Citation

Houston, Griffiths. Child Fam. Soc. Work 2000; 5(1): 1-10.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2000, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1046/j.1365-2206.2000.00145.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Approaches to risk assessment and management in child protection have been developed largely within an objectivist paradigm and this has led to an emphasis on prediction, control and culpability. This paper argues that the objectivist paradigm has failed to provide valid and reliable measures of risk and has replaced a focus on the subject (the individual) with a one-sided focus on objectified risk factors. Because of these limitations, it is argued that risk should be explored from an alternative, subjectivist paradigm. The paper outlines the implications of this shift for social work practice with children and their families, by advocating the re-instatement of the subject and a return to ‘relationship’ as the guiding rationale for social work intervention.