Mary Lyndon Shanley
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198294962
- eISBN:
- 9780191598708
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198294964.003.0019
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
US law concerning families has not tipped as unequivocally in the direction of unbridled individualism as Sandel believes, and, in any event, individualism and moral values are not diametrically ...
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US law concerning families has not tipped as unequivocally in the direction of unbridled individualism as Sandel believes, and, in any event, individualism and moral values are not diametrically opposed to one another. Because law shapes the way we conceptualize human relationships, we should make sure that “the tale told by law” reflects an understanding of the importance of communal interdependence to both individuals and society, rather than simply reflecting justice understood as the protection of individual rights. In promising wives long-term support in the event of divorce, the old marriage law provided some compensation to wives for their economic vulnerability, but it promoted an inequality in both the family and the larger society; the challenge for family law and family policy is to design measures that will allow deep affection ties to flourish while not locking some people–primarily women–into dependency. In Sandel’s eyes, the dissenters in Bowers v. Hardwick missed an opportunity to articulate the possible goods to be realized by homosexual intimacy, and in doing so impoverished political discourse, but throughout his opinion, Blackmun attempts to relate the importance to an individual of being a member of a family or an intimate association and the ability to choose to establish or enter such a relationship. The Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 regards neither Indian infants nor their biological parents as unencumbered individuals, but rather suggests that they are embedded in a web of relationships they have not chosen, yet which in part constitute who they are and which justify particular legal stipulations regarding jurisdiction and placement in foster care and adoption cases; it also recognizes individual rights through provisions that allow for consideration of the wishes of the biological parents and of the best interests of a particular child.Less
US law concerning families has not tipped as unequivocally in the direction of unbridled individualism as Sandel believes, and, in any event, individualism and moral values are not diametrically opposed to one another. Because law shapes the way we conceptualize human relationships, we should make sure that “the tale told by law” reflects an understanding of the importance of communal interdependence to both individuals and society, rather than simply reflecting justice understood as the protection of individual rights. In promising wives long-term support in the event of divorce, the old marriage law provided some compensation to wives for their economic vulnerability, but it promoted an inequality in both the family and the larger society; the challenge for family law and family policy is to design measures that will allow deep affection ties to flourish while not locking some people–primarily women–into dependency. In Sandel’s eyes, the dissenters in Bowers v. Hardwick missed an opportunity to articulate the possible goods to be realized by homosexual intimacy, and in doing so impoverished political discourse, but throughout his opinion, Blackmun attempts to relate the importance to an individual of being a member of a family or an intimate association and the ability to choose to establish or enter such a relationship. The Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 regards neither Indian infants nor their biological parents as unencumbered individuals, but rather suggests that they are embedded in a web of relationships they have not chosen, yet which in part constitute who they are and which justify particular legal stipulations regarding jurisdiction and placement in foster care and adoption cases; it also recognizes individual rights through provisions that allow for consideration of the wishes of the biological parents and of the best interests of a particular child.
John E. B. Myers
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- April 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195169355
- eISBN:
- 9780199893348
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195169355.003.0004
- Subject:
- Social Work, Children and Families, Crime and Justice
This chapter describes the formation of the modern child protection system. The most critical date in the process was 1962, when pediatrician Henry Kempe and his colleagues published their seminal ...
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This chapter describes the formation of the modern child protection system. The most critical date in the process was 1962, when pediatrician Henry Kempe and his colleagues published their seminal article describing “The Battered Child Syndrome.” Kempe agitated for a more robust response to child abuse, and became an effective spokesperson for the renaissance of interest in child abuse and neglect in the 1960s and 1970s. The law of every state requires professionals to report suspicions of child abuse to authorities, and this chapter describes the creation of reporting laws in the 1960s. Prior to the 1970s, the federal government played a useful but minor role in child welfare and protection. In 1974, Congress assumed a leadership role with passage of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA). CAPTA was followed by additional federal laws, especially the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978, the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980, the Multiethnic Placement Act of 1994, and the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997. By the 1980s, the government-funded and -operated child protection familiar to us today was in place.Less
This chapter describes the formation of the modern child protection system. The most critical date in the process was 1962, when pediatrician Henry Kempe and his colleagues published their seminal article describing “The Battered Child Syndrome.” Kempe agitated for a more robust response to child abuse, and became an effective spokesperson for the renaissance of interest in child abuse and neglect in the 1960s and 1970s. The law of every state requires professionals to report suspicions of child abuse to authorities, and this chapter describes the creation of reporting laws in the 1960s. Prior to the 1970s, the federal government played a useful but minor role in child welfare and protection. In 1974, Congress assumed a leadership role with passage of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA). CAPTA was followed by additional federal laws, especially the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978, the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980, the Multiethnic Placement Act of 1994, and the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997. By the 1980s, the government-funded and -operated child protection familiar to us today was in place.
