University of Warwick institutional repository: http://go.warwick.ac.uk/wrap A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of Warwick http://go.warwick.ac.uk/wrap/34822 This thesis is made available online and is protected by original copyright. Please scroll down to view the document itself. Please refer to the repository record for this item for information to help you to cite it. Our policy information is available from the repository home page. DEVELOPING A CRITICAL THEORY OF CHILD ABUSE: A DISCUSSION OF THE NATURE OF CHILD ABUSE AS A XANIFESTATION OF THE SOCIAL ORDER by Marguerite Valentine B.A. (Hons.) I. A. (Applied Social Studies) C.Q.S.V. Ph.D. Thesis University of Warwick Department of Applied Social Studies January 1989 ABSTRACT This thesis is an exploration into the nature and the prevalence of child abuse. It incorporates in this investigation how children understand abuse, and how the child may reject or oppose it. Its origins lie in the experiences and observations I made as a local authority social worker where children were silent, where child abuse was seen as an event, a distinct moment within family life, and with apparently little recognition of its relationship with the social order. Arising from this observation, I consider how the care of children may be a manifestation of the social order. This thesis is therefore also a critique of the present theory and practice of working within the field of childcare. The premise taken here is that in order to understand abuse, there must be an account of the individual's sense of being, as this relates to wider issues of the political economy. Thus this investigation uses the perspective of critical theory, since critical theory can incorporate an analysis of both structure and the experiential. It enables the researcher to shift perspective and to focus on different levels and aspects of being. Therefore, since child abuse is situated within the family, an analysis based on the perspectives of critical theory is used to examine family relationships. This includes an examination of the relationships between parents, as well as of those between them and the child. Three different facets of family life are explored: that of gender construction from the viewpoint of feminist psychoanalysis; the relationship between the social order and interpersonal behaviour from the perspective of Marx and radical feminism; and parental authority, drawing on the work of Laing. Derived from this exploration, the key concepts of patriarchy, alienation and mystification inform the direction of the empirical investigation. The empirical investigation, using firstly autobiographies of childhood and then direct interviews with children, explores further these concepts'. The autobiographies are used as a way of sensitising oneself to the issues for the child, and as a means of categorising experiences for the subsequent interviews with children. From this reading, an alternative understanding of child abuse is developed, one which differs from the narrow definition used by organisations. Hence abuse can be seen as the experience of hurt and pain, either emotional or physical, and which takes place in a relationship based on the parental domination, control and exploitation of the child. This understanding of abuse situates the subjective experience within an interpersonal dynamic of power and subordination. Using this definition in analysing the interviews with children, it was apparent that all children expedrience a form of abuse to some degree. Abuse is not, therefore, the property of a small number of deviant families. Additionally it is argued that children are silenced and rendered powerless within the family by three mechanisms: firstly by the 'privacy control mechanism', secondly by the 'ideology of paternalism', and thirdly by mystification. These can be interpreted as also reinforcing the social order, since this also depends for its maintenance on domination, powerlessness, and mystification of the mechanisms of control. The thesis concludes with a number of proposals for further exploring these concepts in terms of developing sociological theory and social work practice. The report on the death of Jasmine Beckford is subjected to an alternative analysis, and derived from this critique, ways of confronting violence, mystification and privacy are discussed. Finally the thesis stresses the importance of understanding child abuse as a personal as well as a social phenomenon, and that it has ultimately, a political significance. CONTENTS FART ONE THEORETICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL ORIENTATIONS CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION: THE BIOGRAPHICAL ORIGINS TO THE RESEARCH 1 Feminist Research and the Integration of Experience 8 The Structure of the Thesis 11 CHAPTER 2 GUIDE TO THE THEORETICAL ORIENTATION OF THE RESEARCH 17 A Closer Look at a Critical Perspectice: The Work of the Frankfurt School 22 How can Critical Theory inform the Research Problematic: the Nature of Child Abuse? 