary form the day-to-day life of an ordinary, randomly-selected, household, as in the B.B.C. television series "The Walkers" shown in 1975, do we obtain a glimpse of the real nature of contemporary family life, and the stresses that lurk beneath the surface facade which most families strive to present to their neighbours. Relatively few people with the necessary skills of observation and analysis are able to penetrate this veil of secrecy and possess the authority to enter homes either on official duties or to facilitate research into the texture of family relationships. The Newsons, in their long-term studies of 700 Nottingham homes, are among the few social scientists who have attempted the task and they are conscious of the serious gaps in their painstaking task, notably the reluctance of fathers to be drawn in and interviewed. The N.S.P.C.C. encountered the same difficulty in obtaining information from or about fathers when carrying out the research on which their study, "At Risk"(l976), is based.

In considering the total number (admittedly imprecise) of children who have experienced the separation of their parents or have been affected by long-standing disharmony between them, it would be easy to give way to pessimism and to exaggerate the results of this. Not all such children are affected in equal measure and, fortunately, many are resilient enough or adaptable enough to emerge from such situations with few outward signs of disturbance in spite of the inner anxieties which must have been engendered in the great majority of them. Nevertheless, doctors, health visitors, social workers and others who see such children in their homes are well aware that a substantial proportion do exhibit the classic symptoms of vulnerability and stress to a minor degree, and a smaller but significant number are deeply and lastingly affected.

The symptoms which most often occur in both groups are enuresis, sometimes accompanied by soiling, nightmares, speech impediments, facial 'tics' or other involuntary'movements, skin complaints, and asthma or bronchitis. Whilst it is plain that some of these ailments can arise from an innate constitutional tendency and may occur among children in 'normal' and supportive families, it is often evident that there is a strong psychosomatic element in- volved, particularly when the onset of an attack coincides regularly with a recurrent stress- ful sequence of events, e.g. access by a separated parent towards whom the child has ambiva- lent feelings.

In many cases there are also behavioural problems of greater or lesser severity. One of the most common and widespread of these is under-achievement at school and a failure by the child to realise the potential of which it is capable. Associated with this may be school phobia (as distinct from truanting) caused by the child's instinctive need to cling to a parent for security. Children under stress may react by becoming on the one hand unnaturally withdrawn and timid, or on the other, hyperactive or aggressive. Stealing within the home is a frequeit danger signal. Finally, when one or more of these symptoms have become persistent, there follows a referral to a child guidance clinic with the further possibility of a place having to be found at a special school for maladjusted children.

Social Isolation : its Origins and Effects

The risk factors associated with Child Abuse have now been so clearly defined and described that it is unnecessary to refer to them in detail in this paper. However, there is one such factor, namely social isolation, which has such a strong bearing on the stress experienced by older children and their subsequent behaviour as parents that its causation and effects repay a fuller analysis.

The usual approach to the phenomenon of social isolation is to see it largely in terms of the feelings of shame and embarrassment arising from the current behaviour of parents towards the children in their home. The remedy usually prescribed is that parents who have abused their children, or appear to be in danger of doing so, should be encouraged to join mutually supportive groups where they can meet and talk about their difficulties openly.

The need for such groups is undoubted: but unfortunately this simple solution to the problem of social isolation is likely to fail if it ignores the existence of a rooted predisposition arising from an upbringing in an unhappy or disrupted family. Too often, conflict between parents, from whatever cause, starts a process of retreat from everyday social contacts

54 J. Chapman

which inevitably has repercussions on the children involved. In this situation a child can suffer quite as much from seeing his parents hitting one another or a brother or sister as if he himself were assaulted. Continuous verbal warfare in the home, particularly if accom- panied by obscenities, can have the same effect.

No longer can such a child chatter spontaneously to his friends at school about all that is happening at home. For him, as for his parents, a shutter has come down cutting him off from the natural enjoyment of sharing and comparing his experiences with others. He can take no pride in his family and therefore feels devalued. The title chosen by Erin Pizzey for her book, "Scream quietly lest the neighbours should hear", epitomises the dilemmas faced by adults and children alike in such situations.

