Television Reviews : No Easy Answers in ‘Child Abuse’ Documentary

“Spare the Rod: The Politics of Child Abuse,” a one-hour edition of KCET’s usually fine “California Stories” series, is a fairly interesting survey of past and present attitudes toward a complicated and controversial social problem (7:35 tonight, Channel 28).

Using archival photographs and interviews with parents, psychologists and social workers, the program nicely traces how the definition of child abuse and the role of the state in trying to prevent it have changed significantly in the last 100 years.

Also, by following the court case of a father accused of molesting his teen-age daughter, “Spare the Rod” hints at the many slippery moral and legal dilemmas surrounding child abuse: Where does the sanctity of the family end and the proper protective function of the state begin? What is abuse and what is discipline? How do you prevent abuse? When should the state take a child away from parents?

There are no easy or unambiguous answers, as producer-writer Teya Ryan makes clear while covering issues ranging from the importance of such medical advances as X-rays as a means of distinguishing accidental and deliberately caused injuries to the pros and cons of a new state law that narrows the definition of child abuse.

The program, hosted by Celeste Durant, stresses the long-term importance of prevention, shows how a family benefited from the help of a private social agency and includes arguments from those who charge that government professionals are often overzealous and have been given far too much power over families.

“Spare the Rod” has a slight feminist bent and seems to accept without question the assumption that child abuse is as widespread a social problem as the worst-case people argue it is. There are a few brief chilling scenes of parents who were videotaped while they abused their infants, but the program stays clear of any sensationalism and takes a measured and unhysterical approach.

KCET’s “7:30” news show will air five-minute investigative reports on the subject Tuesday through Friday.