The Orange Ribbon and the Pitiful Child

Investigating Child Abuse, Family Normativity and the Welfare State in Japan

Bibliographic Data

ID7149538
AuthorsC Chapman (0000-0002-9115-3496, Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology University of Oxford Oxford UK, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume39
Issue2
Pages568-578
Publication date2025-03-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueChildren & Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0951-0605 • E-ISSN: 1099-0860
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/chso.12934
OpenAlexW4405414679
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited35

For over 15 years the Japanese government has promoted a national campaign on child abuse awareness and tasked authorities with addressing rising child abuse reports. With an orange ribbon as its symbol, a key aspect of this campaign, alongside casework, is the creation and circulation of visual‐discursive representations of abused children. Drawing on 18 months of ethnographic fieldwork on child protection practice, this paper contextualises the social construction of child abuse by critiquing the cultural and technical logics of abuse and protection discourse. Appeals to vulnerability, rights and duty bridge public and expert fields and position an image of pity as a call to action that drives child abuse prevalence as well as enduring dispositions by the state towards intrafamily normativity and a minimalist welfare state

Child abuse · Criminology · Domestic violence · Environmental health · Poison control · Political science · Ribbon · Sociology · Suicide prevention · Welfare · Child Welfare and Adoption · Law · Medicine · Psychology

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