Transaction Search Form: please type in any of the fields below.
Date: April 30, 2024 Tue
Time: 12:22 am
Time: 12:22 am
Results for child welfare
66 results foundAuthor: Georgetown University. Center for Juvenile Justice Reform Title: Racial and Ethnic Disparity and Disproportionality in Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice: A Compendium Summary: This report presents the content of a symposium entitled "The Overrepresentation of Children of Color in America's Juvenile Justice and Child Welfare Systems." The symposium included four panel discussions in which researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and advocates explored the barriers they encountered and successes they enjoyed in efforts to reduce disproportionate minority contact. Panelists included experts from jurisdictions that have begun to employ a multi-systems approach to reducing disproportionality and policy experts who explored ways to foster progress through legislation and other nationally supported activities. Details: Washington, DC: Georgetown University, Georgetown Public Policy Institute, Center for Juvenile Justice Reform, 2009. 79p. Source: Internet Resource Year: 2009 Country: United States URL: Shelf Number: 114350 Keywords: Child WelfareDiscrimination in Juvenile JusticeJuvenile Justice, Administration of (U.S.)Minority Groups |
Author: Byron, Tanya Title: Do We Have Safer Children in a Digital World? A Review of Progress Since the 2008 Byron Review Summary: 1. In the last two years there has been significant progress on improving children's digital safety which I am pleased to highlight in this report. As the UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS) enters the next phase of its work, I think it is a good time to take stock of progress so far and consider priorities. I hope this report will help UKCCIS to build on its successes, as in the fast-paced digital world the UK and UKCCIS will need to speed up to stay ahead as the world leader in child digital safety. 2. In the first phase of this work I have been impressed by the public awareness campaign which I think gives clear and concise messages to help parents educate their children. 3. I have also been struck by the improvements to educational resources which are enabling our children and young people to develop the resilience and skills they need to negotiate their digital lives. These skills will in turn help them to educate their children, as today's children are tomorrow's parents. 4. The UK is a world leader in improving children's digital safety. The establishment of UKCCIS is a significant achievement, bringing together a range of influential organisations with an interest in, or a responsibility for, keeping children and young people safe on the internet. The council is to be congratulated on publishing the first UK child internet safety strategy in December 2009. 5. In preparing this report, I have gathered evidence through talking to UKCCIS executive board members, children and young people, parents, wider stakeholders and a survey of 148 members of UKCCIS. 6. The recommendations in this report are intended to support the recommendations in my 2008 review and the ongoing work of UKCCIS. I planned for my 2008 recommendations to be delivered over a five-year timescale, so I would not expect them all to have been completed by now. For this reason this report does not deliver a recommendation by recommendation audit of my 2008 review. Details: Annesley, UK: Department for Children, Schools and Families, 2010. 60p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 224, 2018 at: http://dera.ioe.ac.uk/709/7/do%20we%20have%20safer%20children%20in%20a%20digital%20world-WEB_Redacted.pdf Year: 2010 Country: United Kingdom URL: http://dera.ioe.ac.uk/709/7/do%20we%20have%20safer%20children%20in%20a%20digital%20world-WEB_Redacted.pdf Shelf Number: 119455 Keywords: Child WelfareComputer CrimesInternetInternet SafetyVideo Games |
Author: Cancian, Maria Title: The Effect of Family Income on Risk of Child Maltreatment Summary: Over six million children were reported to the child welfare system as being at risk of child abuse or neglect in the United States in 2008. Researchers and policymakers have long recognized that children living in families with limited economic resources are at higher risk for maltreatment than children from higher socioeconomic strata, but the causal effect of income on maltreatment risk is unknown. Because many factors, for example, poor parental mental health, are known to increase the probability both of poverty and child maltreatment, teasing out the causal role of income can be challenging. Using newly available data, we exploit a random assignment experiment that led to exogenous differences in family income to measure the effect of income on the risk of maltreatment reported to the child welfare system. We find consistent evidence of a causal effect. Details: Madison, WI: Institute for Research on Poverty, University of Wisconsin - Madison, 2010. 18p. Source: Internet Resource: Institute for Research on Poverty Discussion Paper no. 1385-10: Accessed October 21, 2010 at: http://www.irp.wisc.edu/publications/dps/pdfs/dp138510.pdf Year: 2010 Country: United States URL: http://www.irp.wisc.edu/publications/dps/pdfs/dp138510.pdf Shelf Number: 120046 Keywords: Child AbuseChild MaltreatmentChild WelfarePovertySocio-Economic Status |
Author: U.S. Children's Bureau, Office on Child Abuse and Neglect Title: Community Partnerships: Improving the Response to Child Maltreatment Summary: This manual offers guidance on how diverse community agencies, organizations, and individuals can work together to form a web of support for families and create safe, healthy environments where children can thrive. The manual describes the benefits of community partnerships, outlines the steps for establishing and sustaining partnerships, and demonstrates how to measure results. Details: Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Children's Bureau, 2010. 142p. Source: Internet Resource: Crime Abuse and Neglect User Manual Series: Accessed November 4, 2010 at: http://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/usermanuals/partners/partners.pdf Year: 2010 Country: United States URL: http://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/usermanuals/partners/partners.pdf Shelf Number: 120184 Keywords: Child Abuse and NeglectChild MaltreatmentChild Welfare |
Author: Allegheny County Department of Human Services Title: Children of Incarcerated Parents Summary: This report explores the impact parental incarceration is having on children in Allegheny County. The goals of the study were to explore who these children and parents are and, to the extent possible, to describe their experiences in the child welfare and human services systems and the impact that a maternal incarceration had on their entry into foster care placement. Details: Pittsburgh, PA: Allegheny County Department of Human Services, 2007. 28p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 4, 2011 at: http://www.alleghenycounty.us/uploadedFiles/DHS/About_DHS/Report_and_Evaluation/children_incarcerated_parents(1).pdf Year: 2007 Country: United States URL: http://www.alleghenycounty.us/uploadedFiles/DHS/About_DHS/Report_and_Evaluation/children_incarcerated_parents(1).pdf Shelf Number: 121228 Keywords: Child WelfareChildren of Prisoners (Pittsburg, PA)Foster Care |
