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37 J. Soc. Welfare & Fam. L. 1 (2015)

handle is hein.journals/jnlosclwl37 and id is 1 raw text is: Journal of Social Welfare & Family Law, 2015 3 Routledge Vol. 37, No. 1, 1-2, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09649069.2015.1004864 ' '' EDITORIAL We are delighted to introduce the first issue of 2015 which sets the scene for what promises to be another year of cutting edge, empirically rich research in social welfare and family law. We begin with Kate Gooch's critical review of the use of physical restraint with children in penal custody. Her conclusions, which are based on interviews with child offenders (15-17 years old) and prison staff and on a detailed legal and jurisprudential analysis, reaffirm existing evidence that the punitive objectives of the justice system undermine any commitment by the authorities to children's rights obligations under international law. The author's findings highlight the disturbing contrast between the 'control and restraint' techniques and, indeed, philosophy applied to children in prison to the behaviour management techniques allowed in other childcare settings. Moreover, the findings suggest that, contrary to clearly established principles under international law, physical restraint is all too often the default position rather than 'a measure of last resort' and, in many cases manifestly abusive. Raymond Arthur's contribution complements Gooch's piece insofar as it considers the potential of citizenship to frame children's rights in the context of youth offending. Locating his analysis within the broader literature on gender, race and children's rights perspectives of citizenship, the author advocates a more child-centred understanding of citizenship which acknowledges the need to calibrate expectations and penal sanctions according to children's inherent vulnerabilities and dependencies. The focus in the next two articles shifts to domestic violence. Sofia Graca scrutinises the accessibility of domestic violence services for migrant women, with a focus on Portuguese women in particular. Her qualitative findings (interviews with 24 Portuguese women living in England) highlight not only the practical factors (physical accessibility, language and cost), but also the additional cultural factors that affect women's likelihood to engage with different types of frontline support. By contrast, Maddy Coy et al.'s article explores women's experiences of domestic violence when cases are taken to court, and specifically how instances of domestic violence are brought to bear on judicial decisions around child contact. The authors point to the ongoing tendency to grant contact to abusive ex-partners despite clear guidance, endorsed by case law and research, that there should be no automatic assumption that contact with a violent parent is in the child's best interests. The authors interrogate current practice in the light of recent legal, policy and procedural changes to the family justice system. Their findings are informed by interviews with 34 women going through child contact proceedings, and provide a unique insight into how readily evidence of domestic violence can be sidelined and rendered irrelevant in private law proceedings involving children. The last two articles of the main section explore the multi-agency dynamics of public care proceedings. Lauren Devine evaluates social work assessments of families as a gateway to determining service provision, and interrogates whether this supposedly 'supportive' model of early intervention really does provide a more effective alternative to © 2015 Taylor & Francis

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