ABSTRACT
The form of sexual abuse ranged from inappropriate touching through clothes to full sexual intercourse and involved varying degrees of physical coercion. Both in terms of organisational practice and individual social worker preference, not all the social workers in the sample could be said to be specialists in dealing with child sexual abuse. Some of the social workers had caseloads where sexual abuse cases formed thirty per cent or less of the cases they dealt with. In an area as sensitive as child abuse and child protection there are many legitimate reasons for social workers to refuse to participate. The credibility of the research was demonstrated in that it was using well-established social research methods. The search for respondents began with a trawl of the eight nearest local authorities with responsibility for social services. In effect, within the constraints set by the managers of the various local authorities, a self-selected sample of social workers from two local authorities emerged.