Author: National Center for Youth Law Title: Broken Promises: California’s Inadequate and Unequal Treatment of its Abused and Neglected Children Summary: The National Center for Youth Law examined key child welfare outcomes that indicate whether California’s 58 counties are protecting child abuse victims and meeting the needs of children in foster care. Our Report is based upon 12 performance measures — an equal number of federal and state measures that address the six areas listed below. The state measures were established as a part of California’s 2001 legislative mandate (AB 636) for greater accountability among county child welfare programs. The federal measures are used by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (USDHHS) to determine state compliance with federal mandates for child safety, stability, and permanency, and states are sanctioned if they do not meet federal performance standards. The measures are: • Recurrence of Abuse or Neglect • Incidence of Child Abuse and/or Neglect in Foster Care • Foster Care Re-entries • Stability of Foster Care Placements • Length of Time to Reunification • Length of Time to Adoption These outcome measures provide a gauge to determine how well children are being protected and, when they enter foster care, whether they are moved promptly back to a safe home, whether it be with their biological parents, a relative, adoptive parents, or other permanent placement. For those children who remain in care longer, the measures show whether a county has provided that child with a stable placement. Finally, by tracking the rate at which children re-enter care, the measures provide some indication of whether children are being returned to their families too soon, or if families are not given enough support to allow parents to properly care for their children. Details: Sacramento, CA: National Center for Youth Law, 2006. 66p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 11, 2011 at: http://www.teenhealthlaw.org/fileadmin/ncyl/youthlaw/publications/2006_broken_promises.pdf Year: 2006 Country: United States URL: http://www.teenhealthlaw.org/fileadmin/ncyl/youthlaw/publications/2006_broken_promises.pdf Shelf Number: 121308 Keywords: Child Abuse and Neglect (California)Child MaltreatmentChild ProtectionChild WelfareFoster Care |
Author: Pennell, Joan Title: Safety, Fairness, Stability: Repositioning Juvenile Justice and Child Welfare to Engage Families and Communities Summary: There is no other relationship with greater significance in our lives than those we have with our families — whether they are our birth or chosen families. They should serve as the anchor in our lives, as the lifeline to everything else we accomplish. As noted by the authors of this paper, Joan Pennell, Carol Shapiro, and Carol Spigner, “for youths to grow into responsible and productive adults, they need a foundation of safety, fairness, and stability.” Further noting that “this foundation is especially weakened for youths involved with both child protection and juvenile justice,” they make the case for devoting our efforts to maintaining youths’ connections to their homes, schools, and communities in an appropriate manner, and by doing so give youth who are too often alienated from their families and our mainstream society “a sense of belonging, competence, well-being, and purpose.” It is this sense of belonging that many youth involved with child welfare and juvenile justice lose as they and their families experience these systems. This paper provides a pathway to improving these systems in a manner that will leave children, youth, and families with a different set of experiences. But this pathway requires those working within those systems — as agency leaders, supervisors, line staff, or judges and lawyers — to adopt a new lens in viewing their work in engaging families. The paper begins with a call for change. Without intervention, the authors assert that crossover youth are all too likely to head further down pathways of trauma and alienation and that disparate treatment elevates these threats for minority groups. The paper then explicates why a strategy of family engagement is particularly timely: It counters historical approaches that have estranged youths from their families; it responds to current political and demographic trends; it fits with legislative changes and conventions on human rights; it aligns with recent research findings; and it supports partnership approaches. Family engagement is broadly defined in terms of who participates and at what levels. The family group includes the youths as well as their relatives and social kin. Levels of input range from practice to program to policy. The authors examine strategies for advancing family leadership at the practice, program, and policy levels and summarize the findings on family engagement in child welfare and juvenile justice practice. In conclusion, the authors make a series of recommendations for repositioning juvenile justice and child welfare to engage youths and their families, victims of offending, other systems, and the broader community. Details: Washington, DC: Center for Juvenile Justice Reform, Georgetown University, 2011. 78p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 20, 2011 at: http://cjjr.georgetown.edu/pdfs/famengagement/FamilyEngagementPaper.pdf Year: 2011 Country: United States URL: http://cjjr.georgetown.edu/pdfs/famengagement/FamilyEngagementPaper.pdf Shelf Number: 121771 Keywords: Child WelfareFamiliesFamily EngagementJuvenile Justice Reform |
Author: U.S. Government Accountability Office Title: Child Maltreatment: Strengthening National Data on Child Fatalities Could Aid in Prevention Summary: Children's deaths from maltreatment are especially distressing because they involve a failure on the part of adults who were responsible for protecting them. Questions have been raised as to whether the federal National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS), which is based on voluntary state reports to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), fully captures the number or circumstances of child fatalities from maltreatment. GAO was asked to examine (1) the extent to which HHS collects and reports comprehensive information on child fatalities from maltreatment, (2) the challenges states face in collecting and reporting this information to HHS, and (3) the assistance HHS provides to states in collecting and reporting data on child maltreatment fatalities. GAO analyzed 2009 NCANDS data--the latest data available--conducted a nationwide Web-based survey of state child welfare administrators, visited three states, interviewed HHS and other officials, and reviewed research and relevant federal laws and regulations. More children have likely died from maltreatment than are counted in NCANDS, and HHS does not take full advantage of