Taking the Wrong Message: The Legacy of the Identification of the Battered Child Syndrome

Abstract

Publication of the Battered Child Syndrome (BCS) brought a new focus on a critical problem—severe and repeated abuse of children. However, it also led to a substantial expansion in the scope of the child protection system to situations far different than those discussed in the BCS. By the 1980s, over 15% of all children born each year were reported to CPS before turning 18, most for potential “harms” to their development that did not involve physical or sexual maltreatment. The CPS system is not well-designed to help these children. While children now receive somewhat more protection from severe physical and sexual abuse, the great majority of children who experience other types of seriously inadequate parenting fail to receive needed support. This commentary discusses why the CPS system should be focused on the types of harms to children identified by in the BCS and outlines why a new approach is needed to meet the needs of other children whose futures are seriously compromised because they receive highly inadequate parenting.