Child Welfare in the Legal Setting: A Critical and Interpretive Perspective

ISBN-13: 9780789001474 / Angielski / Twarda / 2004 / 322 str.

Thomas M. O'Brien

Opis

Explore legal issues that often hinder the work of child welfare practitioners
Child Welfare in the Legal Setting: A Critical and Interpretive Perspective is a revolutionary study of the child welfare system that is essential for practitioners, educators, and students interested in public child welfare work. It examines the legal system surrounding child welfare workers and highlights their need for agency-specific training. This insightful book challenges the traditional rules of child welfare and paves the way for alternate methods of conceptualizing and organizing child protection. It explores why many family interventions fail and others never even occur. By identifying incongruities between the philosophy of child welfare and its function, this book advocates a more individualistic and efficient technique for assisting clients. Addressing issues and challenges from the initial identification of problems to navigating the legal system, this book is also thorough enough for public child welfare workers who want to take their skills to the next level.
The large-system perspective in this book uses the concentric circle model, the rational legal model of legal and court action, and the ritualized process model to examine child welfare practice. Learn why terms such as "child abuse" and "neglect" have become social constructions that vary depending on the values of social workers, judges, attorneys, agencies, and communities. Child Welfare in the Legal Setting: A Critical and Interpretive Perspective examines the standardization of the organizational activities of child welfare systems and how this limits professionals' ability to accurately recognize unique problems and intervene in the most beneficial manner.
Child Welfare in the Legal Setting also provides controversial opinions on emerging issues including:

• family investigations
• sanction for Child Protective Services intervention
• the legal setting as a host environment
• the function of the child welfare system
• rationalization of child welfare intervention
• "trained incapacity" of social workers
• Title IVE programs
• the court system

Child Welfare in the Legal Setting: A Critical and Interpretive Perspective identifies vital issues by analyzing the ethical and moral foundations of the child welfare system. This insightful book also takes a close look at how practitioners inadvertently devalue their clients by using language that creates stigmatized social categories such as "victim" and "convicted felon." Supervisors, managers, social workers and child welfare practitioners will benefit from this information. The vignettes that supplement the narrative also make the book an important resource in any child welfare course.

Spis treści

• Preface and Acknowledgments
  
• Chapter 1. Beginnings
  
• Introduction
  
• The Book: An Overview
  
• Some Important Concepts or Assumptions
  
• The Individual As Constructing Meaning
  
• Abstract Systems
  
• Social Institutions As Abstract Systems
  
• The Social and Cultural World
  
• Conclusion
  
• SECTION I: SANCTION, AUTHORITY, AND THE LEGAL SYSTEM
  
• Chapter 2. The Institutional Context of Child Welfare
  
• Global Perspectives
  
• Child Well-Being at Societal, Institutional, and Family Levels
  
• International Perspectives on Protecting Children from Parents/Caretakers
  
• Child Abuse and Neglect As Social Categories
  
• The American Child Welfare System
  
• The Organization of Child Welfare Programs
  
• Conclusion
  
• Chapter 3. Governance, Legitimacy, and Trust
  
• Introduction
  
• The American System: A Focus on Parental or Caretaker Behavior
  
• Child Protective Services As Child Welfare
  
• Child Welfare As an Industry
  
• Prevention
  
• American Child Welfare As Intervention into Family Life
  
• Constitutional Rights
  
• Conclusion
  
• Chapter 4. Multiple Dimensions of Child Welfare Governance
  
• Introduction
  
• The Constitution and Fragmented Authority
  
• The Federalist Structure
  
• The Administrative Structure
  
• Law and Policy by Appellate Decisions
  
• Legislation by Oversight
  
• Conclusion
  
• Chapter 5. The Organizational Context of Practice
  
• Introduction
  
• The Community As a Context for Child Welfare
  
• The Industrialization of Child Welfare
  
• The Effects of Industrialization: Alienation, Trained Incapacity, and Case Production
  
• The Social Worker’s Role As Mediating Levels of Organization
  
• Conclusion
  
• Chapter 6. The Legal System As Host Setting: Context and History
  
• Introduction
  
• Practice in a Host Setting
  
• Tensions: Social Workers in Court Settings
  
• History of the Social Work Profession
  
• Conclusion
  
• Chapter 7. Images and Realities of the Legal System: Metaphor, Myths, and Stereotypes
  
• Introduction
  
• Stereotypes: Their Nature and Action
  
• Understanding Conflict Between Social Workers and Attorneys
  
• Social Work in Public Child Welfare
  
• Conclusion
  
• SECTION II: COURTS, MODELS, AND RITUALS
  
• Chapter 8. The Courts
  
• Introduction
  
• The Varieties of Courts
  
• Child Welfare Courts: Nonvoluntary Interventions
  
• Voluntary Child and Family Courts
  
• Ancillary Courts and Legal Issues
  
• Litigation: Social Work Liability, Forensic Responsibility, and Agency Action
  
• Administrative Reviews: Schools, Welfare, Social Services, Etc.
  
• Conclusion: Courts As a Labyrinth
  
• Chapter 9. The Concentric Systems View of Child Welfare
  
• Introduction
  
• Background or Theoretical Underpinnings
  
• The Concentric Systems Model
  
• Dynamics of the Model
  
• Applying the Model
  
• A System Overview Using the Concentric Systems Model
  
• Summary
  
• Chapter 10. The Rationalization of Child Welfare Intervention
  
• Introduction
  
• The Rational Model
  
• The Court Personnel
  
• The Social Service
  
• Conclusion
  
• Chapter 11. Life in Drama and Narrative: Meaning, Self, and Identity
  
• Introduction
  
• Behavior As Drama and Narrative
  
• Child Welfare As Intervention in Social Dramas
  
• Conclusion
  
• Chapter 12. Social Intervention As Ritualized Action
  
• Introduction
  
• The Ritual Process Model
  
• Conclusion
  
• SECTION III: ETHICS, VALUES, AND CONCLUSIONS
  
• Chapter 13. Ethics, Values, and Integrity
  
• Introducti

O autorze

Thomas M O'Brien