Public health approaches to child protection operate by way of analogy. They attempt to import knowledge from the field of public health into the field of child protection by implying equivalences between the fields. This article draws on Kellert’s (2008) criteria for evaluating metaphors in scientific reasoning: utility, fit, awareness, and need. It argues that the analogy can be useful but demonstrates poor fit because it relies on false equivalences between maltreatment and health conditions, child protection clients and health consumers, and child protection and health-care systems. Insufficient overt awareness of these false equivalences has resulted in the analogy becoming overstretched and used in support of erroneous conclusions. Knowledge imported from public health is not needed to advance policy and research in child protection. This goal is best served by approaches endemic to child protection that do not rely on the false equivalences that underpin this analogy.

中文翻译：

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儿童保护作为公共卫生的类比：效用、适合、意识和需求的分析

保护儿童的公共卫生方法以类比的方式运作。他们试图通过暗示各个领域之间的等价性，将公共卫生领域的知识引入儿童保护领域。本文借鉴了 Kellert (2008) 在科学推理中评估隐喻的标准：效用、适合、意识和需要。它认为这个类比可能是有用的，但证明不合适，因为它依赖于虐待和健康状况、儿童保护客户和健康消费者以及儿童保护和医疗保健系统之间的错误等同。对这些错误等价的公开认识不足导致类比被过度拉伸并用于支持错误的结论。不需要从公共卫生中引入知识来推进儿童保护方面的政策和研究。