Cultural Variations and Child Care Policy
he new-style Child Abuse Review has been firmly estab-T lished with the successful launch of the first issue last April. Indeed, there has been so much interest in the Journal that Issue 1 was reprinted as a result of the large number of requests for inspection copies.
Profits from the First National Congress on the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect have helped BASPCAN finance the production of the 1992 Volume. Therefore it seems appropriate that the second issue begins with a review presented at the Opening Session by the President of ISPCAN, Helen Agathonos-Georgopoulou, on 'Crosscultural perspectives in child abuse and neglect'. It will be important for a British journal with an international focus to continue to reflect on cultural variations between continents, across Europe and within the United Kingdom itself.
Comparisons between different societies can be at a descriptive level or on a more conceptual basis. In this issue Drs Kennedy and Manwell describe 'The pattern of child sexual abuse in Northern Ireland', which allows them to compare case characteristics and incidence rates within Britain and the USA. At a first glance, Professor Masson's contribution 'Managing risk under the Children Act 1989' may only seem relevant to England and Wales, where the Act is in force. Reading the paper, however, it becomes apparent that the concept of 'diversion in child care' is applicable to managing children at risk of maltreatment everywhere. For example, Allan Bowman follows the paper with applications that can be made to his work as a director of social work in Scotland.
It would be interesting to hear from readers in other countries about the effect of change in child care policy for the prevention of child abuse and neglect in their own culture. For example, Eire's Child Care Act 1991 has been described as 'a delicate balance between the rights of parents as established in the Irish constitution on the one hand, and the UN Declaration on the rights of the child on the other'