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‘The bones tell a story the child is too young or too frightened to tell’ : the battered child syndrome in post-war Britain and America

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Crane, Jennifer (2015) ‘The bones tell a story the child is too young or too frightened to tell’ : the battered child syndrome in post-war Britain and America. Social History of Medicine, 28 (4). pp. 767-788. doi:10.1093/shm/hkv040 ISSN 0951-631X.

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/shm/hkv040

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Abstract

This article traces the emergence of child abuse as a medical concern in post-war Britain and America. In the early 1960s American paediatricians and radiologists defined the ‘battered child syndrome’ to characterise infants subjected to serious physical abuse. In the British context, paediatricians and radiologists, but also dermatologists and ophthalmologists, drew upon this work and sought to identify clear diagnostic signs of child maltreatment. For a time, the x-ray seemed to provide a reliable and objective visualisation of child maltreatment. By 1970, however, medical professionals began to invite social workers and policy makers to aid them in the diagnosis and management of child abuse. Discourse around the ‘battered child syndrome’, specifically, faded away, whilst concerns around child abuse grew. The battered child syndrome was a brief phenomenon of the 1960s, examination of which can inform the histories of medical authority, radiology and secrecy and privacy in the post-war period.

Item Type: Journal Article
Subjects: H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare
Divisions: Faculty of Arts > History
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): Battered child syndrome -- History -- United States, Battered child syndrome -- History -- Great Britain, Child abuse -- History -- United States, Child abuse -- History -- Great Britain
Journal or Publication Title: Social History of Medicine
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISSN: 0951-631X
Official Date: 1 November 2015
Dates:
DateEvent
1 November 2015Published
15 April 2015Available
7 January 2015Accepted
Volume: 28
Number: 4
Page Range: pp. 767-788
DOI: 10.1093/shm/hkv040
Status: Peer Reviewed
Publication Status: Published
Access rights to Published version: Open Access (Creative Commons)
Date of first compliant deposit: 28 September 2018
Date of first compliant Open Access: 28 September 2018

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