Citation

Antler J, Antler S. Child. Youth Serv. Rev. 1979; 1(2): 177-204.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1979, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/0190-7409(79)90003-3

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The child protective movement, an offshoot of animal protective work, initially adopted a punitive, law enforcement emphasis. Under the leadership of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, anti-cruelty work took on a broader focus based on prevention rather than punishment. The new approach stressed the need to maintain and enrich family life through broad social supports, relying on family casework and social reform. "Normal family life," a vaguely denned but firmly middle-class notion, was established as the ideal to which social agencies should subscribe in their drive to protect children and insure an orderly society. Child protection, formerly isolated from the child welfare movement, gradually became a part of it.