The Abused Child In Search Of Safety

Longtime Presbyterian layperson, Dr. Kent S. Miller, emeritus professor of psychology at the Florida State University, Tallahassee, who had spent much of his professional life focused on mental disability law and the relations between the mental health and the criminal justice systems, decided to volunteer for a couple years in the Department of Children and Families in Florida to try to understand why they were getting such bad press. This book is a result of this time spent with the Florida DCF and is an analysis of the current crisis in the child welfare scene based on the author's involvement with a program that has been racked with the scandals of missing and murdered children. If as Christians we are to care for the little ones and our neighbors, then Dr. Milller posits that we must address this concern immediately for we are sabotaging our nation's future by abandoning our at-risk children--to say nothing of incurring the wrath of our Lord who demonstrated a preferential option for children--as well as for the poor.

How can professionals build constructive relationships with families where the parents dispute professional allegations of serious child abuse? How can meaningful safety for children be created in these families? How can professionals work together constructively in such cases? Situations where parents refute child abuse allegations made against them are often deemed to be impossible or untreatable by statutory and treatment professionals. These cases can consume enormous amounts of professional time and energy and frequently become bogged down by ongoing professional-family mistrust and dispute. Often, the decision to close such cases comes about not because the children are safe, but rather because the professionalsrun out of ideas, time and energy. Working with ‘Denied’ Child Abuse presents an innovative, safety-focused, partnership-based, model called Resolutions, which provides an alternative approach for responding rigourously and creatively to such cases. It describes each stage of this practical model and demonstrates the approach through many case examples from therapists, statutory social workers and other professionals working in Europe, North America and Australasia. The book is key reading for legal, health and social care professionals working in the area of child protection.

Failure-to-protect policies and practices are intended to better ensure the safety and protection of children. But as this book demonstrates, these policies actually increase danger for children and for their mothers. While failure to protect is not always encoded in policy documents, practices that engage mothers and hold them responsible for violence in the home, while excusing or ignoring the male offender, are common. Moreover, these actions most often play out on the shoulders of marginalized and already oppressed women and, in a cruel twist, place blame on mothers because they are unable to protect their children from factors beyond their control, such as poverty, racism, intimate partner violence and inadequate housing. In this book, writers from Canada, the U.S., the U.K. and Australia explain how the concept of failure to protect emerged and how it differentially impacts child welfare clients by virtue of their gender, race and class positions. Chapters dedicated to child sexual abuse and intimate partner abuse, for example, illustrate just how ineffective failure-to-protect policies are at protecting both women and children. Beyond a critique of child protection systems, the book proposes innovative and effective alternatives to policies and practices informed by failure to protect. This edited collection compels us to think critically about knowledge that is taken for granted and opens up possibilities for practices that are not only grounded in social justice but fulfill the mandate of child welfare to effectively protect children."

Armed conflicts continue to wreak havoc on children and families around the world with profound effects. In 2017, 420 million children—nearly one in five—were living in conflict-affected areas, an increase in 30 million from the previous year. The recent surge in war-induced migration, referred to as a “global refugee crisis” has made migration a highly politicized issue, with refugee populations and host countries facing unique challenges. We know from research related to asylum seeking families that it is vital to think about children and families in relation to what it means to stay together, what it means for parents to be separated from their children, and the kinds of everyday tensions that emerge in living in dangerous, insecure, and precarious circumstances. In Global Child, the authors draw on what they have learned through their collaborative undertakings, and highlight the unique features of participatory, arts-based, and socio-ecological approaches to studying war-affected children and families, demonstrating the collective strength as well as the limitations and ethical implications of such research. Building on work across the Global South and the Global North, this book aims to deepen an understanding of their tri-pillared approach, and the potential of this methodology for contributing to improved practices in working with war-affected children and their families.

This is an edited volume reviewing the major means-tested social programs in the United States. Each author addresses a major program or area, reviewing each area’s successes and recommending how to address shortcomings through policy change. In general, our means-tested programs do many things well, but some adjustments to each could make the system much more effective. This book provides policymakers with a broad overview of the issues at hand in each program and how to address them.

It's the most urgent and highly publicized issue facing America's family: how to teach our children to protect themselves in any situation. Based on the author's successful education workshop, which has been in operation since 1969 and has educated more than 50,000 parents and children nationwide, The Safe Child Book gives parents effective and nonthreatening techniques for teaching children how to protect themselves without making them afraid. Written by one of the few nationally recognized authorities on the subject, The Safe Child Book provides a comprehensive educational program covering a wide range of topics that concern parents today, including sexual abuse, abduction, leaving children alone, surfing the Internet, school safety, and choosing a daycare center or babysitter.