ABSTRACT
Thinking conceptually about abuse suggests there are at least four different and distinctive forms themselves enveloped by wider structures of inequality, and therefore at the outset a crude homogeneity and an implicit standard or single response in addressing abuse in residential care must be discarded. These forms include: sanctioned, institutional, systematic and individual. Recognition of these different forms of abuse is an important starting point in addressing the question of prevention but before moving on there also needs to be recognition of the way wider societal inequalities of power envelope abuse in residential child care. The sanctioned abuse can capture informal practices or cultures which can result in abuse. The use of regression therapy in some of Leicestershire’s children’s homes and the ‘Pindown’ system of control in operation in selected Staffordshire homes were in effect sanctioned abuse – which has also been referred to as ‘programme abuse’.
