Gregory of Zimbabwe: A True Story of Overcoming Child Abuse and the Scandal of Diplomatic Immunity

Gries offers an intriguing, instructive study of a child abuse case with international implications that briefly entered the headlines in 1987 and 1988. Nine-year-old Gregory Tanaka (a pseudonym), son of a Zimbabwean diplomat in New York City, was regularly beaten by his disciplinarian father, and his teacher noticed. City officials put Gregory in local foster care, and Zimbabwean officials protested. The author, director of Mental Health Services at St. Christopher-Ottilie Services for Children and Families, was called in to evaluate Gregory.