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What Happened in the Woodshed: The Secret Lives of Battered Children and a New Profession to Protect Them
A riveting exposé of child abuse in America and how the newest breed of pediatricians determines what happened, why, and at whose hands.
Although more than one million children are abused each year in the United States, child abuse often remains a secret to family members, professionals, and politicians who neither see nor understand it. Child abuse pediatricians are the newest breed of pediatricians, specialized in exposing abuse. With detective-like acumen, child abuse pediatricians deduce through careful medical analysis who has abused and who has been abused. Describing the most compelling cases among the thousands that they have evaluated, author Lawrence Ricci reveals the trauma, pain, disability, and sometimes death that abused children experience at the hands of trusted adults.
This gripping look at the dark side of American families is about good parents and poor ones, perpetrators and victims, and collateral victims such as innocent family members. It is also about the professionals who have made it their career to expose child abuse and to treat children who have suffered from it. The conclusion calls for systematic changes that could help to stem the tide of child abuse.
Although more than one million children are abused each year in the United States, child abuse often remains a secret to family members, professionals, and politicians who neither see nor understand it. Child abuse pediatricians are the newest breed of pediatricians, specialized in exposing abuse. With detective-like acumen, child abuse pediatricians deduce through careful medical analysis who has abused and who has been abused. Describing the most compelling cases among the thousands that they have evaluated, author Lawrence Ricci reveals the trauma, pain, disability, and sometimes death that abused children experience at the hands of trusted adults.
This gripping look at the dark side of American families is about good parents and poor ones, perpetrators and victims, and collateral victims such as innocent family members. It is also about the professionals who have made it their career to expose child abuse and to treat children who have suffered from it. The conclusion calls for systematic changes that could help to stem the tide of child abuse.
192 pages, Hardcover
Published March 14, 2018
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May 1, 2018
This was an ultimately fascinating look at a very disturbing albeit important subject. You can find my extended thoughts on this book in a blog post in which I write about it on The Youth Rights Blog. What I will say here is that I found it to be a very well written account of how child abuse pediatrics can explain what happens to an abused child's body. This is especially useful when it comes to babies that are not yet able to communicate but becomes problematic when it involves privileging forensic analysis over what an abused young person is able to communicate.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review