David Tobis
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780195099881
- eISBN:
- 9780199344772
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195099881.003.0003
- Subject:
- Social Work, Children and Families
Chapter 3 describes the three most important organizations that created an environment in which parents could play a meaningful role in their own cases and could have a voice in shaping child welfare ...
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Chapter 3 describes the three most important organizations that created an environment in which parents could play a meaningful role in their own cases and could have a voice in shaping child welfare programs and policies. These organizations are the Child Welfare Fund, the mouse that roared through the voice of parents, youth, and the hundred organizations it funded; Children’s Rights Inc., which used the Marisol v. Giuliani lawsuit and the Special Child Welfare Advisory Panel to restructure and strengthen the bureaucracy; and the city government’s Administration for Children’s Services, which embraced and then championed reforms that put parents in the front seat. Together these organizations unleashed a countervailing force that successfully reformed the system.Less
Chapter 3 describes the three most important organizations that created an environment in which parents could play a meaningful role in their own cases and could have a voice in shaping child welfare programs and policies. These organizations are the Child Welfare Fund, the mouse that roared through the voice of parents, youth, and the hundred organizations it funded; Children’s Rights Inc., which used the Marisol v. Giuliani lawsuit and the Special Child Welfare Advisory Panel to restructure and strengthen the bureaucracy; and the city government’s Administration for Children’s Services, which embraced and then championed reforms that put parents in the front seat. Together these organizations unleashed a countervailing force that successfully reformed the system.
Mical Raz
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- January 2022
- ISBN:
- 9781469661216
- eISBN:
- 9781469661230
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469661216.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
Chapter 2 focuses on the work of child welfare researchers who emphasized the roles of socioeconomic and racial disparities as important risk factors for child abuse. It recreates a historical moment ...
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Chapter 2 focuses on the work of child welfare researchers who emphasized the roles of socioeconomic and racial disparities as important risk factors for child abuse. It recreates a historical moment in which addressing poverty was depicted as a means of “primary prevention” of abuse. It also examines the history of the New York Foundling Hospital’s Crisis Nursery in the early 1970s, a respite care service designed by pediatrician, Vincent Fontana, to be a tool to prevent child abuse in struggling families. While numerous well-respected researchers and practitioners advocated for the importance of addressing structural inequalities in the prevention of child abuse, this approach was never accepted as mainstream. This chapter examines how and why such approaches were marginalized, and at what expense.Less
Chapter 2 focuses on the work of child welfare researchers who emphasized the roles of socioeconomic and racial disparities as important risk factors for child abuse. It recreates a historical moment in which addressing poverty was depicted as a means of “primary prevention” of abuse. It also examines the history of the New York Foundling Hospital’s Crisis Nursery in the early 1970s, a respite care service designed by pediatrician, Vincent Fontana, to be a tool to prevent child abuse in struggling families. While numerous well-respected researchers and practitioners advocated for the importance of addressing structural inequalities in the prevention of child abuse, this approach was never accepted as mainstream. This chapter examines how and why such approaches were marginalized, and at what expense.
Mical Raz
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- January 2022
- ISBN:
- 9781469661216
- eISBN:
- 9781469661230
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469661216.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
Chapter Four focuses on the removal of children from their homes and placement in substitute care such as foster homes and institutions, which increased notably in the mid 1970s. Furthermore, the ...
