A model of intervention in child-abusing families: a wider systems view

This paper describes the application of some principles, taken from the modern psychotherapies by a therapeutic team, to the assessment and treatment of serious child abuse. Factors and dilemmas identified from the assessment and decision-making process are outlined, with particular reference to the roles of the various statutory and community agencies involved with such families. The paper demonstrates the ways in which the range of community and professional agencies may play a pathological role, unintentionally contributing to and maintaining child-abusing dynamics in families. The significance of dangerous unintended consequences of well-meaning agency interventions and of covert interagency activities are stressed.