The Truth is Longer Than a Lie provides important insights into children's experiences of abuse and their perception of professional intervention. Mudaly and Goddard promote the emerging child-centred approach to research, which provides children with an opportunity to talk about abuse and its effects on their lives, their views on the reasons for abuse, their opinions of abusers and non-offending parents and the dynamics of disclosing abuse. A section on children's perceptions of the professionals who intervened to protect them, to prosecute the abuser, or to provide therapeutic counselling sets the context for a discussion of how professionals can respond appropriately to individuals' needs. The authors also examine societal factors that increase children's vulnerability, and propose measures for preventing abuse. They outline the requirements of ethically sound research, including appropriate interviewing techniques, and conclude with suggestions for future research, drawing on feedback from abused children.The Truth is Longer Than a Lie is a key resource for social workers, child protection workers, counsellors, legal professionals and anyone working with abused children.
1. The power of children's voices. 2. The silencing of children. 3.Child-centred practice: the foundation to effective research with children who have been abused. 4. The ethics of listening to children in research. 5. A chance to be heard: involving children who have been abused in research. 6. Children's voices: their views on abuse and the impact of abuse. 7. Children's voices: their views about making disclosures, about abusers and about non-offending parents. 8. Children's voices: Their experiences of professional intervention. 9. Children as hostages to abuse. 10. Children's vulnerability to abuse: a double-edged issue. 11. The complexity of listening professionally to children. 12. The way forward. References. Index
This excellent book places the voices of child victims of abuse at the centre of an exploration of their experiences. That this should be seen to be a unique approach to the subject is bot sobering and exciting... The book will be of interest to social workers, child protection workers, academics, students and anyone working with abused children. From my perspective as a Lecturer in Social Work, I found the approach and subject matter resonated with the wider movement towards including and responding to the views of service users in both education and practice.
