When will child abuse be taken seriously?

One thing that never fails to amaze/annoy me is the complete lack of recognition of the humanity of children.

Take this report about abused children in Britain. Researchers have discovered that handing these children back over to their abusers might not be a good idea:

Children who are taken into care because they have suffered abuse or neglect are usually better off staying in care rather than being returned to their families, research for the government has found.

Let’s put it another way:

Wives who enter shelters because they have suffered abuse are usually better off remaining in shelters than reuniting with their husbands, research for the government has found.

Most people have no problem with the second statement, but the first one? We have to rush to assure people that “family” will almost always take precedent over the health and welfare of a child:

The team behind the research is stressing that it should not be interpreted to mean that abused children should never return home. But the findings will inevitably spark controversy among critics who think social workers are too ready to take children into care and keep them there.

The critics should be ignored, IMHO. We ignore MRA types who whine, moan and bitch about how, thanks to big daddy government, women can divorce men who abuse them.

Why shouldn’t we ignore people who bitch about how the rights of individual children are seen as superior to the privileges of “family”?