available information on the circumstances surrounding child maltreatment deaths. NCANDS estimated that 1,770 children in the United States died from maltreatment in fiscal year 2009. According to GAO's survey, nearly half of states included data only from child welfare agencies in reporting child maltreatment fatalities to NCANDS, yet not all children who die from maltreatment have had contact with these agencies, possibly leading to incomplete counts. HHS also collects but does not report some information on the circumstances surrounding child maltreatment fatalities that could be useful for prevention, such as perpetrators' previous maltreatment of children. The National Center for Child Death Review (NCCDR), a nongovernmental organization funded by HHS, collects more detailed data on circumstances from 39 states, but these data on child maltreatment deaths have not yet been synthesized or published. States face numerous challenges in collecting child maltreatment fatality data and reporting to NCANDS. At the local level, lack of evidence and inconsistent interpretations of maltreatment challenge investigators--such as law enforcement, medical examiners, and child welfare officials--in determining whether a child's death was caused by maltreatment. Without medical evidence, it can be difficult to determine that a child's death was caused by abuse or neglect, such as in cases of shaken baby syndrome, when external injuries may not be readily visible. At the state level, limited coordination among jurisdictions and state agencies, in part due to confidentiality or privacy constraints, poses challenges for reporting data to NCANDS. HHS provides assistance to help states report child maltreatment fatalities, although states would like additional help. For example, HHS hosts an annual NCANDS technical assistance conference, provides individual state assistance, and, through NCCDR, has developed resources to help states collect information on child deaths. However, there has been limited collaboration between HHS and NCCDR on child maltreatment fatality information or prevention strategies to date. State officials indicated a need for additional information on how to coordinate across state agencies to collect more complete information on child maltreatment fatalities. States are also increasingly interested in collecting and using information on near fatalities from maltreatment. GAO recommends that the Secretary of HHS take steps to further strengthen data quality, expand available information on child fatalities, improve information sharing, and estimate the costs and benefits of collecting national data on near fatalities. In its comments, HHS agreed with GAO's findings and recommendations and provided technical comments, which GAO incorporated as appropriate. Details: Washington, DC: U.S. Government Accountability Office, 2011. 57p. Source: Internet Resource: GAO-11-599; Accessed July 13, 2011 at: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d11599.pdf Year: 2011 Country: United States URL: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d11599.pdf Shelf Number: 122043 Keywords: Child Abuse and NeglectChild Maltreatment (U.S.)Child Sexual AbuseChild Welfare |
Author: Larance, Eileen R. Title: Missing Children: DOJ Could Enhance Oversight to Help Ensure That Law Enforcement Agencies Report Cases in a Timely Manner Summary: Missing children who are not found quickly are at an increased risk of victimization. The National Child Search Assistance Act, as amended, requires that within 2 hours of receiving a missing child report, law enforcement agencies (LEAs) enter the report into the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) National Crime Information Center (NCIC), a clearinghouse of information instantly available to LEAs nationwide. DOJ’s Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS), the CJIS Advisory Policy Board (the Board), and state criminal justice agencies share responsibility for overseeing this requirement. As requested, GAO examined (1) CJIS’s and the Board’s efforts to implement and monitor compliance with the requirement; and (2) selected LEA-reported challenges with timely entry and DOJ’s actions to assist LEAs in addressing them. GAO reviewed documents, such as agency guidelines, and interviewed officials from DOJ, six state criminal justice agencies, and nine LEAs selected in part based on missing children rates. The results are not generalizable to all states and LEAs, but provided insights on this issue. GAO recommends that CJIS and the Board consider establishing minimum standards for states to use to monitor compliance with the 2-hour rule and CJIS and OJJDP use existing mechanisms to obtain and share information on LEA challenges and successful efforts to mitigate them. DOJ concurred. Details: Washington, DC: GAO, 2011. 35p. Source: Internet Resource: GAO 11-444: Accessed July 26, 2011 at: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d11444.pdf Year: 2011 Country: United States URL: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d11444.pdf Shelf Number: 122165 Keywords: Child WelfareMissing Children (U.S.) |
Author: Ryan, Joseph P. Title: Crossover Youth and Juvenile Justice Processing in Los Angeles County Summary: The term “crossover” refers to youth who are simultaneously involved with both child welfare and juvenile justice, presenting a variety of complex legal, jurisdictional, and service delivery challenges. Although crossover can go in either direction, meaning delinquent youth can become dependent youth and vice versa, this study focused on youth who had first entered the dependency system and then committed an offense that brought them to the delinquency system. This research brief describes the characteristics of crossover youth in Los Angeles over a period of three years, compares them to other youth in the delinquency system, and details the particular risks to which these youths are subject. Local courts, county child welfare agencies, state governments, and youth-serving organizations across the United States are currently struggling with how best to serve the relatively large number of youth simultaneously involved with both child welfare and juvenile justice systems. Details: Sacramenco: Judicial Council of California, Administrative Office of the Courts, Center for Families, Children & the Courts, 2008. 13p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 24, 2011 at: http://www.courts.ca.gov/documents/AB129-CrossoverResearchUpdate.pdf Year: 2008 Country: United States URL: http://www.courts.ca.gov/documents/AB129-CrossoverResearchUpdate.pdf Shelf Number: 123118 Keywords: Child WelfareCrossover YouthJuvenile Justice Systems (California)Juvenile Offenders, Jurisdiction |
