ABSTRACT
The term 'child abuse' is one which is widely used in England by ordinary members of the public, the media and even official government publications. In the area of the civil law, the official statistics record the numbers of care and supervision order proceedings and applications for emergency protection orders made in respect of children and also list the number of children who are considered sufficiently at risk of significant harm from abuse to be placed on a local authority child protection register. The Criminal Justice Act 1988 provided for the reception of evidence by television link in certain cases in order to reduce the stressful effects of a court appearance upon child witnesses in alleged child abuse cases, and the reforms effected by the Criminal Justice Act 1991 have meant that English courts have used video- and tape-recorded evidence with increasing frequency.
