Today, any regular newspaper reader is likely to be exposed to reports
on manifold forms of (physical, emotional, sexual) child abuse on the
one hand, and abnormal behavior, misconduct or offences of children and
minors on the other hand. Occasionally reports on children as victims
and children as offenders may appear on the same issue or even the same
page. Rather seldom the more complex and largely hidden phenomena of
structural hostility or indifference of society with a view to children
are being dealt with in the press. Such fragmentary, ambiguous,
incoherent or even contradictory perception of children in modem society
indicates that, firstly, there is a lack of reliable information on
modem childhood, and secondly, children are still treated as a
comparatively irrelevant population group in society. This conclusion
may be surprising in particular when drawn at the end of The Century of
the Child proclaimed by Ellen Key as early as 1902. Actually, there
exist unclarities and ambiguities about the evolution of childhood in
the last century not only in public opinion, but also in scientific
literature. While De Mause with his psycho-historic model of the
evolution of childhood, comprising different stages from infanticide,
abandonment, ambivalence, intrusion, socialisation to support,
underlines the continuous improvement of the condition of childhood
throughout history and thus rather confirms Key's expectations, Aries,
with his social history of childhood, seems to hold a more culturally
pessimistic view.
