ABSTRACT
Taking account of the needs and views of children is problematic, particularly in Ireland where children have been "owned" by their parents and social policy has been directed at the family rather than the individual child. The 1980s and 1990s may be said to be the decades where abuse, in its many forms, reared its head and Irish society was forced to sit up and take notice of our distressed children and young people. In particular, we became interested in children and youth at risk. Child and youth care practice, as with other caring occupations, forms a vital element of both the voluntary and statutory social and health care provision systems in Ireland and is in constant evolution. Partly because of this new interest in risk, it came under a public lens of examination that tended to focus almost exclusively on the negative. Broadly at the same time, social scientists in Europe had become interested in what Beck labelled the "risk society" with parallels between both discussions.
My research for this book took place in the context ot Ireland emerging from a history of neglect towards vulnerable populations of at-risk children and youth. Moreover, there has been a breakdown in trust in expert systems at a time when "the public's knowledge has become radicalised and they have become experts of sorts" (Giddens, 1991, p. 3). The Irish public is no longer prepared to blindly trust in expert systems or past powerful organisations, such as the Catholic Church, and society has begun to think in whole terms. It is a tragic paradox that many public policy makers have lost confidence in their ability to provide for children and youth at-risk when scientific knowledge has never been more advanced 2and we should be more able to protect them. This deeply affects child and youth care, doi: 10.1300/J024v29n01_01 [Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: l-800-HAWORTH. E-mail address: <docdelivery@haworthpress.com> Website: < https://www.HaworthPress.cam" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> http://www.HaworthPress.cam > © 2007 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.]
