ABSTRACT
This chapter concerns uncertainty over what amounts to child abuse highlights problems over how to measure the child abuse. It highlights the operational problems of identifying child abuse parameters and the resultant problems of measuring its prevalence. The rise in popularity since the 1980s of the idea that child abuse can be predicted has introduced an extra layer in relation to government response to suspected significant harm and the success or otherwise of the responses to compound the issue. The chapter also concerns a discussion of how the child protection and safeguarding system should be considered in evaluative terms, whether it is possible to accurately define and measure child abuse and how well solutions are working. The difficulties highlighted in the chapter are evident in the responses to the various strategies to detect child abuse.
