What is child protection research all about?
The earliest studies on child abuse arose from feminist critiques of exploitative gender-power relations in sport and therefore focussed on sexual abuse. Since then, studies on other forms of abuse have been published and their impact has been increased by coverage in the mass media. For example, there is widespread evidence of hazing in North American sport and there is also evidence that emotional abuse is likely to be the most prevalent form of abuse in sport. Some scholars criticise feminist academics who cross the science/advocacy boundary and who have both conducted research on child abuse in sport andlobbied for better protective systems. Others think that children are over-protected in modern society (such as sociologist Frank Furedi, who calls them ‘cotton wool kids’) and call for children to be released from the shackles of protection systems that they argue serve adults’ anxieties (Cohen’s notion of the ‘moral panic’) and social control rather than children’s bests interests
