Children and Families

What is the best way to work with fathers who have a history of abusive behavior toward their intimate partners? This question is among the thorniest that social service and criminal justice professionals must deal with in their careers, and this book examines the host of equally difficult issues that surround it. Beginning with the voices of mothers and fathers who speak about men's contact with and parenting of their children, the book then examines court and mental health services perspectives on how much involvement violent men should have in their children's lives. The second half of the book showcases programs such as the Boston-based Fathering After Violence initiative and the Caring Dads program in Canada, which introduce non-abusive parenting concepts and skills to batterers men who batter women and have developed useful guidelines for intervention with these fathers. This book distills the most relevant policy issues, research findings, and practice considerations for those who coordinate batterer programs or work with families, the courts, and the child welfare system. It guides professionals in understanding men who batter, assessing their parenting skills, making decisions about custody and visitation, and modeling treatment programs that engage fathers in their children's lives while maximizing safety.

This book proposes what, to many professionals in the child welfare field, will appear a radically different explanation for society's decisions to protect children from harm and for the significant drop in substantiated child abuse numbers. At the center of this conceptual and analytic approach is the contention that social outrage emanating from horrific and often sensationalized cases of child maltreatment plays a major role in CPS decision making and in child outcomes. The ebb and flow of outrage invokes three levels of response that are consistent with patterns of the number of child maltreatment reports made to public child welfare agencies, the number of cases screened-in by these CPS agencies, the proportions of alleged cases substantiated as instances of real child abuse or neglect, and the numbers of children placed outside their homes. At the community level, outrage produces amplified surveillance and a posture of “zero-tolerance” while child protection workers, in turn, carry out their duties under a fog of “infinite jeopardy.” With outrage as a driving force, child protective services organizations are forced into changes that are disjointed and highly episodic; changes which follow a course identified in the natural sciences as abrupt equilibrium changes. Through such manifestations as child safety legislation, institutional reform litigation of state child protective services agencies, massive retooling of the CPS workforce, the rise of community surveillance groups and moral entrepreneurs, and the exploitation of fatality statistics by media and politicians evidence is found of outrage at work and its power to change social attitudes, worker decisions and organizational culture.

Over the last half a century, technological and medical advances, shifting patterns of employment, the loosening of marital bonds, changing social norms, and the women's rights movement have dramatically altered the landscape of family life. On this new terrain, parents struggle with balancing the demands of work and child care responsibilities, selecting the right schools, and sorting through a bewildering array of medical and psychological nostrums. At the same time, public officials are under increasing pressure to formulate policies that assist parents to meet the challenges of childrearing in contemporary society. This book looks at the troubling concerns of childrearing in modern family life, and raises provocative questions about the benefits and hazards of policy alternatives designed to alleviate these issues. It frames the emerging needs and new risks that impact child rearing, addressing controversial issues such as the roles of schools and government in promoting children's health, the facts and the myths about Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), the family dynamics of balancing work and childcare, and allocating responsibility for care and support of children when family life breaks down. The book analyzes a range of state interventions to assist parents in dealing with these issues. Although these interventions are sometimes seen as a substitute for parental authority, the book explains how they can be framed as efforts to empower parents.

This book fills major gaps in knowledge about residential care of children, and is sure to inform ongoing debates within and between nations about the appropriate use of such institutions. Each “case study” chapter provides a rich description of the development, current status, and future of residential care in countries from Brazil to Botswana. Chapters describe how residential care is defined in the country in question, how it has evolved over time, including its history, trends over time, and any “landmark” events in the history of residential care. The chapters examine factors (historical, political, economic, ideological, and cultural) that have contributed to the observed pattern of development of residential care and provide a description of the current state of residential care (number of children in care, ages, average length of stay, reasons that children/youth are placed in residential care, etc.). Lastly, each case study describes expected future directions for residential care and potential concerns. Two integrative chapters provide a critical cross-national perspective, identifying common themes, analyzing underlying factors, and speculating about the future of residential child care across the globe.

Despite significant accomplishments over the past 35 years, antiviolence activists know that justice for most abused women remains elusive. Most victims of violence against women do not call the police or seek help from the courts. Are there new ways that survivors might find justice? This book examines new alternative justice practices for victims. These informal, dialogue-based practices, referred to as “restorative justice,” seek to decrease the role of the state in responding to crime, and increase the involvement of communities in meeting the needs of victims and offenders. Restorative Justice and Violence Against Women considers both the dangers and potential benefits of using restorative justice in response to these crimes. The contributors include antiviolence activists and scholars from the U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. A range of perspectives on these alternative justice practices is presented. This book also contains rich descriptions of new programs that combine restorative justice with feminist antiviolence approaches. The hope is that this will inspire survivors, advocates, community activists, and scholars to create new ways for abused women to find justice.

This book describes an approach to developing and testing effective community-based programs for at-risk children and youth. Elements of risk and resilience, positive youth development, and organizational collaboration are used to develop a comprehensive intervention framework called the Integrated Prevention and Early Intervention (IPEI) Model. The IPEI is applied to a community-based after-school program called the Bridge Project to illustrate how an integrated intervention framework can be used to prevent childhood and adolescent problems and improve academic achievement. Findings from an evaluation of Bridge Project intervention components are presented. Recommendations for advancing policy and practice for high-risk youth in community-based programs are described.

Bullying is one of the most prevalent and insidious forms of school violence today, impacting the learning environment of schools in profound ways. Victims of chronic bullying have poorer grades, increased rates of truancy, increased rates of dropping out, loss of self-esteem, feelings of isolation, depression, and increased risk of suicide attempts. This book is unique in utilizing a larger cultural context and international perspective that broadens the traditional conceptualization of bullying and that promotes creative approaches to a seemingly intractable and complex problem. In addition, the book investigates several “under the radar” forms of bullying (e.g., religious bullying, bullying by teachers and other adults in schools), as well as the unique challenges in assessing these largely unacknowledged forms of bullying in today's U.S. public schools. Viewing bullying as a systematic abuse of power, this book examines all the ways in which power is misused in schools. The book also dispels important myths about bullies and focuses on the increasingly important role that peer witnesses play in exacerbating as well as combating bullying in schools. Consistent with an ecological systems perspective, it utilizes a whole school approach as a framework for developing and implementing comprehensive evidence-based interventions to combat bullying in schools.

Here, readers will find an overview of violence and interpersonal conflict in schools. This Concise Companion covers the types of violence that threaten school and student safety — from bullying to sexual assault to gang activity — and presents strategies to assess risk, teach conflict-resolution skills, and create a violence-free culture. Each chapter is filled with charts, checklists and cases, organized around What We Know, What We Can Do, Tools and Practice Examples, and Key Points to Remember.

Here, readers will find an overview of adolescent health issues and step-by-step prevention and intervention guidance. This Concise Companion covers major health issues that affect students' well being — from substance abuse to STDs to obesity — and presents strategies to improve student health by addressing risky behaviors. Each chapter is filled with charts, checklists and cases, organized around What We Know, What We Can Do, Tools and Practice Examples, and Key Points to Remember.

Here, readers will find an overview of adolescent mental health disorders and step-by-step guidelines for intervening effectively. This Concise Companion covers ten major mental health issues — from depression to ADHD to autism — as well as strategies for working with co-occurring disorders and for managing psychopharmacological treatments. Each chapter is filled with charts, checklists and cases, organized around What We Know, What We Can Do, Tools and Practice Examples, and Key Points to Remember.