As Stowman and Donohue (2005) note: "Child neglect is the most prevalent type of child maltreatment, yet only a few standardized methods exist to assist in the assessment of this widespread problem. Existing measures of child neglect are limited by the nature of child neglect itself, in addition to issues of social desirability responding, and items that may infer blame and parental responsibility" (p. 491). There is nothing, of course, wrong in holding parents and other caregivers responsible for their actions and any harm that they do to children. However, this focus on guilt should not be the primary one. The primary one should be a focus on how best to keep children safe. The children at hand should always be at the center of the process. That is not currently the case (Conrad, Ellis, & Ellett, 2006, p. 38).

Although it is not the central point of this paper,...
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