Description
Book SynopsisThe child protective system (CPS), shaped by federal law forty years ago and run on the state and county levels in the United States, offered in utopian fashion the hope of preventing all possible child abuse or neglect. In response, legislators enacted a spate of vague laws that poorly defined such categories as abuse and neglect, and granted the CPS sweeping powers to intrude into families, often on the basis of nothing more than anonymous complaints about standard childrearing practices. This arrangement, which followed from the questionable assertion of the existence of a crisis of child abuse and neglect, became the basis in theory for the universal monitoring of American families that has resulted in the sharp curtailing of parental rights and responsibilities. With overreaching by local and state governments into family affairs, the current CPS has not only damaged untold numbers of families but also undercut the legitimacy of parental authority through the continuous threat to
Trade ReviewAlong with prefatory and two appended amicus curiae briefs, this volume consists of six articles originally presented at a conference co-sponsored by the Society of Catholic Social Scientists (SCSS) and the Catholic Social Workers National Association, held at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., April 2012. Krason is a co-founder of SCSS. The papers offer a review of the Mondale Act and a critique of 40 years of American law and governmental response to child abuse and neglect, and then consider family and parental rights, police interference with family relations, Fourth Amendment litigation, the effects of family structure on child abuse, and child welfare policy and ethical dilemmas — all in light of Catholic social teaching. * Book News, Inc. *
