What Happened in the Woodshed: The Secret Lives of Battered Children and a New Profession to Protect Them

A riveting expose of child abuse in America and how the newest breed of pediatricians determines what happened, why, and at whose hands.

Although more than one million children are abused each year in the United States, child abuse often remains a secret to family members, professionals, and politicians who neither see nor understand it. Child abuse pediatricians are the newest breed of pediatricians, specialized in exposing abuse. With detective-like acumen, child abuse pediatricians deduce through careful medical analysis who has abused and who has been abused. Describing the most compelling cases among the thousands that they have evaluated, author Lawrence Ricci reveals the trauma, pain, disability, and sometimes death that abused children experience at the hands of trusted adults.

This gripping look at the dark side of American families is about good parents and poor ones, perpetrators and victims, and collateral victims such as innocent family members. It is also about the professionals who have made it their career to expose child abuse and to treat children who have suffered from it. The conclusion calls for systematic changes that could help to stem the tide of child abuse.

Explains how signs of abuse can be missed by professionals, community members, and even family members

Includes interviews and insights from more than two dozen child abuse pediatricians

Addresses physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, including abuse by neglect and abuse due to Munchausen syndrome by proxy

Details how cases can go wrong in court rooms when confuscation by defense attorneys overpowers evidence brought to court by child abuse pediatricians

Offers ideas for stemming the tide of child abuse