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Chapter Four focuses on the removal of children from their homes and placement in substitute care such as foster homes and institutions, which increased notably in the mid 1970s. Furthermore, the removal of large numbers of Native American children from their homes captured the attention of civil rights activists, who helped set the stage for the 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act. ICWA helped restore child welfare and placement decisions to tribal jurisdiction. Yet for African American families in urban cities, who were also disproportionately removed from their parents and spent longer in substitute care, there was little respite. African American children were not afforded similar protections as those Native American children and their families had gained. In fact, most debates focused on the need to increase adoption, rather than reduce foster care placement. No one cautioned that the expansion of child abuse definitions might be leading to unnecessary child removal. This chapter examines the processes leading to the over-removal of urban African American children, and the shift in discourse towards incentivizing adoption.Less
Chapter Four focuses on the removal of children from their homes and placement in substitute care such as foster homes and institutions, which increased notably in the mid 1970s. Furthermore, the removal of large numbers of Native American children from their homes captured the attention of civil rights activists, who helped set the stage for the 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act. ICWA helped restore child welfare and placement decisions to tribal jurisdiction. Yet for African American families in urban cities, who were also disproportionately removed from their parents and spent longer in substitute care, there was little respite. African American children were not afforded similar protections as those Native American children and their families had gained. In fact, most debates focused on the need to increase adoption, rather than reduce foster care placement. No one cautioned that the expansion of child abuse definitions might be leading to unnecessary child removal. This chapter examines the processes leading to the over-removal of urban African American children, and the shift in discourse towards incentivizing adoption.
Reidun Follesø and Kate Mevik
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9781847424068
- eISBN:
- 9781447303534
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781847424068.003.0007
- Subject:
- Social Work, Children and Families
This chapter critically explores three recent trends within the Norwegian Child Welfare Services: the movement towards knowledge-based services; the focus on family in the services; and the ...
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This chapter critically explores three recent trends within the Norwegian Child Welfare Services: the movement towards knowledge-based services; the focus on family in the services; and the commitment to ensuring children’s and young people’s right to participation. It also highlights some possible tensions between these trends and describes what kind of implications there might be for a child in a situation where the three perspectives are in conflict with one another. There has been a definite change in the understanding of children, and an increasing recognition of children and young people as citizens with independent rights in the society. Moreover, there is a possible tension inherent in focusing on both the family and the child in decisions and choices of measures in the Child Welfare Services. There is probably no great disagreement concerning either the need for a knowledge-based Child Welfare Service or that considerations must be made on a professional basis.Less
This chapter critically explores three recent trends within the Norwegian Child Welfare Services: the movement towards knowledge-based services; the focus on family in the services; and the commitment to ensuring children’s and young people’s right to participation. It also highlights some possible tensions between these trends and describes what kind of implications there might be for a child in a situation where the three perspectives are in conflict with one another. There has been a definite change in the understanding of children, and an increasing recognition of children and young people as citizens with independent rights in the society. Moreover, there is a possible tension inherent in focusing on both the family and the child in decisions and choices of measures in the Child Welfare Services. There is probably no great disagreement concerning either the need for a knowledge-based Child Welfare Service or that considerations must be made on a professional basis.
David Tobis
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780195099881
- eISBN:
- 9780199344772
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195099881.003.0004
- Subject:
- Social Work, Children and Families
Chapter 4 describes how parents and their allies took advantage of the opportunity to change child welfare policies and practices. The chapter profiles a new organization, the Child Welfare ...
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Chapter 4 describes how parents and their allies took advantage of the opportunity to change child welfare policies and practices. The chapter profiles a new organization, the Child Welfare Organizing Project (CWOP), that quickly became the country’s preeminent organization for training and organizing parents who had become embroiled in the child welfare system. CWOP was formed as a partnership between mothers whose children had been in foster care and professionals who had been struggling to reform child welfare. The chapter profiles three key people in CWOP: its long-time leader, Mike Arsham, who worked inside the system as a social worker and then came outside the system to change it; Sharwline Nicholson, the chairperson of CWOP’s board of directors from year 2006 to 2011 and the named plaintiff in the Nicholson lawsuit that ended the city’s right to remove children from their home merely because they had witnessed their mother being beaten; and Tracey Carter, a CWOP-trained parent advocate who had been on the streets for 13 years and lost six children to the system.Less
Chapter 4 describes how parents and their allies took advantage of the opportunity to change child welfare policies and practices. The chapter profiles a new organization, the Child Welfare Organizing Project (CWOP), that quickly became the country’s preeminent organization for training and organizing parents who had become embroiled in the child welfare system. CWOP was formed as a partnership between mothers whose children had been in foster care and professionals who had been struggling to reform child welfare. The chapter profiles three key people in CWOP: its long-time leader, Mike Arsham, who worked inside the system as a social worker and then came outside the system to change it; Sharwline Nicholson, the chairperson of CWOP’s board of directors from year 2006 to 2011 and the named plaintiff in the Nicholson lawsuit that ended the city’s right to remove children from their home merely because they had witnessed their mother being beaten; and Tracey Carter, a CWOP-trained parent advocate who had been on the streets for 13 years and lost six children to the system.
