Moral Panics, Claims-Making and Child Protection in the UK

TY - JOUR

T1 - Moral Panics, Claims-Making and Child Protection in the UK

AU - Clapton, Gary

AU - Cree, Viviene E.

AU - Smith, Mark

N1 - No funding info.

PY - 2013/6/1

Y1 - 2013/6/1

N2 - This paper brings sociological theory on moral panics to a discussion of child protection social work in the UK. We begin by considering the extent to which policy and practice may be susceptible to distortion by ‘claims-making’, the influence of which, we will argue, casts a rarely explored and less understood influence on the service's practice and direction. We conclude that claims-making has had a detrimental effect on child protection, contributing to a coarsening of attitudes towards families in child protection work, a retreat from preventative practice and a deterioration in relationships between social workers, service users and members of the public more generally.

AB - This paper brings sociological theory on moral panics to a discussion of child protection social work in the UK. We begin by considering the extent to which policy and practice may be susceptible to distortion by ‘claims-making’, the influence of which, we will argue, casts a rarely explored and less understood influence on the service's practice and direction. We conclude that claims-making has had a detrimental effect on child protection, contributing to a coarsening of attitudes towards families in child protection work, a retreat from preventative practice and a deterioration in relationships between social workers, service users and members of the public more generally.

KW - Child protection

KW - claims-making

KW - moral panics

U2 - 10.1093/bjsw/bct061

DO - 10.1093/bjsw/bct061

M3 - Article

SN - 0045-3102

VL - 43

SP - 803

EP - 812

JO - British Journal of Social Work

JF - British Journal of Social Work

IS - 4

ER -