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Child Abuse, Policy Communities, and Frame Contestation During the Progressive Era

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2019

Ann-Marie Szymanski*
Affiliation:
University of Oklahoma

Abstract:

Why did child abuse become a less significant problem after 1910? This article focuses on frame contestation, and how child-protection organizations gradually lost control of the narrative about fragile families to a competing set of groups—those that emphasized “family saving.” Like many interest groups, the SPCCs developed an “issue frame” in their efforts to publicize their mission, which sought to define a problem (child abuse), attribute blame for that situation (inadequate parents), propose a solution (the removal of children from parents), and encourage others to support their cause. After 1900, however, “family saving” groups identified a problem related to child abuse (fragile families), portrayed poverty as a cause of family instability, and supported policies that sought to preserve families. While advocating for policies that strengthened families, however, they undercut child protectors’ most crucial weapon against child abuse, namely, the removal of affected children from inadequate parents.

Type
Article
Copyright
Copyright © Donald Critchlow and Cambridge University Press 2019 

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References

NOTES

1. “Gerry Society’s Record,” New York Times (6 February 1905), 7; Thirty-Fourth Annual Report of the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (Philadelphia, 1910), 7.

2. Figures 1 and 2 reflect the number of new complaints per year recorded by the Illinois Humane Society (1884–1936), the Philadelphia Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (1878–1924), the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (1876–1935), and the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (1881–1930). Some data are missing because of the organizations’ idiosyncratic recordkeeping. (For example, in its early years, the Illinois Humane Society combined its reports on children and animals.) To determine per capita complaints, the author used the U.S. Census Reports for Chicago, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston. In 1898, the City of Greater New York was created, consolidating the existing City of New York (Manhattan) with the eastern Bronx, Brooklyn, most of Queens County, and Staten Island. For the purposes of consistency and historical accuracy (the NYPCC was a Manhattan institution), the per capita data for New York was based on the population of Manhattan.

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32. For the pattern of complaints to the Illinois Humane Society, the PSPCC, the NYPCC, and the Boston branch of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, see the annual reports of these groups as well as the U.S. Census data about population trends in Chicago, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston.

33. See, for example, “L.S.P.C. May Give Up for Lack of Funds,” Daily Picayune (New Orleans), 22 November 1913, 5; “S.P.C.C. Society Has Annual Meeting,” Daily Picayune (New Orleans), 2 February 1917, 5.

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36. Thirty-fourth Annual Report of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (Boston, 1914), 24; Thirty-fifth Annual Report of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (Boston, 1915), 21; Fortieth Annual Report of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (Boston, 1920), 8; Forty-first Annual Report of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (Boston, 1921), 16.

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