Vijayalakshmi Balakrishnan
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198071266
- eISBN:
- 9780199080779
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198071266.003.0005
- Subject:
- Law, Constitutional and Administrative Law
This chapter analyzes how the perception of children as tomorrow's citizens influenced the relationships of the child with the State, and also with the community of social workers. The idea of the ...
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This chapter analyzes how the perception of children as tomorrow's citizens influenced the relationships of the child with the State, and also with the community of social workers. The idea of the child, as an asset, a human resource to be developed, was first articulated during the Second Five-Year Plan period. In 1958, as preparations for the Third Five-Year Plan were beginning, the Indian Council for Child Welfare called for a paradigm shift in child welfare. They wanted the State to view the child as an investment in the future, see the child less as the dependent today, and more as a citizen of tomorrow, thus an adult-in-the-making.Less
This chapter analyzes how the perception of children as tomorrow's citizens influenced the relationships of the child with the State, and also with the community of social workers. The idea of the child, as an asset, a human resource to be developed, was first articulated during the Second Five-Year Plan period. In 1958, as preparations for the Third Five-Year Plan were beginning, the Indian Council for Child Welfare called for a paradigm shift in child welfare. They wanted the State to view the child as an investment in the future, see the child less as the dependent today, and more as a citizen of tomorrow, thus an adult-in-the-making.
John D. Fluke, Mónica López López, Rami Benbenishty, Erik J. Knorth, and Donald J. Baumann (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- August 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780190059538
- eISBN:
- 9780190059569
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190059538.001.0001
- Subject:
- Social Work, Children and Families
Professionals working in child welfare and child protection are making decisions with crucial implications for children and families on a daily basis. The types of judgements and decisions they make ...
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Professionals working in child welfare and child protection are making decisions with crucial implications for children and families on a daily basis. The types of judgements and decisions they make vary and include decisions such as whether a child is at risk of significant harm by parents, whether to remove a child from home or to reunify a child with parents after some time in care. These decisions are intended to help achieve the best interests of the child. Unfortunately, they can sometimes also doom children and families unnecessarily to many years of pain and suffering.
Surprisingly, despite the central role of judgments and decision making in professional practice and its deep impact on children and families, child welfare and protection training and research programs have paid little attention to this crucial aspect of practice. Furthermore, although extensive knowledge about professional judgment and decision making has been accumulated in relevant areas, such as medicine, business administration, and economics, little has been done to help transfer and translate this knowledge to the child welfare and protection areas.
This book represents our aspiration to fill this critical gap in the child welfare and protection research agenda, while providing an up-to-date resource for practitioners and policy makers. It is our purpose to provide the reader with the ideas, methods and tools to improve their understanding of how context and decision-maker behaviors affect child welfare and protection decision making, and how such knowledge might lead to improvements in decision-making.Less
Professionals working in child welfare and child protection are making decisions with crucial implications for children and families on a daily basis. The types of judgements and decisions they make vary and include decisions such as whether a child is at risk of significant harm by parents, whether to remove a child from home or to reunify a child with parents after some time in care. These decisions are intended to help achieve the best interests of the child. Unfortunately, they can sometimes also doom children and families unnecessarily to many years of pain and suffering.
Surprisingly, despite the central role of judgments and decision making in professional practice and its deep impact on children and families, child welfare and protection training and research programs have paid little attention to this crucial aspect of practice. Furthermore, although extensive knowledge about professional judgment and decision making has been accumulated in relevant areas, such as medicine, business administration, and economics, little has been done to help transfer and translate this knowledge to the child welfare and protection areas.
This book represents our aspiration to fill this critical gap in the child welfare and protection research agenda, while providing an up-to-date resource for practitioners and policy makers. It is our purpose to provide the reader with the ideas, methods and tools to improve their understanding of how context and decision-maker behaviors affect child welfare and protection decision making, and how such knowledge might lead to improvements in decision-making.
Ellen Herman
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226327594
- eISBN:
- 9780226328072
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226328072.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
What constitutes a family? Tracing the dramatic evolution of Americans' answer to this question over the past century, this book provides the fullest account to date of modern adoption's history. ...
