Dr Bernadette Saunders is a Senior Research Fellow at Child Abuse Prevention Research Australia, and Senior Lecturer in the Department of Social Work, Monash University where she teaches Law and Social Justice. She received an Australian Postgraduate Award, and the support of the Australian Childhood Foundation, to pursue her doctoral research on physical punishment.

Professor Chris Goddard is Director of Child Abuse Prevention Research Australia, Monash University. His previous book Human Rights Overboard: Seeking Asylum in Australia (with Linda Briskman and Susie Latham, 2008) won the Australian Human Rights Literature Non-Fiction Award.