Are child protection workers and judges in alignment with the citizens when considering interventions into a family? A cross-country study of four jurisdictions

This paper examines whether and how the views of professional decision makers in public agencies and courts in four child protection jurisdictions align with the views of the public. Democratic states are built on the foundation that state polices are accountable to, and represent, the citizens’ will. The extent to which this is the case in child protection is largely unknown. This study draws on survey vignette data collected from three samples (citizens, child protection staff and judiciary decision makers) representing society at large, the child welfare agency, and judicial systems in four jurisdictions - England, Finland, Norway, and the U.S. (California). Findings from this study suggest that there is a high degree of similarity across countries in the public’s views about children’s need for services, and the poor outcomes that may result absent a service response. Views between child protection professionals and the public diverge the most when considering if the child is suffering from neglect and the use of intrusive state interventions. Child protection staff and judges’ perspectives within each country are in general alignment and show the impact of the established systems on considerations. Our results may have implications for the design of social policy in the area of child protection internationally

Child abuse as an international issue

Abstract This paper provides a background and suggests a strategy for an international approach to policy development concerning child abuse. First, child abuse is defined in a way that makes it applicable across cultures and national boundaries as that portion of harm to children that results from human action that is proscribed, proximate and preventable. A number of other dimensions, such as the degree of social sanction or social censure, are outlined that also affect the likelihood that given harm will be regarded as child abuse. Cross-cultural research also reveals that certain categories of children-such as those in poor health, females, unwanted children and those born under difficult circumstances or with disvalued traits or under conditions of rapid socioeconomic change-are more vulnerable to maltreatment in many countries. The paper argues for a two-pronged international strategy that first urges individual countries to make a priority of the particular types of abuse that are in most urgent need of attention in their society as well as participating at the same time in a concerted international focus on three widely occurring forms of child abuse: parental child battering, selective neglect, and sexual abuse. © 1988

C. Henry Kempe: A 50 Year Legacy to the Field of Child Abuse and Neglect

XXIV, 272 p.online resource

Handbook of Child Well-BeingTheories, Methods and Policies in Global Perspective /

XXXV, 3258 p. 142 illus., 76 illus. in color. eRe

Mapping children’s neighborhood perceptions: Implications for child indicators

Abstract A growing literature on small-area effects has linked neighborhood conditions with indicators of child well-being. This paper addresses some of the challenges in identifying and understanding these linkages, with a focus on children's definitions and perceptions of their neighborhood geographies. The study included 60 children aged 7 to 11 and one of their parents in five neighborhoods (census tracts). Neighborhood maps were elicited from both children and parents. Child and parent maps showed only a modest correlation, suggesting that children have their own conceptions of their neighborhoods. Also, home range was not equated with children's definitions of neighborhood boundaries. Accurate and meaningful measures of neighborhood, including child-centered measures, are needed. Child-centered neighborhood indicators are an important complement to the measures that are increasingly available for standard neighborhood units. The neighborhood is a potentially important context for improving child well-being by developing area-based programs to address spatial inequality in child well-being

Children and Families in Communities - Theory, Research and Policy

In the past decade the relationship between communities, children and families has inspired a wealth of research and policy initiatives because of a growing belief that the breakdown of families and communities is a significant factor in social problems, including child abuse and juvenile crime. The latest policy initiatives to tackle social problems have therefore targeted communities as well as high risk families. This title amalgamates the latest research on the relationship between children, families and communities and explores policy and practice implications. Material for practitioners and community development workers is also be included. The book is divided in to three parts: 1) theory 2) the effect of community on children, parents and families 3) interventions and policy implications

Johnson-Weiner, The Lives of Amish Women

No abstract available

The Influence of Neighborhood Violent Crime on Child-Rearing: Integrating Neighborhood Ecologies and Stratified Reproduction Approaches

While relationships between neighborhood violent crime and adverse child outcomes are well-established, less is known about how neighborhood violent crime influences child-rearing strategies. To address this gap, we blend neighborhood ecologies and stratified reproduction frameworks and examine interview data collected in 2014–2015 from 107 adult caregivers residing in three low and three elevated violent crime neighborhoods in Cleveland, OH, USA. Our objective is to examine how perceptions of neighborhood violent crime and its relationship to self-reported child-rearing practices vary by level of neighborhood violence. We find that, although caregivers in low and elevated violent crime neighborhoods shared the perception of neighborhood violent crime as a concern, their narratives of child-rearing practices differed. Caregivers in elevated violent crime neighborhoods were more likely than their low violent crime counterparts to describe in experience-near terms how violent crime threatened their children’s well-being. To protect children, caregivers in elevated violent crime neighborhoods reported engaging in severely constrained child-rearing strategies. These constraints have unintended consequences. While they may protect children in the short-term, they may also reproduce inequities by reducing family quality of life in other ways. These findings advance understanding of how neighborhood violent crime differentially affects child-rearing. We integrate neighborhood ecologies and stratified reproduction frameworks to capture how social inequities interact in neighborhood settings to constrain child-rearing and perpetuate inequities over time