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What constitutes a family? Tracing the dramatic evolution of Americans' answer to this question over the past century, this book provides the fullest account to date of modern adoption's history. Beginning in the early 1900s, when children were still transferred between households by a variety of unregulated private arrangements, the book details efforts by the U.S. Children's Bureau and the Child Welfare League of America to establish adoption standards in law and practice. It goes on to trace Americans' shifting ideas about matching children with physically or intellectually similar parents, revealing how research in developmental science and technology shaped adoption as it navigated the nature-nurture debate. Concluding with an insightful analysis of the revolution that ushered in special needs, transracial, and international adoptions, this book ultimately situates the practice as both a different way to make a family and a universal story about love, loss, identity, and belonging. In doing so, this volume provides a new vantage point from which to view twentieth-century America, revealing as much about social welfare, statecraft, and science as it does about childhood, family, and private life.Less
What constitutes a family? Tracing the dramatic evolution of Americans' answer to this question over the past century, this book provides the fullest account to date of modern adoption's history. Beginning in the early 1900s, when children were still transferred between households by a variety of unregulated private arrangements, the book details efforts by the U.S. Children's Bureau and the Child Welfare League of America to establish adoption standards in law and practice. It goes on to trace Americans' shifting ideas about matching children with physically or intellectually similar parents, revealing how research in developmental science and technology shaped adoption as it navigated the nature-nurture debate. Concluding with an insightful analysis of the revolution that ushered in special needs, transracial, and international adoptions, this book ultimately situates the practice as both a different way to make a family and a universal story about love, loss, identity, and belonging. In doing so, this volume provides a new vantage point from which to view twentieth-century America, revealing as much about social welfare, statecraft, and science as it does about childhood, family, and private life.
Geoffrey G. Field
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199604111
- eISBN:
- 9780191731686
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199604111.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History, Political History
Wartime publicity frequently described Britain as a family and later images of the Blitz also stress the courage and endurance of families as a key institution that enabled the nation to surmount the ...
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Wartime publicity frequently described Britain as a family and later images of the Blitz also stress the courage and endurance of families as a key institution that enabled the nation to surmount the crisis. While acknowledging positive representations of family, this chapter examines the equally widespread alarm among government officials, journalists and social work groups about wartime dislocation of family life—as measured by rising statistics for divorce, delinquency and illegitimacy, press stories about ‘good time girls’, and claims that sexual immorality was a pervasive problem. The chapter argues that to a striking degree these anxieties centred upon women from poor and working-class families. Family became a point of intersection for a range of public debates about child welfare, crime, sexual morality, and eugenic concerns about the nation's low birth rate—all of which shaped debates both about post-war reconstruction and social welfare reform.Less
Wartime publicity frequently described Britain as a family and later images of the Blitz also stress the courage and endurance of families as a key institution that enabled the nation to surmount the crisis. While acknowledging positive representations of family, this chapter examines the equally widespread alarm among government officials, journalists and social work groups about wartime dislocation of family life—as measured by rising statistics for divorce, delinquency and illegitimacy, press stories about ‘good time girls’, and claims that sexual immorality was a pervasive problem. The chapter argues that to a striking degree these anxieties centred upon women from poor and working-class families. Family became a point of intersection for a range of public debates about child welfare, crime, sexual morality, and eugenic concerns about the nation's low birth rate—all of which shaped debates both about post-war reconstruction and social welfare reform.
Kenneth Burns, Tarja Pösö, and Marit Skivenes
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- October 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780190459567
- eISBN:
- 9780190459581
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190459567.003.0001
- Subject:
- Social Work, Children and Families
The introduction provides a general framework for the book and sets the focus for it. It aims to undertake a comprehensive examination of the formats, range of participants, powers, thresholds for ...
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The introduction provides a general framework for the book and sets the focus for it. It aims to undertake a comprehensive examination of the formats, range of participants, powers, thresholds for removal of a child into state care, statistical data, supporting social policies and legislation, and child-centeredness of these administrative, court, and court-like decision-making bodies. As a growing number of children come into state care, it is imperative that we know about, learn from, understand, and critique the bodies and systems that are empowered to make such decisions. The chapter defines the key terms of child removal, child welfare systems, and sociolegal decision-making. The countries represented in the book are contextualized in terms of their child welfare and welfare state approaches. The current challenges for the decision-making systems are discussed; the notion of children’s rights is given special attention.Less
The introduction provides a general framework for the book and sets the focus for it. It aims to undertake a comprehensive examination of the formats, range of participants, powers, thresholds for removal of a child into state care, statistical data, supporting social policies and legislation, and child-centeredness of these administrative, court, and court-like decision-making bodies. As a growing number of children come into state care, it is imperative that we know about, learn from, understand, and critique the bodies and systems that are empowered to make such decisions. The chapter defines the key terms of child removal, child welfare systems, and sociolegal decision-making. The countries represented in the book are contextualized in terms of their child welfare and welfare state approaches. The current challenges for the decision-making systems are discussed; the notion of children’s rights is given special attention.