Author: Culhane, Dennis P. Title: Young Adult Outcomes Of Youth Exiting Dependent Or Delinquent Care In Los Angeles County Summary: This report investigates the young adult outcomes of youth who age-out of or otherwise exit Los Angeles County’s child welfare supervised foster care system and/or juvenile probation system. Two cohorts of young adults from both systems were selected for analysis. Within the two cohorts, this study focuses on three groups of youth exiters: (i) The child welfare (CW) group is comprised of youth who exited from a child welfare out-of-home placement between the ages of 16 and 21; (ii) the juvenile probation (JP) group is made up of youth who exited from any type of juvenile probation supervision between the ages of 16 and 21; and (iii) the crossover group is comprised of all youth who exited an out-of-home child welfare placement between the ages of 16 and 21 and who also had a record of involvement with the juvenile probation system. The adult outcomes of youth in each of these three groups are analyzed by linking their administrative records from Los Angeles County’s Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) and/or Probation Department with administrative databases from seven County departments providing an array of public services to residents of Los Angeles County, as well as from two California statewide agencies. In performing this investigation, this study features several novel approaches toward examining the adult outcomes of youth aging-out of the child welfare system. While several studies have examined the adult outcomes of this population, there has been no such study looking specifically at adult outcomes among the sub-group of “crossover” youth who are involved in both child welfare and juvenile justice systems, and who may be at a particularly high risk for poor outcomes in adulthood. Despite the concern that has been raised about adult outcomes in this population, no prior studies have looked at adult outcomes of crossover youth, nor among the more general group of children who exit the juvenile justice system as adults. Along with providing findings on the adult outcomes of these latter two groups, this study also provides a basis for outcome comparisons across the three groups among these outcomes. Here, we can assess the assertion that crossover youth represent a group that stands out among their peers who are only involved with either the child welfare or juvenile justice systems, as a particularly at-risk population for undesirable outcomes in adulthood. Additionally, this study looks at outcomes across a variety of public programs and thus offers an opportunity to better understand the relationship and dynamics between a number of adult domains including the educational, occupational, health, mental health, criminal justice and public welfare systems. Details: Report Supported by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundations, 2011. 125p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 30, 2011 at: http://www.hiltonfoundation.org/images/stories/Downloads/media_resources/Young_Adult_Outcomes_of_Youth_Exiting_Dependent_or_Delinquent_Care_in_LA_County_Report.pdf Year: 2011 Country: United States URL: http://www.hiltonfoundation.org/images/stories/Downloads/media_resources/Young_Adult_Outcomes_of_Youth_Exiting_Dependent_or_Delinquent_Care_in_LA_County_Report.pdf Shelf Number: 123491 Keywords: Child WelfareCrossover YouthJuvenile Offenders (California)Juvenile ProbationRecidivism, Juvenile OffendersYoung Adult Offenders |
Author: Radford, Lorraine Title: Meeting the Needs of Children Living with Domestic Violence in London: Research Report Summary: The motivation for the research was to provide knowledge that could be used to improve children’s wellbeing. The aims were to explore the types of help given to children living with domestic violence in London, identify any gaps in knowledge and in services, and share learning about positive responses. In the 12 months to August 2011, the police recorded 47,297 domestic violence offences in London. Domestic violence accounts for 29 per cent of violent crime in London. One in seven (14.2 per cent) children and young people under the age of 18 will have lived with domestic violence at some point in their childhood. This is equivalent to at least 260,400 of London’s children and young people. Although not all will be affected in the same way, living with domestic violence can adversely affect children’s healthy development, relationships, behaviour and emotional wellbeing. Awareness has grown about the harm that can be caused to children in this way. Seeing or overhearing violence to another person in the home is recognised by law as potentially detrimental to children’s welfare. Research has shown that domestic violence is a central issue in child protection, being a factor in the family backgrounds of two-thirds of the serious case reviews (SCRs) where a child has died. It is also increasingly recognised that experiences of living with domestic violence vary and, although all children need to be safe, their need for support and help will vary. Over the last 10 years, changes have been made in policy and practice to cater for a continuum of children’s needs, ranging from preventative measures, to protect children from having to live with domestic violence, to the care and support of children who have suffered harm. Under the previous Government, ‘integrated children’s services’ were to bring together statutory services (such as child protection, education, social housing and health) with community and voluntary sector services to provide a range of coordinated support for children and their families, especially those most vulnerable or socially excluded. More differentiated and targeted responses have developed, where levels of support are designed to fit better with varied levels of need, including: • emphasis on early identification and intervention for vulnerable children • investment in Sure Start children’s centres • services for families with the combined problems of domestic violence, drug or alcohol abuse and poor mental health • Think Family approaches, which link adult and children’s services. However, Lord Laming’s report11 and Eileen Munro’s review of the child protection system both found that despite these changes, children living with domestic violence have not been given sufficient priority. Children’s needs tend to be overlooked when the focus is on the needs of the parent, while a focus on child protection can result in the impact of domestic violence on the abused parent being overlooked, highlighting the need for research into what help children living with domestic violence are given and what is effective for supporting both the child and the abused parent. The capital city presents particular challenges, but also some unique opportunities: • It has a diverse, mobile and changing population. • It includes areas of relative wealth as well as others of considerable deprivation. • The diversity of the population and the tendency of families to move from area to area, crossing borough boundaries, particularly when presenting to different services, places pressure on services working together to safeguard children and raises the risk of children falling through the gaps. • On the other hand, London has played a role in innovating and leading change, especially on coordinating approaches and on bringing together evidence and practice. Refuge and the NSPCC were each aware of examples of developing practice where knowledge could be shared. Details: London: NSPCC, 2011. 258p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed January 19, 2012 at: http://www.nspcc.org.uk/Inform/research/findings/domestic_violence_london_pdf_wdf85830.pdf Year: 2011 Country: United Kingdom URL: http://www.nspcc.org.uk/Inform/research/findings/domestic_violence_london_pdf_wdf85830.pdf Shelf Number: 123671 Keywords: Child Abuse and NeglectChild ProtectionChild WelfareDomestic Violence (London, U.K.)Family Violence |
