The emergence of current and historic cases of child abuse across the globe has, in recent years, dominated the news, political agendas and popular discourse surrounding children. From serious case reviews to exploitation in post‐conflict zones, from sexual abuse of children by groups to trafficking of drugs across countries, the importance of protecting children is an increasing concern in many countries. Key to, and inherent in, all of these processes and phenomena are child protection systems, working in varying degrees of effectiveness. While geographic interest has touched upon many of these areas, the role of child protection systems, and the practitioners that work within these, do not explicitly feature within this work. In this article, we seek to develop an introduction to geographies of child protection, producing an initial critical review which points to future research avenues in this field. We adopt a Foucauldian approach and review four themes to illustrate the ways in which geographical approaches might yield important insights. Drawing primarily on England as a context, we consider the historical geographies and origins of child protection, relational practices in contemporary child protection, the impact of austerity and finally we consider what future directions might require a geographical approach.

中文翻译：

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走向儿童保护地区

近年来，全球范围内当前和历史悠久的虐待儿童案件的出现，主导了围绕儿童的新闻，政治议程和流行话语。从认真的案件审查到冲突后地区的剥削，从各个团体对儿童的性虐待到在各国之间贩运毒品，保护儿童的重要性在许多国家中日益引起关注。所有这些过程和现象的关键和内在因素是儿童保护系统，它们以不同程度的有效性发挥作用。尽管地域利益已触及这些领域中的许多领域，但儿童保护系统的角色以及在其中开展工作的从业人员并未明确体现在这项工作中。在本文中，我们寻求对儿童保护地理学进行介绍，进行初步的批判性审查，指出该领域的未来研究途径。我们采用Foucauldian方法，并回顾了四个主题来说明地理方法可能产生重要见解的方式。我们主要以英格兰为背景，考虑了儿童保护的历史地理和起源，当代儿童保护中的关系实践，紧缩政策的影响，最后考虑了未来的发展方向可能需要采取地理方法。