Sarah-Anne Buckley
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780719087660
- eISBN:
- 9781781706275
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719087660.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
The Cruelty Man represents the first comprehensive account of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) in Ireland, from its foundations in 1889, to the passing of ...
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The Cruelty Man represents the first comprehensive account of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) in Ireland, from its foundations in 1889, to the passing of responsibilities to the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (ISPCC) in 1956. In both Britain and Ireland, the NSPCC was at the forefront of the child protection movement, yet the history of the Society in Ireland has not been fully addressed. This book aims to fill this vacuum. It provides a study of the Society, while also utilising it as a vehicle to examine the treatment of poverty-stricken children and families by the State. More broadly, it contains a comprehensive history of child welfare from the introduction of the Poor Law in 1838 to the publication of the Kennedy Report in 1970. It addresses issues surrounding institutionalisation, welfare, family violence, compulsory education, child abuse and the role of charity in the provision of welfare. Based on research of the available records of the NSPCC archive, and court records, the text also explores changing concepts of childhood. It will appeal to both an academic and general audience, as it uses case studies of families investigated by the Society and the State. It will be essential to students of Irish social history, gender studies, social work and social policy. More generally it will interest those observing recent reports into child abuse in State institutions and in particular the history of Ireland’s industrial school system. The foreword by Vincent Browne also demonstrates its contemporary relevance.Less
The Cruelty Man represents the first comprehensive account of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) in Ireland, from its foundations in 1889, to the passing of responsibilities to the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (ISPCC) in 1956. In both Britain and Ireland, the NSPCC was at the forefront of the child protection movement, yet the history of the Society in Ireland has not been fully addressed. This book aims to fill this vacuum. It provides a study of the Society, while also utilising it as a vehicle to examine the treatment of poverty-stricken children and families by the State. More broadly, it contains a comprehensive history of child welfare from the introduction of the Poor Law in 1838 to the publication of the Kennedy Report in 1970. It addresses issues surrounding institutionalisation, welfare, family violence, compulsory education, child abuse and the role of charity in the provision of welfare. Based on research of the available records of the NSPCC archive, and court records, the text also explores changing concepts of childhood. It will appeal to both an academic and general audience, as it uses case studies of families investigated by the Society and the State. It will be essential to students of Irish social history, gender studies, social work and social policy. More generally it will interest those observing recent reports into child abuse in State institutions and in particular the history of Ireland’s industrial school system. The foreword by Vincent Browne also demonstrates its contemporary relevance.
Catherine E. Rymph
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781469635644
- eISBN:
- 9781469635651
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469635644.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter examines the impact of World War II, which increased the need for foster care, decreased the supply of foster parents, and exacerbated tensions over women’s roles as workers, mothers, ...
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This chapter examines the impact of World War II, which increased the need for foster care, decreased the supply of foster parents, and exacerbated tensions over women’s roles as workers, mothers, and caregivers. In an effort to meet wartime needs for foster parents, child welfare professionals turned to the rhetoric of war service to recruit foster families, celebrating foster mothers’ caregiving as part of the war effort. As was also the case for other women working in war industries, however, champions celebrated foster mothers’ motivations in traditionally feminine terms while often downplaying the very real economic considerations at play. The chapter examines the role of a program to temporarily place British children in American homes (administered by the US Committee for the Care of European Children) in further developing the American child welfare infrastructure. It also explores child welfare professionals’ opposition to institutional day care.Less
This chapter examines the impact of World War II, which increased the need for foster care, decreased the supply of foster parents, and exacerbated tensions over women’s roles as workers, mothers, and caregivers. In an effort to meet wartime needs for foster parents, child welfare professionals turned to the rhetoric of war service to recruit foster families, celebrating foster mothers’ caregiving as part of the war effort. As was also the case for other women working in war industries, however, champions celebrated foster mothers’ motivations in traditionally feminine terms while often downplaying the very real economic considerations at play. The chapter examines the role of a program to temporarily place British children in American homes (administered by the US Committee for the Care of European Children) in further developing the American child welfare infrastructure. It also explores child welfare professionals’ opposition to institutional day care.