Author: Herz, Denise Title: Addressing the Needs of Multi-System Youth: Strengthening the Connection between Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice Summary: It has been known for quite some time that children involved in the child welfare system are at risk of “crossing over” to the juvenile justice system and, inversely, that many juvenile justice–involved youth later become involved in the child welfare system. These youth are commonly referred to as crossover youth. The accumulation of research on this population has given us greater understanding of their characteristics, of the pathway they took to become crossover youth, and of the practices professionals can employ to improve their outcomes. Despite these advances in our knowledge, jurisdictions around the United States, and arguably around the world, continue to face challenges in adequately meeting the needs of this difficult-to-serve population. As a result, several reform efforts have been developed to guide jurisdictions in their efforts to improve the way they serve crossover youth. The purpose of this paper is to provide communities with a consolidated framework for serving crossover youth that incorporates the most up-to-date research, lessons from ongoing reform efforts, and an innovative collaborative management structure. To accomplish this task, the paper begins with a summary of the research on crossover youth, including their characteristics and system experiences. The paper then explores the systemic factors that contribute to ineffective service delivery for this population, followed by a review of two major crossover youth reform initiatives in the United States—the Systems Integration Initiative (SII) and the Crossover Youth Practice Model (CYPM). The final section presents the next frontier of this work by providing a comprehensive array of the best practices needed to improve outcomes for this population and describing Results-Based Accountability™ (RBA), an innovative management structure that can be used to align the work of a variety of stakeholders around a common, community-wide effort for crossover youth. This introduction serves to briefly orient the reader to what we know about crossover youth, the challenges in serving this population, the current reform efforts underway, and the Results-Based Accountability™ framework. These topics are elaborated upon further in subsequent sections. The stage is then set for the presentation of a new frontier of this work—a more cohesive and robust framework regarding how systems can undertake reforms to improve the lives of crossover youth. Details: Washington, DC: Center for Juvenile Justice Reform, Georgetown Public Policy Institute, Georgetown University, 2012. 84p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 9, 2012 at http://cjjr.georgetown.edu/pdfs/msy/AddressingtheNeedsofMultiSystemYouth.pdf Year: 2012 Country: United States URL: http://cjjr.georgetown.edu/pdfs/msy/AddressingtheNeedsofMultiSystemYouth.pdf Shelf Number: 124393 Keywords: Child WelfareChild Welfare SystemCrossover YouthJuvenile Justice Systems |
Author: Petro, John Title: Increading Collaboration and Coordination of the Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice Systems to Better Serve Dual Jurisdiction Youth: A Literature Review Summary: Dual jurisdiction youth are children and youth who are under the jurisdiction of the child welfare system; who are placed in out-of-home care; and who come to the attention of the juvenile justice system. Out-of-home care can consist of foster care, group care, kinship care, or residential placement. These youth cross between or concurrently exist in both the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. Research suggests that children who are abused or neglected are more likely to go on to commit delinquent acts than the general population. From the standpoint of child welfare and juvenile justice professionals, dual jurisdiction youth pose special challenges and require special attention, thereby straining limited resources. Although dual jurisdiction youth make up only a small percentage of the juvenile court’s total caseload, the research suggests that these youth may require a disproportionate share of agency resources. Dual jurisdiction youth make up a large proportion of the court’s deeper-end delinquency caseload. For instance, 42% of all juveniles in a probation placement also had a dependency petition active for at least a portion of that calendar year (Halemba et al., 2004). Dual jurisdiction youth also have higher recidivism rates than those with no history of involvement with the child welfare system. From the standpoint of the youth themselves, contact with the juvenile justice system may result in heightened trauma, increased instability, contribute to a child’s propensity to antisocial behavior, and impair a child’s educational attainment and income. The Child Welfare League of America (CWLA), therefore, is seeking to identify ways in which the child welfare and juvenile justice agencies can collaborate and coordinate their efforts to better serve dual jurisdiction youth and prevent those children with a history of maltreatment from going down the path of delinquency. It is to this effect that CWLA is undertaking the creation of practice guidelines. Developed with the assistance of a national advisory committee comprised of behavioral health, child welfare, and juvenile justice practitioners, experts, and advocates, the practice guidelines will delineate the necessary factors and components of systems collaboration on behalf of youth in out-of-home care entering and transitioning through the juvenile justice system. Practice guidelines are developed to provide practical guidance to the field in a particular area and represent the “best thinking” of professionals across program areas. This review of the literature will give first an overview of the research that suggests a link between maltreatment and delinquency. Second, we will review the research that evaluates the effect of placement on a child’s likelihood of delinquency. Next, we will examine programmatic responses child welfare and juvenile justice agencies may undertake to identify and deliver services to those children at risk of becoming dual jurisdiction youth. Lastly, we will examine models of collaboration between these agencies and review any policies, practices, or programs that have been evaluated for their effectiveness in assisting dual jurisdiction youth. Details: Washington, DC: Child Welfare League of America, . 25p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 25, 2012 at http://www.cwla.org/programs/juvenilejustice/jjlitreview.pdf Year: 0 Country: United States URL: http://www.cwla.org/programs/juvenilejustice/jjlitreview.pdf Shelf Number: 124737 Keywords: Child WelfareFoster CareJuvenile Justice SystemsPartnerships |
