Child maltreatment in sociocultural context: From a syndrome to the Convention on the Rights of the Child

Abstract

This study reflects on child maltreatment from a cultural and a historical perspective. Initially, child maltreatment was considered to be a single syndrome ('the battered child syndrome'). Later, more attention has been devoted to the contexts in which child maltreatment occurs, to cultural beliefs and attitudes, economic circumstances and politics. Recently, the Children's Rights Convention appeared as a new paradigm to look at (the prevention of) child maltreatment. The author presents recent empirical findings on the relationship between culture and child maltreatment, and discusses the synergies developing between the public health and the child rights approach.