Child protection and the social evil

1911 ◽  
Author(s):  
Walter T. Sumner
2012 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 72-89
Author(s):  
Amy Risley

This article argues that social issues are central to the children’s rights movement in Argentina. For more than a decade, child advocates have traced the plight of children to poverty, marginality, and neoliberal economic reforms. In particular, they have framed the issue of child welfare as closely related to socioeconomic conditions, underscored the “perverse” characteristics of the country’s existing institutions and policies, and called for reforms that accord with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Although the country’s policies are gradually being transformed due to a landmark child-protection law passed in 2005, a dramatically more progressive framework for children’s rights has not yet been adopted. Given that policymakers have largely failed to reverse the trends that activists perceive as harming children, it is expected that advocates will continue to criticise the gap between domestic realities and the social and economic rights included in the Convention.


2021 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-172
Author(s):  
David J Gilbert ◽  
Raja AS Mukherjee ◽  
Nisha Kassam ◽  
Penny A Cook

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) is one outcome from prenatal alcohol exposure. Social workers are likely to encounter children with the condition, due to the greater likelihood of prenatal alcohol exposure among children in social services settings. This study explores the experiences of social workers in working with children suspected of having FASD and the support offered to social workers, the children and their families. Semi-structured interviews followed by qualitative framework analysis were conducted with seven child and family social workers along with one child protection solicitor who had experience of handling FASD cases. The two main themes that emerged from the data were a lack of knowledge about FASD and the paucity of diagnosis. Lack of knowledge among the social workers was linked to difficulty in managing children suspected to have the condition, feelings of frustration and normalisation of challenging behaviours. The paucity of diagnosis led to an under-emphasis of FASD in assessments, a dearth of specialist services and confusion about its specific effects in contexts of multiple substance misuse and harmful socio-environmental factors. The need for increased FASD awareness within social services and the development of FASD-targeted support for children and families is highlighted. Social workers would benefit from the inclusion of FASD-focused training in their curricula and professional development plans. Improving the diagnostic capacities of health institutions would address the paucity of diagnosis and raise the profile of FASD, especially in the social services setting.


2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 190-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brid Featherstone ◽  
Anna Gupta ◽  
Kate Morris

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to argue for the need to move away from a sole focus on assessing and dealing with individualised risk factors in order to more fully engage with and understand the social determinants of many of the harms that are manifest in families. Design/methodology/approach It draws from a number of research studies being conducted by the authors and a literature on psycho-social approaches to social suffering. Findings It highlights the evidence on the contribution of poverty and inequality to many of the problems encountered within families. It explores how hurt, shame and loss are experienced by those who are marginalised and struggling to live well and care safely for themselves and others. Practical implications It highlights the practice implications of adopting an approach that engages with both the social and the psychological and understands their inter-relationship. It offers some thoughts on how the social in psycho-social might receive the attention it deserves, a situation which does not pertain currently. Originality/value It offers an original contribution to thinking in the area of child protection where the focus is primarily on individualised risk factors. It highlights the importance of understanding the social determinants of many of the harms experienced in families and offers some pointers towards thinking and practising differently.


Author(s):  
Fajri M Kasim ◽  
Abidin Nurdin ◽  
Ridhwan Ridhwan

This study aims to examine child protection at the Syar'iyah Court in Aceh from the perspective of the sociology of law. This research uses the study of legal sociology, which is an approach that views law as a tool to create order and order in society. The approach used is a case study of child protection in court decisions in Banda Aceh, Bireuen, and Lhokseumawe regarding child guardianship. Meanwhile, data collection techniques are literature studies and court decisions. This study concluded that the Syar'iyah Court in Banda Aceh granted guardianship rights to adult male siblings and to become guardians and take care of parental inheritance. In Bireuen, guardianship rights are given to the mother for a child because her father who has a pension salary is left behind. Whereas in Lhokseumawe, guardianship rights are also given to the mother while the living father is obliged to give one million per month and education and health costs. In addition, judges also become al-Qur’an, Hadith, and the opinions of the ulama as arguments in their decisions that are in accordance with the sociological characteristics of religion in Aceh. This shows that the Syar'iyah Court as part of the social system and judges as social actors have functioned to provide child protection so as to create order and order in society.


2000 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 365-382 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Scourfield

The article is a discussion of the construction of child neglect in a child and family social work team in the UK, based on ethnographic research in the social work office. Two influential and contrasting professional discourses on neglect are identified, and it is suggested that the dominant construction of neglect in the team studied is maternal failure to adequately service children's bodies. This construction is discussed in relation to some relevant theoretical insights and in the context of trends in contemporary child protection work.


2017 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ingo Bode

AbstractWithin the infrastructure of the modern welfare state, networking and collaboration across organizational and professional boundaries are far and wide considered as being deficient. At the same time, many experts refer to them as a silver bullet for overcoming institutional fragmentation and recent movements towards exacerbated social disintegration, even as governments tend to enforce collaboration formally. Using the example of child protection in Germany, this article draws on a mix of theories of government technologies in order to elucidate reasons for problems with actual collaborative arrangements in the social welfare sector, suggesting that, due to certain bottom-up dynamics, enforced networking in this sector is unlikely to be achieved by the policies under study. The analysis is based on evidence from case studies in five local settings, illustrating how major professional groups and organizations are dealing with evolving regulation and related challenges.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Sanford N. Katz

This introductory chapter traces the history of family law in America, which came of age during the last half of the twentieth century. Earlier, in practice, scholarship, and legal education, it was given little attention or respect. Perhaps the reason for the low status of family law practice, defined narrowly as domestic relations and almost exclusively concerned with divorce, was that it dealt with human conflicts and real people in distress, not legal abstractions. The legislative movement to recodify state family law, particularly divorce law, began mid-century. An important influence on divorce reform was the efforts of the Commissioners on Uniform State Laws. The Commissioners had been working on divorce law for seventy-five years before the Uniform Marriage and Divorce Act was promulgated in 1970. The Act brought clarity in laws on marriage, divorce, and child custody. The chapter then looks at the development of child protection practice and law. Ultimately, the legal landscape of today has been shaped by many factors: the movement for racial equality, children’s rights, women’s rights, gay and lesbian rights, and the social and legal agenda of certain religious groups.


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