Author: Halemba, Gregg Title: King County (Seattle, WA) Uniting for Youth: Prevalence of Child Welfare and BECCA (Status Offender) Involvement Among Youth Referred to the Juvenile Court on Delinquency Matters Summary: First established in 2003, the King County Uniting for Youth (formerly the King County Systems Integration) Initiative is a collaboration of state and local community agencies and organizations that have come together to examine and improve integrated program development, policy development, and service delivery for children, youth, and families served by the child welfare and juvenile justice systems as well as other youth-serving entities (such as education and the mental/behavioral health communities). During the ensuing eight years, initiative accomplishments have been impressive. Uniting for Youth committees/task forces have tackled a number of difficult issues including development of information-sharing protocols/resource guides; specification of the technological functionalities needed to facilitate the sharing of information on multi-system youth; an assessment of the local mental health service continuum; design of a dropout retrieval system and recent implementation of a pilot project based on this design; and development of cross training and joint policy/procedural protocols to facilitate cross-system case work. A growing body of research examining the crossover youth population continues to confirm the important challenges presented by these cases. These include considerably higher recidivism rates (markedly so for female offenders); earlier onset of delinquent behavior; more and longer detention stays, deeper and faster juvenile justice system penetration; substantially higher out-ofhome placement rates; frequent placement changes; poor permanency outcomes; and substantial costs in the face of shrinking budgets. In support of this internal evaluation capacity-building effort and with funding provided by the Seattle Field Office of Casey Family Programs, the National Center for Juvenile Justice (NCJJ) in 2007 began work to design a strategy to conduct research on the prevalence of multi-system involvement among youth referred to the King County Juvenile Court on offender (delinquency), Becca (truancy, ARY and/or CHINS), and/or dependency matters. This included development of preliminary specifications on how to proceed in obtaining the necessary administrative data from the various stakeholder organizations/agencies required to conduct such a study. This report summarizes findings specific to the prevalence of multi-system involvement (specifically, child welfare and Becca) for youth referred to the King County Juvenile Court on offender matters, how this varies demographically, and how juvenile justice trajectories and outcomes vary by level of multi-system involvement. The report also begins to examine temporal issues related to the onset of juvenile justice, child welfare and Becca involvement. The data set has considerable potential to allow for more in-depth analysis in this regards and subsequent summaries are planned that will take a closer look at differential outcomes for firsttime offenders, females, and minority youth, among others. Also, The Washington State Center for Court Research (WSSCR) has identified youth in the current study who were administered the Washington State Juvenile Court Risk Assessment (WSJCA) instrument at some point during their court involvement on an offender matter. WSSCR has recently initiated an analysis examining differences in various risk and protective domains for these youth controlling for a history of multi-system involvement. Lastly, NCJJ and WSCCR plan to examine differential patterns of multi-system involvement for all youth referred to the court on dependency and Becca matters in a fashion similar to what is presented herein for youth referred on offender matters. Details: Pittsburgh, PA: National Center for Juvenile Justice (NCJJ), 2011. 37p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 25, 2012 at http://www.texascasaresources.org/files/grants/Crossover_Youth_Prevalence_Study_Final_Report.pdf Year: 2011 Country: United States URL: http://www.texascasaresources.org/files/grants/Crossover_Youth_Prevalence_Study_Final_Report.pdf Shelf Number: 124745 Keywords: Child WelfareCrossover YouthJuvenile Justice SystemsJuvenile Offenders |
Author: Halemba, Gregory Title: Doorways to Delinquency: Multi-System Involvement of Delinquent Youth in King County (Seattle, WA) Summary: This executive summary highlights fi ndings from a study conducted by the National Center for Juvenile Justice (NCJJ) that examines the prevalence of multi-system involvement (specifi cally, child welfare and Becca) among youth referred to the King County Juvenile Court on offender matters during the 2006 calendar year. The study examines how this varies demographically and how juvenile justice trajectories/outcomes vary by level of multi-system involvement. The target population for the current study reflected a time limited snapshot of youth referred to the King County Juvenile Court on one or more offender referrals during calendar year 2006. The study cohort included 4,475 youth and their history of court and child welfare involvement was tracked through the end of the 2008 calendar year. In support of this internal evaluation capacity-building effort and with funding provided by the Seattle Field Office of Casey Family Programs, the National Center for Juvenile Justice (NCJJ) in 2007 began work to design a strategy to conduct research on the prevalence of multi-system involvement among youth referred to the King County Juvenile Court on offender (delinquency), Becca (truancy, ARY and/or CHINS), and/or dependency matters. This included development of preliminary specifications on how to proceed in obtaining the necessary administrative data from the various stakeholder organizations/ agencies required to conduct such a study. This report summarizes fi ndings specifi c to the prevalence of multi-system involvement (specifi cally, child welfare and Becca) for youth referred to the King County Juvenile Court on offender matters, how this varies demographically, and how juvenile justice trajectories and outcomes vary by level of multi-system involvement. The report also begins to examine temporal issues related to the onset of juvenile justice, child welfare and Becca involvement. Details: Pittsburgh, PA: Models for Change, National Center for Juvenile Justice, 2011. 28p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 25, 2012 at http://www.ncjj.org/pdf/MFC/Doorways_to_Delinquency_2011.pdf Year: 2011 Country: United States URL: http://www.ncjj.org/pdf/MFC/Doorways_to_Delinquency_2011.pdf Shelf Number: 124746 Keywords: Child WelfareCrossover YouthJuvenile DelinquencyJuvenile Justice Systems |
