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An historical perspective on family violence and child abuse: Comment on Moloney et al, Allegations of Family Violence, June 12 2007
Nicholas Bala
Faculty of Law, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada
Abstract
This comment discusses the historical development of social attitudes, social science research, and approaches in the justice system towards allegations of spousal and child abuse.
Until relatively recently, victims of child abuse and spousal violence
were largely ignored by the justice system, mental health professionals and
social science researchers, and these victims rarely disclosed.
In the late twentieth century, heavily
influenced by feminist advocates and researchers, spousal violence and child
sexual abuse were 'discovered'; there was growing understanding and support for
victims, and a great increase in reporting of child and spousal violence.
The increase in reporting by genuine victims was accompanied a less frequent but serious problem - cases of false and exaggerated allegations. While a gendered basis analysis of issues of spousal and child abuse remains valuable, there is a need for development of more sophisticated and differentiated understandings of intimate partner violence and child abuse.
Keywords
intimate partner abuse, child abuse, law reform, domestic violence,
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