Abstract

This focus report presents a critical evaluation of the problems that the psychology of intent and foresight present to legal framework building for the protection of children in contemporary society. The report examines current public survey data on the role of intent and foresight in attributions of punishment and responsibility across: (i) contexts relevant to prior conviction evidence and disclosure (Ch. 11, Criminal Justice Act, 2003); and (ii) foresight and reasonable prevention when a child has died (Section 5, Domestic Violence, Crime & Victims Act, 2004). The results are embedded within psychological, legal, social care, policy and policing perspectives to help to understand the public’s response to the problem of foresight in child protection contexts (Foresight Policy ESRC Workshop: CSLS, University of Oxford, 2010). Reasonable Prevention, that is, anticipating outcomes that could have reasonably been foreseen, and anticipating the public’s attitude to the boundaries of responsibility for reasonable prevention, could provide a critical intersection for examining responsibility, punishment, and appropriate balanced intervention in child protection.