Author: Wessler, Seth Freed Title: Shattered Families: The Perilous Intersection of Immigration Enforcement and the Child Welfare System Summary: This report presents a national investigation on threats to families when immigration enforcement and the child welfare system intersect. It explores the extent to which children in foster care are prevented from uniting with their detained or deported parents and the failures of the child welfare system to adequately work to reunify these families. Immigration policies and laws are based on the assumption that families will, and should, be united, whether or not parents are deported. Similarly, child welfare policy aims to reunify families whenever possible. In practice, however, when mothers and fathers are detained and deported and their children are relegated to foster care, family separation can last for extended periods. Too often, these children lose the opportunity to ever see their parents again when a juvenile dependency court terminates parental rights. In fiscal year 2011, the United States deported a record-breaking 397,000 people and detained nearly that many. According to federal data released to ARC through a Freedom of Information Act request, a growing number and proportion of deportees are parents. In the first six months of 2011, the federal government removed more than 46,000 mothers and fathers of U.S.-citizen children. These deportations shatter families and endanger the children left behind. Details: New York: Applied Research Center, 2011. 65p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 28, 2012 at: http://act.colorlines.com/acton/form/1069/0041:d-0001/0/index.htm Year: 2011 Country: United States URL: http://act.colorlines.com/acton/form/1069/0041:d-0001/0/index.htm Shelf Number: 124753 Keywords: Child WelfareDeportation (U.S.)Foster CareImmigrant ChildrenImmigrant DetentionImmigrationImmigration Enforcement |
Author: Petro, John Title: Juvenile Justice and Child Welfare Agencies: Collaborating to Serve Dual Jurisdiction Youth Survey Report Summary: Research suggests that children who are abused or neglected are more likely to commit delinquent acts than the general population (Carter et al., n.d.; English et al., 2002). Those that do become delinquent form a population of youth known as dual jurisdiction youth. For the purposes of this report, dual jurisdiction youth are children and youth under the jurisdiction of the dependency system, placed in out-of-home care, and who come to the attention of the juvenile justice system. Out-of-home care can consist of foster care, group care, kinship care, or residential placement. These dual jurisdiction youth cross between or concurrently exist in both the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. From the standpoint of child welfare and juvenile justice professionals, dual jurisdiction youth pose special challenges and require special attention, thereby straining limited resources. From the standpoint of dual jurisdiction youth, contact with the juvenile justice system may result in heightened trauma and also contribute to a child’s propensity to antisocial behavior and impair a child’s educational attainment and income (Conger & Ross, 2001). The Child Welfare League of America (CWLA), therefore, is seeking to learn about and provide support for methods by which child welfare and juvenile justice agencies can collaborate, coordinate, and integrate public agency and private provider efforts to better serve dual jurisdiction youth and prevent children with a history of maltreatment from penetrating deeper into the delinquency system. Through the ongoing generous support of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Juvenile Justice Division of CWLA and the Research and Evaluation Division conducted a nationwide survey of child welfare and juvenile justice professionals to gauge what agencies are doing at the state level to address the challenges and issues that surround dual jurisdiction youth. The survey specifically examined whether collaborative efforts are underway, and if so, what collaborative efforts have these agencies undertaken to identify and deliver services to dual jurisdiction youth? Details: Washington, DC: Child Welfare League of America, Undated. 15p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 8, 2012 at http://www.cwla.org/programs/juvenilejustice/jjsurveyreport.pdf Year: 0 Country: United States URL: http://www.cwla.org/programs/juvenilejustice/jjsurveyreport.pdf Shelf Number: 125207 Keywords: Child WelfareFoster CareJuvenile Justice SystemsPartnerships |
Author: Robertson, Oliver Title: Collateral Convicts: Children of incarcerated parents Summary: Children of Incarcerated Parents’ was the topic for the 2011 UN Committee on the Rights of the Child’s Day of General Discussion (DGD), held in Geneva on Friday 31st September of that year. This was the first time that any part of the UN system had looked in detail at the issue of children affected by parental involvement in the criminal justice system, and it attracted unprecedented interest and engagement. Fifty-one written submissions from thirty-nine sources were made, while over 200 people took part in the discussion on the Day itself. An exhibition of children’s experiences and good practice (also named ‘Collateral Convicts’) accompanied the DGD, while workshops took place before and after the Day to explore the issues in more depth. This paper draws on all these sources, plus other important and relevant resources. Children of incarcerated parents, like children in general, are all individuals. Each will have a different experience of and response to parental imprisonment, and the unique situation of each child should be considered in all interactions with them and decisions that affect them. But regardless of individual circumstances, each child also has rights, including the right not to be discriminated against based on the status or activities of their parents (Convention on the Rights of the Child Article 2(2)), to the opportunity to be heard in any judicial and administrative proceedings affecting them (Article 12(2)) and the right to have their best interests be a primary consideration in all actions concerning them (Convention on the Rights of the Child Article 3(1)). Unfortunately, children of incarcerated parents are too easily ignored in the criminal justice system, which deals with identifying and responding to individual guilt or innocence. Children interacting with the criminal justice system (for example when visiting incarcerated parents) are ‘reduced to a security risk assessment, [while] within the broader community they are silent and silenced’. Only rarely do ministries responsible for children see them as a group of children exposed to particular challenges, meaning children of incarcerated parents often fall into the gaps between government agencies. Children of incarcerated parents exist in developing and developed countries all around the world, with certain experiences and features common to many such children. For many, the removal and detention of a parent is a negative experience, with implications for their future wellbeing. The risks associated with