ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book provides a detailed account of education, public and peer contexts associated with peer-on-peer abuse — all of which have been acknowledged in policy responses to peer-on-peer abuse but are not accommodated by wider child protection frameworks. It discusses a contextual account of peer-on-peer abuse, and the implications for policy and practice, by using international research, media and policy accounts, supplemented with unpublished evidence from reviews of nine cases in which young people were raped or murdered by their peers. The book outlines the implications of contextual interplay, social accounts of choice and the recognition of contextual dependency and agency on policy and practice frameworks concerned with peer-on-peer abuse. It talks about the behaviours involved in peer-on-peer abuse and the individuals affected, illustrating the scale of the challenge faced by policymakers and the need to understand these characteristics through a contextual lens.