Mical Raz
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- January 2022
- ISBN:
- 9781469661216
- eISBN:
- 9781469661230
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469661216.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
In the early 1970s, a new wave of public service announcements urged parents to “help end an American tradition” of child abuse. The message, relayed repeatedly over television and radio, urged ...
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In the early 1970s, a new wave of public service announcements urged parents to “help end an American tradition” of child abuse. The message, relayed repeatedly over television and radio, urged abusive parents to seek help. Support groups for parents, including Parents Anonymous, proliferated across the country to deal with the seemingly burgeoning crisis. At the same time, an ever-increasing number of abused children were reported to child welfare agencies, due in part to an expansion of mandatory reporting laws and the creation of reporting hotlines across the nation. Here, Mical Raz examines this history of child abuse policy and charts how it changed since the late 1960s, specifically taking into account the frequency with which agencies removed African American children from their homes and placed them in foster care. Highlighting the rise of Parents Anonymous and connecting their activism to the sexual abuse moral panic that swept the country in the 1980s, Raz argues that these panics and policies—as well as biased viewpoints regarding race, class, and gender—played a powerful role shaping perceptions of child abuse. These perceptions were often directly at odds with the available data and disproportionately targeted poor African American families above others.Less
In the early 1970s, a new wave of public service announcements urged parents to “help end an American tradition” of child abuse. The message, relayed repeatedly over television and radio, urged abusive parents to seek help. Support groups for parents, including Parents Anonymous, proliferated across the country to deal with the seemingly burgeoning crisis. At the same time, an ever-increasing number of abused children were reported to child welfare agencies, due in part to an expansion of mandatory reporting laws and the creation of reporting hotlines across the nation. Here, Mical Raz examines this history of child abuse policy and charts how it changed since the late 1960s, specifically taking into account the frequency with which agencies removed African American children from their homes and placed them in foster care. Highlighting the rise of Parents Anonymous and connecting their activism to the sexual abuse moral panic that swept the country in the 1980s, Raz argues that these panics and policies—as well as biased viewpoints regarding race, class, and gender—played a powerful role shaping perceptions of child abuse. These perceptions were often directly at odds with the available data and disproportionately targeted poor African American families above others.
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226653631
- eISBN:
- 9780226653662
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226653662.003.0025
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History
This chapter discusses the social work of relief agencies in Oregon which included the Public Welfare Bureau, the Associated Charities, and the Child Welfare Commission (CWC). The stories of Oregon ...
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This chapter discusses the social work of relief agencies in Oregon which included the Public Welfare Bureau, the Associated Charities, and the Child Welfare Commission (CWC). The stories of Oregon social workers reveal a mix of public and private relief that characterized many Americans' experience of charity and social work before 1930. They also provide evidence of the poor communication, overwork, and limited resources similar to that which had long plagued the administration of public relief in America.Less
This chapter discusses the social work of relief agencies in Oregon which included the Public Welfare Bureau, the Associated Charities, and the Child Welfare Commission (CWC). The stories of Oregon social workers reveal a mix of public and private relief that characterized many Americans' experience of charity and social work before 1930. They also provide evidence of the poor communication, overwork, and limited resources similar to that which had long plagued the administration of public relief in America.
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226327594
- eISBN:
- 9780226328072
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226328072.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter describes organizations that were key to the modernization of adoption in the early twentieth century: the U.S. Children's Bureau and the Child Welfare League of America. They envisioned ...
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This chapter describes organizations that were key to the modernization of adoption in the early twentieth century: the U.S. Children's Bureau and the Child Welfare League of America. They envisioned a rationalized process, kinship by design, through which families would be engineered publicly, purposefully, and according to plan. It also discusses the specific governmental practices that advocates of kinship by design equated with increasing safety in adoption: orderly information-gathering, investigation, supervision, and probation. Combined, these managerial operations would reduce the risks that children and parents would be unqualified, poorly matched, and prone to terrible, socially burdensome outcomes.Less
This chapter describes organizations that were key to the modernization of adoption in the early twentieth century: the U.S. Children's Bureau and the Child Welfare League of America. They envisioned a rationalized process, kinship by design, through which families would be engineered publicly, purposefully, and according to plan. It also discusses the specific governmental practices that advocates of kinship by design equated with increasing safety in adoption: orderly information-gathering, investigation, supervision, and probation. Combined, these managerial operations would reduce the risks that children and parents would be unqualified, poorly matched, and prone to terrible, socially burdensome outcomes.
