News

By Christopher J Hobbs, Helga G I Hanks and Jane M Wynne.
Harcourt Publishers
£69.95
ISBN 0 4430 5896 0

Physical Signs of Child Abuse: A Colour Atlas

By Christopher J Hobbs and Jane M Wynne
Harcourt Publishers
£74.95
ISBN 0 7020 2582 8

The atlas contains pictures that challenge the efficacy of child protection - battered, bruised and emaciated bodies, lacerated genitalia and emotionally deprived expressions. The handbook sets out the scope of the problem and how it might best be managed.

Together the books provide a comprehensive guide to the assessment of clinical signs in a multi-disciplinary context. Hobbs and Wynne continue their pioneering advocacy for abused children that informed medical practice in Cleveland in 1987. They express concerns about the growing numbers of abused children, continuing denial and high evidential demands. They enable others to avoid the pitfalls which they and the Cleveland professionals encountered.

The atlas is intended for a medical audience. The handbook can stand alone as a source of reference for a wider audience about the history, cause, signs and symptoms and management of all forms of abuse.

Sue Richardson is a psychotherapist, trainer and co-author and co-editor of Creative Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (Jessica Kingsley, 2001)