ABSTRACT
The boundaries of social policy and ‘the community’ are less clear-cut than those of the preceding and following sections on social policy and the family and social policy and the economy. The issue of racial attacks is a social policy issue in the public realm, while child sexual abuse within the family pertains to the private realm. To be sure, the line between public and private cannot be drawn with total precision, and the whole issue of community care forms a bridge between the two, but the distinction is clear enough. The contribution of an analysis slanted toward sociology and political science is to emphasize the wider context within which social policy develops and seeks to be effective. In recent years in both Britain and America concern has focused upon social conditions in the inner city, where deprivation has become concentrated in particular areas.
