In the current debates about citizenship, children and young people are profoundly affected by the exclusionary criteria that determine who is and who is not a citizen. This article asks how young people are currently treated as citizens. The Victorian Crimes Amendment Act (1994) provides a case study illustrating some of the ways young people's rights are denied in Australia. The article also asks how prevalent are certain assumptions that preclude young people from the category of citizenship. In a post-industrial context characterised by rapid transformation of traditional institutions critical to most young people, ie, ‘the family’ and full-time labour market, the importance of the inclusion of young people into the category of citizen becomes apparent.

How do children's service organisations survive and thrive in a contracting environment? This article lists some issues that have to be addressed and strategies that organisations employ to ensure that this takes place. The information in this article was acquired whilst undertaking research into contracting arrangements in children's services in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts in 1992. The research was the subject of an earlier article.

This article is based on a study about young mothers' experiences of parenting and their suggestions for child protection and family support strategies. This paper disputes the notion that young mothers are deficient parents, and instead highlights the social stressors faced by many young families. It is argued that, rather than focussing on the individual family or young mother, family work could be better oriented toward resourcing and supporting adolescent families to care for their members.

The ‘new’ American solution for abused and neglected children — Intensive Family Preservation Programs — are being heavily marketed to Australians. Victoria and New South Wales have enthusiastically embraced the idea with pilot programs based on American statistics proving its value in maintaining children with their families and improving their safety. No matter that the Americans themselves warned that evaluations showed that out of home placements rate was no higher for families that did not receive the program and that the programs came from a country whose own Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect described the child protection system as a ‘national emergency’.

Criticism of child protection practice in Victoria has emerged not only from the political Left, but also from conservative groups such as the Australian Family Association. The AFA does not deny the existence of child abuse, but argues that it can be primarily attributed to social changes such as the breakdown of the traditional nuclear family. The AFA believes that the strengthening and support of the traditional family is the best means of protecting children from harm. Critics of the AFA argue, however, that the implementation of the AFA's agenda would place the preservation of families ahead of the right of children to be protected from abuse or harm.

Stories about children, and particularly about violence towards children, are common in our newspapers. Increased recognition of child abuse has contributed to this increased media coverage. While it is possible to ascribe this interest to a greater concern for the welfare of children, there are limits to the forms of child abuse that receive media coverage.

In recent years there has been widespread concern across the English-speaking world about repeated incidents in which paedophiles have obtained positions of responsibility in relation to the care of vulnerable children, such as those living in residential care. In the United Kingdom, a series of well-publicised incidents over several years culminated in the Beck case. Frank Beck was a paedophile who was appointed to the position of head of a children's home. Following the discovery of his abusive activities with children in one workplace, he successfully moved to a similar position of responsibility. In response to this series of scandals an inquiry was set up in to the Selection, Development and Management of Staff in Children's Homes (the Warner Inquiry). This inquiry produced a substantial report on ways in which selection and management practices should be improved. There have, however, been continuing concerns that international paedophile rings continue to pose a significant risk to children and young people in the care system across the world.