26 CHAPTER 3 THE RESEARCH METHOD Introduction: Qualitative Research as a Method of Inquiry 35 The Process of the Research Methodology 41 The Autobiographies 43 The Interviews 48 The group interviews 48 The individual interviews: the problem of access 52 Conducting an interview or holding a conversation? 59 Managing the relationships: some subjective considerations 61 The Research Chronology 67 FART II AN EXAMINATION OF FAMILY LIFE AND CHILD ABUSE CHAPTER 4 CAN A STUDY OF FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS INFORM AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE NATURE OF CHILD ABUSE? Introduction 71 Theoretical Explanations of Family Life 74 Psychoanalytic Theory and the Construction of Gender Behaviour 79 Feminist psychoanalytic theory and explanations of gender 84 The relationship between gender, the family and the political economy: Chodorow's account 93 Analysing the Family under Patriarchal Capitalism from within Marxist and Feminist Theory 101 Marx's theory of alienation 105 The significance today of Marx's theory of alienation 110 Feminism as a critique of everyday life 119 Rape as a manifestation of patriarchy 121 Domestic violence as a manifestation of patriarchy 124 Dworkin's account of patriarchy: man's objectification of woman 126 Marxism and feminism as a critique of everyday life 129 Demystifying the Family: Existentialism and Family Life 132 Laing, Esterson and existential phenomenology 133 Existential phenomenology as philosophical praxis 140 The mystification of family life 145 Summary and Discussion 157 CHAPTER 5 CHILD CARE AND CHILD ABUSE: A CRITIQUE OF CURRENT THEORY AND PRACTICE 165 The Problem with Definitions 167 The Problem with Explanations 183 The voluntarist model 185 The determinist model 189 The welfare model 200 Intervening in the Family: Social Work and the Welfare State 207 The social worker as moral entrepreneur: Parton's thesis of child abuse as moral panic 214 The social worker and the confrontation of paternal absolutism: Dingwall et al.'s thesis of the liberal State 218 The social worker as an agent of the State: Goldstein et al.'s thesis of the family as a defence against State absolutism 225 Summary and Discussion: How can Child Abuse be Understood? 230 FART III CHILDREN'S ACCOUNT OF FAMILY LIFE AND THE EXPERIENCE OF ABUSE CHAPTER 6 UNDERSTANDING CHILDHOOD THROUGH AUTOBIOGRAPHIES Introduction 241 The Concept of the Child and Childhood 243 The Child, the Parent and the Outside World 253 Unemployment 254 Employment 257 The war 260 Gender and sexuality 263 Learning about through play 264 sex Learning about gender through identification 267 The Child's Experience of Pain 269 The parent's need for the child to conform 270 Creating an atmosphere of abuse 271 Manipulating the child 272 Treating the child as an object 273 Resistances and oppositions 274 Summary and Discussion 279 CHAPTER 7 LISTENING TO CHILDREN AND RENDERING THEIR ACCOUNT Introduction 287 Interviewing Children in Groups 289 The life stories 290 Free association - gender 291 Comment 293 Punishment and abuse 294 Reading photographs - thoughts on the family 295 Assessing the work with children in groups 297 The Individual Interviews and the Problem of Access: Protection or Paternalism? 299 Children, Parents and Family Life: The Individual Interviews 301 Views of the family 302 Living in the family 305 Alternatives to the family 310 Identity and Gender 314 315 Boys and their parents Girls and their parents 321 Abuse 324 Child blame 326 Child assault and matrimonial assault 329 Rejection and abandonment 332 Objectification 336 Children's views on punishment 338 Criticising punishment 339 Accepting punishment 340 Summary and' Discussion 341 FART IV CHILD ABUSE AS A MANIFESTATION OF THE SOCIAL ORDER CHAPTER 8 RECONCEPTUALISING CHILD ABUSE THROUGH CRITICAL THEORY Introduction 351 Beliefs about the Family 353 States of Awareness 372 Forms of Praxis 378 What the Family needs to Represent and what the Parent needs to Represent 383 CHAPTER 9 CONCLUSION: ISSUES OF THEORY AND PRACTICE IN CHILDCARE Introduction 390 Theory and its Application to Research 391 Patriarchal power 394 Patterns of domination and control 395 Resistance: avoidance and opposition 398 Theory Applied 404 Reassessing the Beckford family 404 Further observations 411 Confronting violence 417 Summary and Conclusion: Some Personal Comments of a Political Nature 422 APPENDIX A Samples of Questions asked in Interviews 428 APPENDIX B Interview with Andrea, age 13 years 429 APPENDIX C Details about the Children Interviewed 440 BIBLIOGRAPHY Books 442 Articles 459 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Throughout this work I was helped by a number of friends. My thanks to them all, but in particular Andy Aiers who listened with patience and understanding. I would also like to acknowledge the helpful advice and assistance of Paul Bellaby and Stephen Frosh who respectively read and commented on the sections on Marx and feminism, and psychoanalysis; the London Borough of Haringey for part-funding the thesis; and the children and young people who agreed to be interviewed. Thanks also to my two supervisors, firstly Peter Leonard who supported the early development of this thesis with sensitivity and commitment, and then to Mick Carpenter who had the difficult task of 'picking it up'.