Violations of Trust:
How Social and Welfare Institutions Fail Children and
Young People
First published 2006 by Ashgate Publishing
Published 2016 by Routledge
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Copyright Judith Bessant, Richard Hil and Rob Watts 2005
Judith Bessant, Richard Hil and Rob Watts have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the editors of this work.
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Violations of trust : how social and welfare institutions
fail children and young people. - (Welfare and society)
1. Child abuse - Australia 2. Child welfare - Australia
I. Bessant, Judith II. Hil, Richard, 1953- III. Watts, Rob
362.7'6'0994
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Violations of trust : how social and welfare institutions fail children and young
people / edited by Judith Bessant, Richard Hil and Rob Watts.
p. cm. -- (Welfare and society)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. ChildrenInstitutional careAustralia 2. Child welfare workers--Malpractice--
Australia. 3. Child abuse. 4. Youth-Crimes against. 5. Child welfare workers--
Malpractice. I. Bessant, Judith. II. Hil, Richard, 1953- III. Watts, Rob. IV. Title.
V. Series.
HV866.A8B47 2005
362.73'2--dc22
2005020591
ISBN: 978-1-3518-7577-6 (hbk)
Contents
Judith Bessant, Richard Hil and Rob Watts
Susanne Davies
Peter Kelly
Robert van Krieken
Ruth Weber and Sharon Gacey
Rob Watts
Judith Bessant and Richard Hil
Moira Rayner
Bob Jacobs
Uschi Bay
Like most edited books, this project has been time-consuming, labour intensive and intellectually challenging. Given the exigencies of academic and public life, unexpected hiccups and the odd delay here and there, the book has taken well over three and a half years to reach publication. On the way, we were ably assisted and encouraged by a number of people, not least by Mary Savigar and Caroline Wintersgill at Ashgate Publishing, for whom patience appears to be a major virtue. We would also like to thank the many authors who contributed to this volume and especially to Chris Sidoti for his insightful preface. Our thanks also go to Liz Routledge and Jennifer Grainger for turning the chapters into something resembling camera ready copy.
Our appreciation also extends to library staff at the University of Coventry and Queensland University of Technology for all their help and support in tracking down references and other such tasks. Finally, we wish to extend our sincere gratitude to all those children and young people who are the subject of this volume. Although they are not identified individually by name they are individuals who have often experienced the most awful and traumatic experiences at the hands of those charged with their care and protection. It is with great sadness, but not surprise, that as we write (December 2004) there are major investigations in two Australian states into the institutional abuses of state wards. Chris Sidotis grim forebodings stated in the preface to this book appear to be accurate.
We hope that the chapters in this book, and other books like it, go some way to liberating current and future generations from the possibility of abuse and neglect. There is certainly a long way to go in this respect, as current experience attests. If change is to be realised, then a good starting point might be to revisit how we come to think about and respond to children and young people, and to reappraise what trust means in contexts of regular abuse and neglect. There is certainly no room for complacency in this regard, and we hope that this book may contribute, albeit modestly, to advancing the rights of children and young people as fully-fledged citizens in a society that treats them with respect and dignity. Sadly, this has not always been the case historically, or in the present day.
Welfare And Society:
Studies in Welfare Policy, Practice and Theory
Series Editors:
Matthew Colton, Kevin Haines, Peter Raynor and Ms Susan Roberts
The Department of Applied Social Sciences
University of Wales Swansea, UK
Welfare and Society is an exciting series from the University of Wales Swansea, Department of Applied Social Sciences in conjunction with Ashgate, concerned with all aspects of social welfare. The series publishes works of research, theory, history and practice from a wide range of contemporary applied social studies subjects such as Criminal Justice, Child Welfare, Community Care, Race and Ethnicity, Therapeutic and Intervention Techniques, Community Development and Social Policy. The series includes extended research reports of scholarly interest as well as works aimed at both the academic and professional communities.
Uschi Bay is currently Lecturer in Social Sciences at Southern Cross University, Coffs Harbour Campus, New South Wales, Australia. Previously, she has engaged in extensive practice as a social worker, and undertaken media and community work. As Head of Equity at Victoria University, her work involved policy development, program implementation and action research in relation to students and equal employment opportunity strategies for staff.
Judith Bessant is Professor of Youth Studies and Sociology in the School of Social Science and Planning at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. She has authored and edited a number of books and journal articles in the areas of youth studies, social policy, sociology, education and social history.
Susanne Davies is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Law and Legal Studies at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia. An historian by training, her teaching, research and writing interests span critical criminology and legal studies, socio-legal history, sexuality studies, and feminist theory and epistemology. She is a former Director of the Womens Studies Program at La Trobe, a founding member of the Australian Feminist Law Journal, and is currently the Chair of Somebodys Daughter Theatre Company, which works with women prisoners and ex-prisoners, and youth at risk. Her publications include two edited volumes, the latest being Harsh Punishment: International Experience of Womens Imprisonment, which was co-edited with Sandy Cook.
Richard Hil is Senior Lecturer in Social Sciences at Southern Cross University, Coffs Harbour Campus, New South Wales, Australia. Previously, he taught at the University of York, James Cook University, Sunshine Coast University College, and Queensland University of Technology. In addition to having published extensively in scholarly journals Richard has also edited a number of books, and co-authored
