scholarly journals Saving Children, Controlling Families: Punishment, redistribution and child protection

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Edwards
Keyword(s):  
Foster Care ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Welfare Regimes ◽  
Welfare Programs ◽  
Policy Regimes ◽  
Family Behavior ◽  
Generous Welfare

This study shows that state efforts at child protection are structured by the policy regimes in which they are enmeshed. Using administrative data on child protection, criminal justice, and social welfare interventions, I show that children are separated from their families and placed into foster care far more frequently in states with extensive and punitive criminal justice systems than in states with broad and generous welfare programs. However, large welfare bureaucracies interact with welfare program enrollment to create opportunities for the surveillance of families, suggesting that extensive and administratively complex welfare states engage in “soft” social control through the surveillance and regulation of family behavior. The article further shows that institutionalization, a particularly restrictive form of foster care placement, is least common in states with broad and generous welfare regimes and generally more common under punitive regimes. Taken together, these findings show that policy regimes influence the interaction between families and the state through their proximate effects on family structure and well-being and through institutional effects that delimit the routines and scripts through which policymakers and street-level bureaucrats intervene to protect children.

scholarly journals Attitudes and decision-making in the child protection system

2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 2-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paulo Delgado ◽  
Vânia S. Pinto ◽  
João M. S. Carvalho
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Foster Care ◽  
Residential Care ◽  
Family Environment ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Protection System ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Rights Of The Child

In the contexts of family neglect or maltreatment, the State intervenes by safeguarding the development and well-being of the child or young person in danger. In more severe situations, the intervention may lead to the child’s removal from the family. The Portuguese Law on the Protection of Children and Young People in Danger (Law 142/2015 of September 8th) favours the placement of the child in a family environment, especially for children up to the age of six. Despite this, in Portugal, in 2015, 8 600 children were in out-of-home care, only 3.5% of which were placed in foster care, while the remaining children were in residential care. Therefore, one of the fundamental rights of the child – living in a family environment – is compromised in practice. This study aims to understand the decision-making process of 200 higher education students in domains related to child protection, and those of 200 professionals who are responsible for providing case assessments and recommendations for intervention in the Portuguese child protection system. Using the Child Welfare Attitudes Questionnaire (Davidson-Arad & Benbenishty, 2008, 2010), the study aimed to identify the participants’ attitudes regarding removal of at-risk children from home, reunification and optimal duration of alternative care, children’s and parents’ participation in the decision-making process, and assessment of foster care and residential care, with the purpose of promoting children’s development and well-being. We concluded that both sets of participants (professionals and students) can be divided in two groups, one which is pro-removal and the other, which is less so. In comparison with students, professionals less often favour the removal of the child and more often defend reunification. There are no significant differences among participants regarding their opinion about the role of foster and residential care, and the participation of the child in the decision-making process. However, professionals tend to support parents’ participation in the decision-making process more than students do. Finally, we present some implications of our findings for the practice of child protection.

scholarly journals Economics of Child Protection: Maltreatment, Foster Care, and Intimate Partner Violence

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph J. Doyle ◽  
Anna Aizer
Keyword(s):  
Intimate Partner Violence ◽  
Foster Care ◽  
Partner Violence ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Child Neglect ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Intimate Partner ◽  
Chronic Health Conditions ◽  
Health Conditions

Violence within families and child neglect are strikingly common: 700,000 children are found to be victims of abuse or neglect in the United States each year; over the course of childhood, 6% of children are placed in foster care, and 18% witness intimate partner violence. These children are at much higher risks of homelessness, criminal justice involvement, unemployment, and chronic health conditions compared to their neighbors. This article reviews the state of the economics literature on the causes and consequences of child maltreatment and intimate partner violence and calls for greater research into interventions aimed at improving child well-being.

