Introduction

This chapter and the next two are informed by a growing social sciences literature on suffering, a literature that not only seeks to engage with people's own experiences but also raises interesting and complicated questions about research practices (Ribbens McCarthy, 2013; Wilkinson, 2005). We would suggest that this literature offers important insights into how vocabularies of expertise have been used throughout modernity diverting attention from the human significance of what suffering does to people (Wilkinson, 2005). Such language is not only ill suited to conveying the existential trauma of human suffering but its tendency towards abstraction has promoted the treatment of people in purely instrumental terms.

This chapter focuses explicitly on the suffering caused by poverty, the lived experiences of those in poverty and the links with maltreatment, while Chapter Seven explores intimate partner violence and the importance of engaging with gendered identities and practices. Chapter Eight draws from research on the lived experiences of families with high degrees of need, vulnerability and risk.

A few years ago, one of us was present at a large international conference on child abuse and heard a very influential researcher deliver a keynote speech about the features that might be present in families where neglect was occurring. The speaker noted that it was often possible ‘if one looked around to find a bit of poverty hovering about’. This seemed an astonishing statement from a very well established researcher as it seemed to miss the often all encompassing nature of living in poverty where decisions have to be made often many times a day about what to forego, what to prioritise, and how to stop feeling so ashamed. Indeed, the glib formulation likened the experience to a surface manifestation of dust that could simply be swept away. Such an underestimation or, indeed, neglect is not that surprising and has a recent history in social work (see Becker and MacPherson, 1988). However, it is problematic and, in this chapter, we attempt to redress what we see as a shocking neglect of the role of poverty and deprivation in families’ difficulties.