The important point to be grasped is that in contemporary conditions this is by no means an uncommon experience. School teachers, especially those who act as cour~sellors, are acutely aware of the rising proportion of their pupils whose home circumstances must be referred to circumspectly. Where there has been actual family breakdown and separation, teachers and social workers frequently become involved in webs of suspicion and secretiveness, with addresses withheld by one parent from the other, telephone numbers ex-directory, risks of embarrassment, or worse, vhen both parents attend prize giving, and other by-products of parental conflict.

A further problem which often arises and causes distress in varying degrees to the children concerned is over their surnames, when these differ from that of the parent with whom they are living. At school a child has to try to explain to his peers why his name is not the same as his mother's, if she has remarried. 'This has both social and iegal aspects: it causes a sense of confused identity, particularly if there is a half-brother or half-sister with the mother's surname; yet for the past five years it has been forbidden in divorce anri wardship cases to change a child's surname without the express permission of the Court(2). When mothers contract successive marriages or have more than one 'liaison', the anxiety and confusion arising from changes of family surname can in itself be extremely damaging to a child's developing self-image.

Vhile many children manage to emerge relatively nnscathed from these internal and often un- suspected ordeals, it is not surprising that a small proportion become permanently scarred and find it difficult, if not impossible, to form normal confident relationships in adult life. These are often the ones who marry early, find adjustment to parenthood too difficult, and become depressed and isolated giving rise to the classic conditions within which child abuse is likely to occur. But the seeds of their social isolation were often sown at an earlier stage of their life.

The Link between Criminality and Child Abuse

During the past ten years the steeply rising divorce rate has been paralleled by a sharp increase in crime of all types, but particularly in offences of violence. It is not suggested that there is necessarily a close correlation betiieen these trends which are proh- ably separate symptoms of a common underlying social malaise. Nevert'heless, if one puts the following facts together, it becomes possible to discern a direct link bet!$eer? criminal behaviour and gross ill-treatment of children.

First, there has been a dramatic and disproportionate increase in offending in the 14 - 21

age group, which is now responsible for one third of the whole total of indictable offences in England and Wales.

Secondly, it is by now well establ.ished that a high proportion of the parents who inj1ir.e their children deliberately were married between the ages of 16 an<1 20, and when the wife was already p'ebmant.

Thirdly, both the Home Office and the N.S.P.C.C., in separate researches, have follnd a high incidence of previous criminal behaviour by such parents or their partners.

Is it not likely that deviant hehaviour and precipitate marriage are symptomatic of the

2 Matrimonial Causes Rules 1973

Social. and Legal Context in England and Wales 55

feelings of alienation experienced by adolescents in bitterly disrupted homes ? And if they have either experienced or witnessed violence in their original home, is this not probably another link in the chain of causation leading ultimately to child abuse in its grosser forms ? Thifi whole area needs to be illuminated by research, taking as its starting point the widespread incidence of law-breaking in the community at large and the inevitable bearing of this on ordinary family relationships and the kind of behaviour which children come to rc- gard as 'normal' within their home circle.

A Strategy for Restoring Family Stability

In the light of what has so far been said, is it possible to chart some lines of approach to the education of parents and parents-to-be concerning the elements of family stability and the essentials of child rearing 7 In spite of the publication of a host of books on the sub- ject, there appears to be no settled opinion on these matters which commands universal respect; and experts have too often appeared to be at variance in their views. Yet there is now a wide consensus over the basic needs of children to ensure their full mental and emotional development. A distillation of knowledge about this is, for example, provided by Kellmer Pringle in "The Needs of Children"(1975) in which she quotes ten basic precepts for the upbringing of children.

What may be required is reading matter which attempts to apply such precepts, based on the insights of paediatricians and psychiatrists, to the kind of situations in which typical contemporary families find themselves. The House of Commons Select Committee on Violence in the Family evidently believes this to be so: in their First Report(1977) they noted the need for a widely-available handbook on Bringing Up Children and recommended that such a publi- cation should be produced.

