The politics of child abuse and neglect; New governmental recognition for an old problem

In the 1870s child abuse and neglect was transformed from a “non-issue” to the responsibility of the civic-sector charity groups and, more recently, to a charge of the public sector. The objective of this article is to examine the cause of these shifts of responsibility by covering three topics: (1) a discussion of spheres of responsibility for social problems, (2) a definition and discussion of what constitutes a shift of risk from one sphere to another, and (3) an analysis of the shift of responsibility for child abuse and neglect from individuals to the civic sector and then to the public sector. In both instances the shift of risk was caused by slack resources, willing leadership, and the absence of any organized opposition to the changing locus of responsibility.