JaeRan Kim
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- May 2022
- ISBN:
- 9781479801404
- eISBN:
- 9781479801435
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479801404.003.0006
- Subject:
- Psychology, Social Psychology
This chapter explores how power and privilege based on race, gender, economics, and disability shape the narrative of what is in the “best interest of the child” in the intimate sphere of family ...
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This chapter explores how power and privilege based on race, gender, economics, and disability shape the narrative of what is in the “best interest of the child” in the intimate sphere of family making through transracial adoption. The author, JaeRan Kim, provides an overview of the history of transracial and transnational adoption that includes programs such as the orphan trains, Indian boarding schools, and adoption through foster care and their impact on immigrant, Indigenous, Black, and transnational children. Various ways that communities of color resisted the racism inherent in foster care and adoption systems in each historical era are also discussed. After examining ways transracial adoptees navigate and negotiate their identities when their right to know and belong to their racial and ethnic communities is weighed against adoptive parents’ desires to adopt across racial and ethnic lines, Kim offers a framework of transracial adoption justice that centers race, power, and the experiences and needs of transracial adoptees.Less
This chapter explores how power and privilege based on race, gender, economics, and disability shape the narrative of what is in the “best interest of the child” in the intimate sphere of family making through transracial adoption. The author, JaeRan Kim, provides an overview of the history of transracial and transnational adoption that includes programs such as the orphan trains, Indian boarding schools, and adoption through foster care and their impact on immigrant, Indigenous, Black, and transnational children. Various ways that communities of color resisted the racism inherent in foster care and adoption systems in each historical era are also discussed. After examining ways transracial adoptees navigate and negotiate their identities when their right to know and belong to their racial and ethnic communities is weighed against adoptive parents’ desires to adopt across racial and ethnic lines, Kim offers a framework of transracial adoption justice that centers race, power, and the experiences and needs of transracial adoptees.
Catherine E. Rymph
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781469635644
- eISBN:
- 9781469635651
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469635644.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter surveys the origins of foster care in earlier methods for supporting dependent children dating back to the colonial period, including indenture, orphanages, “placing out” (also known as ...
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This chapter surveys the origins of foster care in earlier methods for supporting dependent children dating back to the colonial period, including indenture, orphanages, “placing out” (also known as orphan trains), boarding out, and adoption. It attends to the racial and religious aspects of these systems and to the relationship between private and public systems of child welfare. The chapter also discusses the importance of the professionalization of the child welfare field in the early twentieth century, particularly the creation of the US Children’s Bureau and the Child Welfare League of America.Less
This chapter surveys the origins of foster care in earlier methods for supporting dependent children dating back to the colonial period, including indenture, orphanages, “placing out” (also known as orphan trains), boarding out, and adoption. It attends to the racial and religious aspects of these systems and to the relationship between private and public systems of child welfare. The chapter also discusses the importance of the professionalization of the child welfare field in the early twentieth century, particularly the creation of the US Children’s Bureau and the Child Welfare League of America.
Qingwen Xu
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- April 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199934218
- eISBN:
- 9780199356874
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199934218.003.0012
- Subject:
- Psychology, Forensic Psychology
Professionals are mandated to follow the “best interests of the child” principle while working with children and their families. However, the meaning of the best interests of the child in the context ...
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Professionals are mandated to follow the “best interests of the child” principle while working with children and their families. However, the meaning of the best interests of the child in the context of migration has not been investigated thoroughly. Focus groups with immigrant parents from six countries explored parents’ perceptions concerning the best interests of their children. Despite much overlap, parents from different countries often had different concerns and perceptions. This chapter reveals a gap between child welfare professionals’ and immigrant parents’ descriptions of the “best interests of the child.” While child welfare professionals are concerned with principles of safety, permanency, stability, and bonding, immigrant parents were concerned with education, culture, and tradition. Implications for child welfare policies and practice are discussed.Less
Professionals are mandated to follow the “best interests of the child” principle while working with children and their families. However, the meaning of the best interests of the child in the context of migration has not been investigated thoroughly. Focus groups with immigrant parents from six countries explored parents’ perceptions concerning the best interests of their children. Despite much overlap, parents from different countries often had different concerns and perceptions. This chapter reveals a gap between child welfare professionals’ and immigrant parents’ descriptions of the “best interests of the child.” While child welfare professionals are concerned with principles of safety, permanency, stability, and bonding, immigrant parents were concerned with education, culture, and tradition. Implications for child welfare policies and practice are discussed.