Closely related to this and no doubt using suitable reading material as a basis for discussion there should be a determined attempt to produce an agreed syllabus for adolescent groups on Preparation for Marriage and Parenthood. Such groups, with appropriately trained leaders, should be part of the teaching programme of every secondary school and could be widely intro- duced in youth clubs, and in church groups for young people where the stress would naturally be placed on the imperatives of Christian morality.

In planning future educational programmes in this field, whether they are intended for young a&lts or adolescents still at school, there should be a much firmer emphasis on the vital need for continuity in the nurturing of children within a domestic situation, be it a married relationship or one of cohabitation only. It should be pointed out that since children are the natural outcome of setting up a home, their deepest and most fundamental needs must be foreseen and provided for with reasonable certainty when the time comes. The demands of parents for release from marital or domestic stress must at least be measured against the in- dispensable requirements of children - unspoken and inarticulate as these may be - but none the less real and urgent both for them and for the society of which they are a part. Even though many people would regard this as primarily a moral question, the arguments can be putin purely practical terms, and it is likely that only on this plane will an impact be made on the minds of the majority, in an age dominated by material considerations.

Argument has raged, and will continue to do so, over mothers of young children going out to work. In relation to the unmet need for nursery schools, it has recently been estimated that 4 out of 10 such mothers in London now have a job outside the home. It is said, (a) that families need the extra income and, (b) that mothers benefit from the release which this brings them from domestic ro,tine. Yet most social workers would confirm the prevalence of homes where standards are high and there may be a plethora of toys, but where living contact with the children by either parent is at an unacceptably low level. As an example, in a home recently visited by the writer, with the father in a well-paid full-time occupation, the mother was found to be working five evenings a week , going out as soon as the father returned from work. When questioned the mother stated quite frankly that her only motive for working was to provide her with a diversion from her home duties.

The Present Legal Framework of Child Protection in England and Wales

When Parliament passed the first legislation for the specific protection of children in the latter half of the 19th Century, the aim was solely to prevent the exploitation of children

56 J. Chapman

who were being put to work in industry and the mines. Although this constituted an inter- ference with the established rights of heads of families - and was resented for this reason - it would have seemed unthinkable at that stage to question and to regulate in any way what went on behind the closed doors of the home.

It has only been in the 20th century that the focus has shifted from the abuses of child labour to a concern for the more general welfare of children in the home, the school and the community. This concern has been expressed in three separate ways : first, by a strength- ening and extension of the adult criminal law in relation to children; secondly, by the intro- duction and development of the principle of 'care' of children who are at risk; and thirdly by legislation designed to safeguard the rights of children caught up in the divorce or separation of their parents.

It is clearly beyond the scope of this paper to list and describe in detail the bewildering and complex array of statutes which now exist to protect the interests of children(T). All that will be attempted is a mention of some legal landmarks over the past 75 years, and an estimate of the effectiveness of the law in preventing child abuse and neglect or moderating its incidence.

The Criminal Law and Children

Offences committed against children may be divided into two categories: those which are applicable to adults and children alike, and those which relate specifically to children. In

the former category are the major offences against the person - murder, manslaughter, rape, kidnapping and serious assaults. In the latter category are infanticidecrarely invoked now), incest, homosexual practices with minors, intercourse with a girl under the age of consent, and neglect causing avoidable suffering. There is still legislation restricting the employ- ment of children. An adult offence which is now virtually obsolete, though still on the statute book, is being drunk in charge of a child.

One of the commonest offences against children, which is applicable to adults also, is

indecency. The problems involved in bringing the law to bear on deviant behaviour towards children is clearly illustrated by the offence of indecent assault. This may occur within the home and be committed by a parent or relative; or it may take place outside the home and be by a stranger, or perhaps by someone in charge of children. Whatever the circumstances, the offender is often in the grip of an obsessive urge and may be as much in need of treat- ment as of punishment. In appropriate cases this is recognised by the Judge or Magistrate when passing sentence and is dealt with leniently. But the general public, unaware of the full background of individual cases, may feel a sense of outrage at what appears to be a condonation of child abuse. The same individual may exhibit the greatest laxity in his own morals and behaviour and yet be among the most censorious where offences against children are concerned. A well-known example of this tendency is the need to segregate such offenders who are imprisoned from other prisoners for their own protection.

