Child abuse intervention: conflicts in current practice and legal theory.

Recent litigation of child abuse cases indicates that two contradictory policies compete for court approval. One policy would reduce the amount of intervention into abusive families on grounds of privacy. The other seeks to maintain and expand channels of investigation and treatment. While attempting to prescribe a comprehensive approach to child abuse, these conflicting policies, in fact, address different problems in child protection. Without a treatment formulation that focuses on the separate issues raised by each policy, it is not clear that clinicians will be able to sustain child abuse investigatory and protective authority against the privacy attack. This treatment synthesis must entail development of standards that maximize protection of the child from caretakers at the earliest stages of risk and protection from administrative procrastination in case resolution. Protecting the child rather than the family institution should provide the central focus of policy formulation.