Child Abuse & Neglect, 2014, 38(5): 810-821

Members of the British public have come to recognise that child maltreatment is both highly prevalent and morally reprehensible. This recognition is no doubt due, in part, to effective advocacy
and campaigns that have used statistics and a vivid imagery to communicate the prevalence and reprehensibility of acts of child maltreatment. The question is whether the success of these efforts has resulted in public mobilisation around policies that have the potential to prevent and address child maltreatment in the United Kingdom, or if they have left the public stuck in an overwhelming and debilitating sense of the problem at hand. The authors' research suggests the latter. In 2012, the FrameWorks Institute, in a partnership with the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), began a long-term communications project. They began this research with the purpose of designing and empirically testing strategies that could be used to communicate more effectively about issues of child maltreatment. The goal was for the communication strategies developed to have the demonstrated ability to generate a broader public understanding of the issue of
child maltreatment and, in turn, increase public support for the policies and programs necessary to improve the lives of children. (from the introduction). For more information about the work of the US based Frameworks institute, follow the website link. Record #4843