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.

Contents:

• 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

Author Bio:

Neerosh Mudaly has a doctorate in social work and 28 years’ clinical practice experience, including 12 years in child protection and 16 as a child and family therapist. She is an expert in the field of child abuse, with experience spanning clinical supervision, training and consultancy and legal advocacy as an expert court witness. She has a strong child-centred approach to practice and training and has previously authored several journal articles on child abuse. Dr Neerosh Mudaly is senior counsellor with the Australian Childhood Foundation.

Chris Goddard is a professor of child care social work who has previously published in the field of child protection. Together with Dr. Janet Stanley he authored In the Firing Line, and he contributed a chapter to Children Taken Seriously, eds. Jan Mason and Toby Fattore, also published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers. He is Director of the National Research Centre for the Prevention of Child Abuse at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.