Michael King is Professor in the Department of Law and Co-Director of the Centre for the Study of Law, the Child and the Family at Brunei University, Uxbridge.

• 1 Introduction 2 Images of children and morality3 Moral campaigns for children’s welfare in the nineteenth century 4 Liberalism or distributional justice? The morality of child welfare laws 5 Can child abuse be defined? 6 Is male circumcision morally defensible? 7 Meditations on parental love: the transcendence of the rights/welfare Divide MAKINGS DIAMANTIDES 8 Justice and childhood: reflections on refashioned boundaries 9 Moral agendas for psychoanalytic practice with children and families 10 With justice in mind: complexity, child welfare and the law 11 What is good and bad sex for children? 12 Identity, religious fundamentalism and children’s welfare 13 Failing children: responding to young people with ‘behavioural difficulties’

'In this rich and stimulating collection Michael King has suceeded in bringing together scholars from diverse intellectual backgrounds to interrogate a range of social and institutional practices and beliefs impacting on children today ... The book raises some fascinating questions, permits a re-evaluation of the history and presence of child abuse and the debates surrounding the welfare of children ... it succeeds in focusing our attention on some neglected questions and does constitute a cautious beginning to the process of rethinking a complex series of issues centring on children, family and community, and state power.' - - Child and Family Law Quarterly