The problem of child abuse has become increasingly evident in North America and Western Europe. Many countries are now struggling with issues involving the definition of child maltreatment, reporting requirements, processes for responding to reports, substantiation rates, and services to abused children and their families. This book illustrates alternative approaches to dealing with these problems by examining and comparing the designs of child abuse systems in nine countries: the US, English, Canada, Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Belgium, and Sweden.

As the number of children in foster care increases and the number of potential foster families declines, more than 31% of all children in state custody are now being placed with extended family members who collect payment for their care. This raises many important and controversial issues regarding the meaning of family, the role of government, and the nature of welfare. Although professional literature on the subject continues to expand, knowledge on this subject remains scarce.
Kinship Foster Care is the first text to offer a comprehensive analysis of what is considered to be...

The first few years of life are a time of unparalleled physical, intellectual, and emotional development. But they can also be a time of neglect and abuse: this is the period when children are most likely to suffer mistreatment by their parents, and most likely to be placed in foster care. Today most children entering the child welfare system are very young, and, in most large states, infants are the largest group of children entering foster care each year. Social service systems are typically not designed for very young children, however, and therefore fail to serve their special needs. This...