Advocating for children : children and domestic violence

Abstract

The new social studies of childhood We are somewhat trained to see children not as active players in their own lives but as the stage bound demonstration of capacities in training for the future (Qvortrop, 1994).

Consequentially, the ability of children to think, hold opinions and act on those opinions can easily be understood not as the behaviour of a subject active in their own life, but rather as evidence of their fit, or failure to fit, with age appropriate stages of development. (Holloway and Valentine 2000; Jenks and Prout, 1998).

Critical perspectivees on how society has conceptualised childhood (such as the above from the new social studies of childhood) are beginning to influence how children are interacted with and thought about by researchers and child advocates. Increasingly it is being recognised that children are