Brigid Daniel is Professor of Social Work at the University of Stirling. She is the co-author of a number of books on child care and protection and has a particular interest in factors that help children to cope with adversity. She was a member of the multi-disciplinary team that carried out a national ministerial review of child protection practice in Scotland.

There has been much written over the last thirty years on the issue of the abuse of children, and professional responses. Rather than repeating what has already been said the authors in this fine collection challenge our thinking of how we conceptualise and understand these complex issues. In doing so the editors and contributors push at the boundaries of our understanding, and readers will be rewarded with big ideas, clearly articulated and convincingly argued.

• Introduction. Part 1. Challenge One: Examining Preconceptions About Childhood and Harm to Children. Chapter 1. Treatment of Childhood, Professor Walter Lorenz, Free University of Bozen-Bolsano. Chapter 2. Dynamics of Culture, Dr. Heather Montgomery, Open University. Chapter 3. Rule of Law, Professor Kay Tisdall, The University of Edinburgh. Chapter 4. Armed Conflict and Political Violence, Dr. Jason Hart, University of Bath. Part 2. Challenge Two: Reviewing the Evidence. Chapter 5. Ethics of Predictive Risk Modelling, Associate Professor Tim Dare, University of Auckland. Chapter 6. Safeguarding Children Research from a United Kingdom Perspective, Dr. Trevor Spratt, Queen's University of Belfast. Chapter 7. Research in Child Abuse and Neglect from a Finnish Context, Tarja Poso, University of Tampere. Chapter 8. Developments in Australian Child Protection Research, Dr. Fiona Arney, Associate Professor Leah Bromfield and Research Assistant Stewart McDougall, University of South Australia. Chapter 9. Advances from Public Health Research, Dr. Melissa O'Donnell, Telethon Institute for Child Health Research. Part 3. Challenge Three: How to Work with Children and Families. Chapter 10. Integrating Family Support and Child Protection in Child Neglect, Professor Brigid Daniel, University of Stirling. Chapter 11. Practitioner-mother Relationships and the Processes That Blind Them, Lorraine Waterhouse and Janice McGhee. Chapter 12. Emotional and Relational Capacities for Doing Child Protection, Professor Andrew Cooper, Tavistock Centre and University of East London. References. Index.