Governing Child Abuse

This book reports on the history of governing child abuse in New South Wales, Australia. A history of child welfare from the nineteenth century to its transformation into child protection in the 1980''s is conducted to render intelligible its rationality of governance given its history of relentless reform. The research reveals significant continuity in the governance of children and their families over this period in spite of regular reform efforts. The older techniques of child welfare are grafted on to newer rationalities of governance, demonstrating that while the object and aims of government may change, the technique of government does not. This history challenges many histiographies that claim that the contemporary governance of child abuse is novel. Rather, it is argued that discipline and punishment remain important stategies for the liberal policing of families.