Making an Issue of Child Abuse

Barbara J. Nelson

ISBN 10: 0226572013 / ISBN 13: 9780226572017

Published by The University of Chicago Press, 1986

About this Item

Num Pages: 184 pages, black & white illustrations. BIC Classification: JFFE1; JKSB1. Category: (P) Professional & Vocational; (UP) Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly; (UU) Undergraduate. Dimension: 155 x 230 x 17. Weight in Grams: 300. . 1986. New ed. Paperback. . . . . Books ship from the US and Ireland.

Seller Inventory # V9780226572017

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Making an Issue of Child Abuse
• Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
• Publication Date: 1986
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0226572013
• ISBN 13: 9780226572017
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

In this absorbing story of how child abuse grew from a small, private-sector charity concern into a multimillion-dollar social welfare issue, Barbara Nelson provides important new perspectives on the process of public agenda setting. Using extensive personal interviews and detailed archival research, she reconstructs an invaluable history of child abuse policy in America. She shows how the mass media presented child abuse to the public, how government agencies acted and interacted, and how state and national legislatures were spurred to strong action on this issue. Nelson examines prevailing theories about agenda setting and introduces a new conceptual framework for understanding how a social issue becomes part of the public agenda. This issue of child abuse, she argues, clearly reveals the scope and limitations of social change initiated through interest-group politics. Unfortunately, the process that transforms an issue into a popular cause, Nelson concludes, brings about programs that ultimately address only the symptoms and not the roots of such social problems.

About the Author

Barbara J. Nelson was professor of political science and co-director of the Center on Women and Public Policy at the University of Minnesota.