ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses three issues: the appraisal of deviant behaviour; social policy for children; and treatment interventions. Constitutional and other organic causes are overlooked and the individual sociopathic adult is often thought of as wilfully delinquent and destructive. Policy and practice should have two aims: to reduce the occurrence of adverse, anxiety-inducing events in the lives of children; and to safeguard those ingredients in the environment in which children grow up, which are known to be necessary for optimal personality development. Knowledge about personality development in childhood and awareness of the range of possible human behaviour can modify perceptions. Child abuse is the form of destructive adult behaviour of most concern to professionals who look after children. Some cases illustrate physical and sexual abuse as it can occur in socio-economically deprived families with seriously personality disordered parents. Fortunately, most psychiatric disorders of childhood and adult life are transient and respond well to a variety of interventions.
