Confronting Cruelty investigates the history of the detection and treatment of child abuse in Australia through the lens of the Victorian Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children - now the Children's Protection Society (CPS) - from 1896 to the end of the 20th century. This book explores the inner world of a child protection agency within the outer world of the broader historical context and changes in both child protection policy and the social constructions of child abuse.