The Caring Principle : Wardship, Guardianship and the Juvenile Courts

It is in the application of the principle of caring for children and safeguarding their

interests that there has been the most continuous, and sometimes confusing, g rowth of legi-

slation. This has occurred mainly during the 20th century; but historically the oldest juri- sdiction which has included children within its scope has been that of Wardship, now exer- cised by the Family Division of the High Court. Originally invoked comparatively rarely, and

then chiefly to prevent minors from exploitation over money matters, Wardship is now under- going an upsurge of popularity as a speedy method of shielding children who appear to be gravely at risk by bringing them under the umbrella of the Court's protection. The immediate effect of a Wardship application is that the Court assumes the custody of the child and can either impose a stand-still on events (as when it seems likely that a child may be removed from the jurisdiction of the Court) or may make a temporary Order ensuring the child's safety until a satisfactory long-term plan can be devised and sanctioned by the Court. In almost all

such cases a Court Welfare Officer's report is called for, but in some the Official Solicitor is invited to act as Guardian-ad-Litem in order that the child may be legally represented in

TThe standard work is Clark Hall and Morrison on Children: 9th Edition,1976

Social and Legal Context in England and Wales 57

court ( independently of the parents. An advantage of Wardship is that anyone closely con- nected with the child, but not necessarily a relative, can initiate proceedings. Many Local Authorities are now taking this course.

Guardianship of Minors (formerly called Guardianship of Infants) is within the jurisdiction of the Magistrates' Courts primarily, but also of the High Court. It provides for relatives of children whose parents may be dead, missing or incapable of providing proper care, to apply to the Court for an Order giving the relative formal and legal responsibility for the child. It also provides for a parent to seek custody of, or access to, a child, including an illegitimate child, where no other proceedings(e.g. divorce) are appropriate. Sometimes such proceedings later become combined with custody suits in the Divorce Court. However,the caring principle has been given its fullest and most developed expression in the Juvenile Courts, created as a separate section of the Magistrates' Courts in 1933. In this paper only the most salient features of the Juvenile Courts can be mentioned. From the beginning they have been concerned both with the criminal law relating to offences by children and young persons and with the civil law concerning their care and protection. From 1933 till 1969 the procedure for dealing with these two categories remained distinct, though children from both 'streams' could be committed to Care and then received identical treatment. There was thus an acknow- ledgement that children, even if over the age of criminal responsibility, could not be held fully to account for their delinquency and were deserving of care as much as those who needed protection because of their family circumstances. Since 1969 this principle has been made more explicit: in order to make a Care Order after a child has been charged with an offence which has been found proved, the Court must also be satisfied that the child is in need of care and control which he is unlikely to receive unless the Court makes an Order.

Two of the most important developments in Juvenile Court law relating to Child Abuse or Neglect have been the provision for the making of a Place of Safety Order, embodied in the original 1933 Act and the Assumption of Parental Rights by Local Authorities under Section 2 of the 1948 Children Act. Unfortunately, some recent legal decisions have appeared to place serious obstacles in the way of Local Authorities taking speedy and decisive action when this seems necessary - hence their increasing use of the Wardship jurisdiction, as noted earlier.

Some of the latest legislation concerned with the protection of children was embodied in the 1975 Children Act, the 1.976 Domestic Violence and Matrimonial Proceedings Act and, most recently, in the Domestic Proceedings and Magistrates ' Courts Act which received the Royal Assent on 30th June 1978, though there must be some delay in its implementation. As a direct result of the deficiencies in Juvenile Court procedure which came to light following the death of Maria Colwell in 1974, there was provision in the I.975 Act for separate repre- sentation of children and the appointment of a guardian-ad-litem in unopposed applications for the revocation of Care Orders. The 1~6 Act was an attempt to deal with the problem of violence within the home by giving County Courts powers to issue injunctions restraining spouses of cohabitees from assaulting their partners or their children, and to make an Order excluding the offending partner from the home. If the Judge is satisfied that the offending person has caused actual bodily harm to the applicant or a child concerned, and that he is likely to do so again, he can attach a power of arrest to the Order. A constable may then arrest the person if he suspects a breach of the Order; before a Judge within 24 hours.