An exploratory study on open adoptions from foster care in NSW, Australia: Adoptees’ psychosocial functioning, adoptive relationships, post-adoption contact and supports

2018 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-100
Author(s):  
Andrea del Pozo de Bolger ◽  
Debra Dunstan ◽  
Melissa Kaltner
Keyword(s):  
Foster Care ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Psychosocial Functioning ◽  
Exploratory Study ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Adoptive Parents ◽  
The Public ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Open Adoptions

This is an exploratory study focused on open adoptions from foster care conducted through the public child protection agency in New South Wales, Australia. The results from an online survey completed by 23 respondents indicated that most of the adoptees were reportedly in the normative range of adjustment, had positive relationships with their adoptive parents and had ongoing contact with their birth families. Most of the adoptive parents had received pre-adoption supports to encourage post-adoption contact. These preliminary results are encouraging, but larger and preferably longitudinal studies are needed to guide decision-making regarding adoptions from foster care. The new challenge for the child welfare system is how to collect reliable data about the well-being of children already living in this permanent type of care and how best to support them.

scholarly journals Improving Child Well-Being? Restructuring Child Welfare Programs in the Liberal Welfare States

2008 ◽  
pp. 3-26
Author(s):  
Maureen Baker
Keyword(s):  
Child Welfare ◽  
Best Practices ◽  
Family Life ◽  
Public Spending ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Social Programs ◽  
Welfare Programs ◽  
Role Of The State

For over a century, the ‘liberal’ welfare states have shared ideas about social provision and faced similar socioeconomic and political pressures to restructure their social programs. This paper discusses some of the historic and current pressures on these states to develop and restructure child welfare services. I argue that international ideas about children’s rights and ‘best practices’ have always influenced the development of these programs but current restructuring is more often shaped by concerns about public spending and the role of the state in family life. Despite the potential for governments in these ‘rich’ nations to enhance the wellbeing of children, unhealthy practices are permitted to continue.

Understanding the Expansion of Latin America’s New Social Welfare Regimes

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rehan Rafay Jamil
Keyword(s):  
Social Welfare ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Political Competition ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Welfare Regimes ◽  
Welfare Programs ◽  
Political Incentives ◽  
Social Welfare Programs ◽  
Party Ideology

Latin American countries have been described as truncated welfare states. However, the recent expansion of innovative social welfare programs have brought millions of excluded citizens access to social benefits. This review article examines a new body of scholarship that studies how democratic political competition has created the institutional context for social welfare expansion. This literature makes several important contributions to the study of distributive politics. It moves beyond regime type and party ideology and focuses on the nature of domestic political institutions and citizen-state linkages within Latin American democracies. Countries with robust political competition and denser ties to constituents have had the most extensive welfare expansion, and non-partisan programs have undermined clientelism. In single party dominated settings, the political incentives for informal and clientelist provision remains significant.

Fostering Well-being: Perspectives of Youth and Alumni of Foster Care

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monica Fitzgerald ◽  
Miyako Shirakawa ◽  
Timothy Bell ◽  
Janice Cole ◽  
Miho Awazu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Foster Care ◽  
Well Being

Welfare State Values and Public Service Media in the Era of Datafication

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaarina Nikunen ◽  
Jenni Hokka
Keyword(s):  
Public Service ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Social Solidarity ◽  
Media Environment ◽  
The Public ◽  
Media Companies ◽  
Data Practices ◽  
Public Media ◽  
New Public

Welfare states have historically been built on values of egalitarianism and universalism and through high taxation that provides free education, health care, and social security for all. Ideally, this encourages participation of all citizens and formation of inclusive public sphere. In this welfare model, the public service media are also considered some of the main institutions that serve the well-being of an entire society. That is, independent, publicly funded media companies are perceived to enhance equality, citizenship, and social solidarity by providing information and programming that is driven by public rather than commercial interest. This article explores how the public service media and their values of universality, equality, diversity, and quality are affected by datafication and a platformed media environment. It argues that the embeddedness of public service media in a platformed media environment produces complex and contradictory dependencies between public service media and commercial platforms. The embeddedness has resulted in simultaneous processes of adapting to social media logics and datafication within public service media as well as in attempts to create alternative public media value-driven data practices and new public media spaces.

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