The Welfare of Children

By Duncan Lindsey

Book Overview

Today the United States has more children living in poverty than any other industrialized nation. Some 2.1 million children are left undersupervised before and after school due to inadequate child care available to working parents. Furthermore, the U.S., a country which once pioneered strategies to prevent child abuse and which now spends more money fighting child abuse than any other industrialized country, has the world's highest rate of child abuse.
Against this background, Duncan Lindsey, a leading authority on child welfare, takes a critical look at the current child welfare system. He traces the transformation of child welfare into child protective services. The current focus on abuse has produced a system that is designed to protect children from physical and sexual abuse and therefore functions as a last resort for only the worst and most dramatic cases in child welfare. In a close analysis of the process of investigating and handling child abuse, Lindsey finds that there is no evidence that the transformation to protective services has reduced child abuse fatalities or provided a safer environment for children. He makes a compelling argument for the criminal justice system to assume responsibility for the problem of child abuse in order that the child welfare system can address the well- being of a much larger number of children.
The Welfare of Children is a compassionate blueprint for comprehensive reform of the child welfare system to one that administers to the economic security of the large number of disadvantaged and impoverished children. Concrete policy proposals such as a Child's Future Security Account, similar to the Social Security Program for older citizens, will spark serious debate on a major public policy issue facing our society.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195085183
• ISBN13: 9780195085181
• Release Date: November 1994
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 2.31 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 1.3" x 6.4"

Customer Reviews

Enjoyable and insightful study of child welfare

If you want to know about the child welfare system in America this book will tell you in a compelling story.

Essential reading for anyone concerned with child welfare

The Welfare of Children is a stunning achievement. Lindsey examines several vital issues heretofore untouched, charting a course for the future of child welfare with remarkable clarity of vision. In this most comprehensive and thoroughly annotated volume, Lindsey traces the transformation of child welfare into child protective services. Lindsey explodes the many myths which have served for so long to perpetuate this transformed system. Chief among them are those most commonly held misperceptions that child welfare programs based on the "residual model" have reduced child fatalities by any measure, and that they have served to increase the welfare of children overall. Lindsey explores in depth the critical decision-making processes involved in making the determination of whether or not to remove a child from his home. He clearly demonstrates that the field of child welfare lacks a scientific knowledge base from which to draw, and that the critical decisions involving the welfare of children and families are inherently unreliable. Rather than offer another book replete with anecdotal "horror stories," Lindsey offers instead a scholarly work which will serve to greatly enhance the reader's understanding of the history and dynamics of child welfare, and the forces driving its transformation from child welfare into child protective services. Lindsey offers a blueprint for a future which will better serve children. He offers a compelling argument for the criminal justice system to assume responsibility for dealing with the problem of child abuse, such that the child welfare system can return to its role of addressing the overall well-being of a greater number of children. He makes extensive use of charts and graphs, while managing to do so in such a way as not to distract the more casual reader. His use of advanced statistical analysis is explained clearly, for the benefit of all readers. Few books can so magnificently reach out to touch such a potentially diverse audience of readers, reaching the intellect as effectively as it does the heart. This is one of those rare volumes that no student of the child welfare system should be without. Put this book at the top of your list.