but he must bring the person arrested

Some Appeal Court Judges had doubts about the over-riding of property rights; but following a House of Lords ruling a compromise appears to have been reached and 'exclusion' injunctions are now usually made for a period of one to three months to give time for the problems to be resolved, or action taken. Whether this will provide a sufficient safeguard is open to some doubt.

Now the 1978 Act, which will radically alter the nature of proceedings in the matrimonial jurisdiction of magistrates, will give them carefully defined powers, where there has been violence, to make personal protection Orders and exclusion Orders and to back them with a power of arrest. When these provisions of the 1978 Act come into operation, it is hoped that this armoury will provide an effective means of dealing with the scourge of domestic violence and afford protection to children and mothers - and sometimes to fathers also.

The latest Act to arrive on the statute book is the Child Protection Act which originated in a private member's Bill and is designed to prevent the exploitation of children for porno- graphic purposes.

58 J. Chapman

Children caught up in Divorces and Separations

Divorce is dealt with by the High Court and County Courts: matrimonial Orders following sepa- rations and, as in divorce, often involving disputes over the custody of children, are made in Magistrates Courts or the Domestic Courts. In all such cases a Court Welfare Officer's Report (in the Magistrates' Court) can be called for. A divorce decree cannot be made absolute unless the Judge declares that the arrangements proposed for the future of the children are satisfactory or are the best that can be devised in the circumstances. 'These arrangements normally include prov ision for access and reports are sometimes required con- cerning this. Supervision Orders on children can be made in all courts.

Thus, every effort has been made in the legislation relating to divorce and matrimonial dis- putes to provide built-in safewards against disregard o f the children's long-term interests. To some extent this is successful in mitigating the worst effects of the anxiety and bitter- ness generated by family disruption. But inevitably there will in many cases be damaging consequences which the best-intentioned legislation cannot prevent. Because of lack of man- power and resources in the Probation Service, which provides Court Welfare Officers, there is in many areas of the country, including the High Court, a strict limitation on the number of reports for the Court that can be ordered. This means that only in the most obviously diffi- cult cases is there any in-depth examination of the situation as it affects the children. It is probable that some divorces go through without adequate assurance that the children's interests have been fully considered.

The Prospects for Constructive Legal Reform

It is evident that in many respects the present body of English law relating to children is not wholly effective and has become unnecessarily complex and confusing to lawyers and laymen alike . One of the main reasons for this is the variety of jurisdictions and the consequent overlapping of functions exercised by Courts at different levels. In order to eliminate much of this, and at least to simplify the area of civil law , proposals have been put forward for the establishment in England and Wales of Family Courts on a similar basis to those operating successfully in other countries, notably Australia. Such Courts, if introduced, would have the following advantages :-

1. 'They would enable family disputes to be adjudicated, and the welfare of children to be considered, in a non-criminal setting.

2. They would have an experienced welfare staff, the members of which could be available to give general help and advice to those facing the possibility of family disruption, or coping with the results of it.

It is now abundantly clear that although legal process will always be necessary for the settling of stubborn family divisions and for the protection of children who suffer as the result or because of, criminal offences, the law is often a blunt instrument in dealing with sensitive areas of human conduct where emotions run high and reason is at a premium.

Contradictions in Public and Private Attitudes

'The growth during the past 45 years of such a veritable forest of legislative provision is the firmest evidence that there has been a high level of public anxiety over the welfare of chil- dren in England and Wales. Yet in recent years, the conventional attitude towards children,

especially young children, has been to idealise them almost to the point of sentimentality. As most social workers would confirm, children are nowadays far more often over-indulged than ili-treated in a direct way. Why, then, has it been necessary to create such a complex frame- work of protection for them during a period when living standards have improved throughout the population ?

