Children Australia: Volume 15 -

Child Sexual Abuse: Past and Current Myths
Christopher R. Goddard
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29 February 2016, pp. 37-40
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Violence and assault within the home have always occurred in the shadows. Throwing light on the problems has never been easy, with the players in the tragedies disappearing and the action ceasing as soon as they were illuminated. For health and welfare workers now faced with large numbers of child sexual abuse victims the fact that the problem of child sexual abuse remained hidden for so long is difficult to comprehend. The evidence does not indicate a large increase in child sexual abuse, so the uncomfortable reality must be that the victims suffered in silence or their cries for help remained unheard or unheeded. As Hewitt so graphically proposes, the problem has always been:
“… characterised by silence and shame on the part of the victim, and disbelief and ignorance on the part of the community.”

Discipline - a positive guide for parents by Martin Herbert, Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1989. 141pp.
Roger Miller
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29 February 2016, p. 49
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Child Sexual Abuse and Cleveland: Further Lessons to be Learned
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29 February 2016, pp. 41-43
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This article concludes my interview with the established social work writer and practitioner, Kieran O'Hagan, who visited Australia recently. Kieran's most recent book Working with Child Sexual Abuse, examines child sexual abuse after Cleveland.

Psychology and parenting by Jean Gross, Open University Press, Philadelphia, 1989. 147 pp
Jan Mathews
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29 February 2016, pp. 50-51
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Homeless Children and Children's Rights: The Starting Line in the Human Race
Chris Goddard
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29 February 2016, pp. 52-54
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The new-born child arrives in the world with an awesome array of capacities and reflexes. They can suck, cough, cry, squirm, turn their heads and grip objects (Segal and Segal, 1985). As Somerville points out, however, what we have to remember is that all children are born ‘prematurely’, in that their character and personality are yet to be fully formed (1982: 242).
It was Wilhelm Reich, I believe, who clearly portrayed the shock of being born. After 40 weeks or thereabouts of security, the newborn arrives in a world that is far less warm and far more threatening than the womb. The baby is picked up by the legs, slapped briskly and removed from his or her mother. Reich argued that the world was destined to remain in a mess while new residents are greeted in such a fashion. For some children, even in wealthy countries like Australia, those first few minutes set the scene for much of their future lives.

Children Australia