The explanation of this seeming paradox may lie in a conscious awareness (or more often a dim discernment) of the profound social malaise which has overtaken the family and rendered all its component members, including children, vulnerable in new ways. Some of the possible causes of this vulnerability have been sketched in this paper. But it should be noted that an important factor has been a growing divergence between what people say about children and what they do. The same individual who would publicly express horror over any instance of

Social and Legal Context in England and Wales 59

cruelty to children and would wax indignant at the thought of his or her child receiving corporal punishment at school, will often think nothing of going out for the evening leaving his own very young children alone in the home or with another child a year or two older in

charge of them. There seems to be little adult understanding of the effect on children of all ages of disruption within the home or frequent breaks in the continuity of their care. Unfortunately, the predominance in this era of the nuclear family and the consequent retreat into a jealously guarded domestic privacy make it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to detect with accaracy the current patterns of family behaviour. Any would-be researchers are, in effect, faced with a massive 'cover-up' by parents intent on projecting the best possible image of themselves. Only through, for example, television viewing figures can it be inferred how much or how little time parents spend in vital and active contact with their children. Only by weaving together many strands of such indirect evidence can a picture be built up of the extent to which children's basic needs are being left unmet; often in homes where material affluence is considerable.

As many social workers and police will testify, parents of truants often show indifference or, worse, involve their children in tasks which keep them from school. There is frequently a similar reaction to offences committed by their children, for example burglary, vandalism, taking motor vehicles and robbery with violence. A strong case can therefore be made for a more general enforcement of legal penalties in the shape of fines or compensation against the parents of truants and delinquents. So long as society, in England and Wales, maintains that the young cannot be held fully responsible for deviant behaviour because this is essentially linked to lack of parental control, it must logically follow that adults should not only share the blame but be penalised for the consequences of their children's behaviour(4). There would doubtless be situations where no shadow of blame could be attributed to the parents; but discretion could be exercised in these cases, which would not alter the princ- iple that parents should be held accountable to some degree for the anti-social mani- festations of their methods of dealing with their children.

Conclusion

At a time when politicians of all parties are vieing with one another in stressing the role of the family as the keystone of society, the view seems to be taken that its well-being and stability can be assured through tax changes and other measures of financial support, This paper argues that a broader vision is necessary to ensure the conditions in which children can receive not only adequate material care and nourishment but the kind of supportive nurture which will promote their fullest intellectual and emotional development. While avoidable poverty is in itself an evil and can cause severe tensions contributing to child abuse, there is a less easily definable poverty in the quality of many family relationships which can cause psychological deprivation and suffering, whether or not this is linked with the infliction of physical cruelty.

During 1979, the International Year of the Child, attention will be focused in many less fortunate countries on securing for children the means of bare survival. In Western industrialised societies, on the other hand, the aim should be to throw more light on the disintegrating forces which cause widespread unhappiness among children and in some cases result in their death or permanent injury. Much has been said and written about the Cycle of Deprivation, and how to break it in order to help the many families which become enmeshed in it, Urgent study needs now to be given to what may be described as the Cycle of Family Disruption, and our efforts should be directed to restoring the continuity and wholeness of family relationships which are equally indispensable to the health and safety of children in our society.

'Under the Criminal Law Act 1977, parents can now be held responsible for paying fines imposed on their children.

60 J. Chapman

REFXRXNCES

CENTRAL COUNCIL FOR ~~U~AT~ON AND TRAINING IN SOCIAL WORK: study No. 1. 1978. Good Enough Parenting.

EEKELAAR J. 1978 : Family Law and Social Policy.

GO~ST~~N J., FREUD A., SOLNIT, A.3. 1973 : Beyond the Best Interests of the Child.

SLUR PRINGLE M. 1975 : The Needs of Children.

OFFICE OF POPULATION CENSUSES AND SURVEY 1978 : Series Fw., No. 2. Marriage and Divorce Statistics.

RUTTER M. 1975 : Helping Troubled Children.

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