parental incarceration have been categorised into five main areas: 1. Risk of deprivation of basic necessities and opportunities; 2. Risk of danger of secondary victimisation and depersonalisation; 3. Risk of deterioration of overall situation of a child; 4. Risk of distance from incarcerated parent; and, 5. Risk of descent into antisocial behaviour More specifically, children may experience impacts including: physical and mental health impacts related to separation and other aspects of parental incarceration; a risk of relationship breakdown; the possibility of having to move house or be taken into care; financial difficulties; problems at school (educational and behavioural); increased vulnerability to neglect, abuse and victimisation; and difficulties in visiting incarcerated parents. ‘Finally it increases the risk of a child’s own prospects, as they fear or distrust authority, fail to receive the help they need, live in impoverished and unstable circumstances, and begin to accept prison as “normal” – or as the only place they can be with their mum or dad. Some of these problems will depend on factors such as the nature of the offence and sentence, the age and maturity of the child or which parent is imprisoned (children with incarcerated fathers are more likely to have another parent care for them than is the case when mothers are imprisoned). But as a group, children of incarcerated parents have faced all the issues detailed above and more, and would benefit from considered and timely interventions. As shown at the DGD, there are many examples of good practice from around the world, often small and inexpensive changes that make a major difference to the lives of children. Many are detailed below. Unfor tunately, these steps too often depend on the interest and involvement of individual prison staff or charities/non-governmental organisations (NGOs), rather than institutionalised good policy and practice. By sharing these examples and encouraging their use, we hope to increase the range, quality and consistency of support for children of incarcerated parents. Details: Geneva: Quaker United Nations Office, 2011. 84p. Source: Human Rights & Refugees Publications: Internet Resource: Accessed September 13, 2012 at http://www.quno.org/geneva/pdf/humanrights/women-in-prison/201203Analytical-DGD-Report-internet.pdf Year: 2011 Country: International URL: http://www.quno.org/geneva/pdf/humanrights/women-in-prison/201203Analytical-DGD-Report-internet.pdf Shelf Number: 126340 Keywords: Child WelfareChildren of Prisoners |
Author: Pilnik, Lisa Title: Victimization and Trauma Experienced by Children and Youth: Implications for Legal Advocates Summary: The Safe Start Center, ABA Center on Children and the Law, and the Child and Family Policy Associates recently released a new resource, Victimization and Trauma Experienced by Children and Youth: Implications for Legal Advocates. In this resource, you'll find: Information about the prevalence and impact of victimization and exposure to violence; Practice tips for juvenile defenders, children's attorneys and GALs, judges, and CASAs; Explanations of traumatic stress symptoms and trauma-related assessments and treatments; Descriptions of promising local and state initiatives to address trauma; and, Guidance on policy reforms and other considerations for trauma-informed advocacy. Details: North Bethesda, MD: Safe Start Center, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice, 2012. Source: Moving From Evidence to Action: The Safe Start Center Series on Children Exposed to Violence, Issue Brief #7: Internet Resource: Accessed September 30, 2012 at Year: 2012 Country: United States URL: Shelf Number: 126509 Keywords: Child WelfareChild WitnessesChildren and ViolenceExposure to ViolenceJuvenile VictimsVictimizationViolence |
Author: Atella, Julie Title: Mentoring Children of Promise: Interim Evaluation Findings Summary: In 2007, there were more than 1.7 million children with a mother or father in jail or prison. More than 7 million children—approximately one tenth of the nation’s young people—had a parent under supervision by the criminal justice system. When parents are incarcerated, their arrest and imprisonment often have a profound, negative impact on their minor children. Generally impoverished to begin with, most children of prisoners become even poorer upon their parents’ arrest. They exhibit high rates of anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress and attention disorders. They are also at increased risk of homelessness, household disruption, school failure and delinquency. Numerous studies have shown that mentoring programs can have significant benefits for at-risk youth like children of prisoners. Mentoring increases the likelihood of regular school attendance and academic achievement. It also decreases the chances of engaging in self-destructive or violent behavior. A trusting relationship with a caring adult can often provide stability and have a profound life-changing effect on the child. Volunteers of America of Greater New Orleans Mentoring Children of Promise (MCP) program has been providing mentoring services to children of incarcerated parents since 2004. The goal of this program is to create the right conditions for children of prisoners to reach their full potential. In 2010, Volunteers of America of Greater New Orleans was awarded funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to conduct a multi-year process evaluation of this program. VOA has contracted with Wilder Research to document the program’s service model and identify implementation factors that are most critical to the program’s success. Details: Saint Paul, MN: Wilder Research, 2011. 17p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 3, 2012 at http://www.wilder.org/Wilder-Research/Publications/Studies/Mentoring%20Children%20of%20Promise/Mentoring%20Children%20of%20Promise,%20Interim%20Evaluation%20Findings.pdf Year: 2011 Country: United States URL: http://www.wilder.org/Wilder-Research/Publications/Studies/Mentoring%20Children%20of%20Promise/Mentoring%20Children%20of%20Promise,%20Interim%20Evaluation%20Findings.pdf Shelf Number: 126865 Keywords: At-risk YouthChild WelfareChildren of InmatesChildren of PrisonersMentoring |
Author: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare Title: Linking SAAP, Child Protection and Juvenile Justice Data: Technical Report Summary: Following the release of a study exploring the feasibility of linking three community-sector data collections, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare was funded to link child protection, juvenile justice and Supported Accommodation Assistance Program data. This report describes the process used to link these collections. The analysis of the linked data is in a companion report, Children and young people at risk of social exclusion: links between homelessness, child protection and juvenile justice. Details: Canberra: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2012. 32p. Source: Internet Resource: Data Linkage Series No. 14: Accessed November 23, 2012 at: http://www.aihw.gov.au/publication-detail/?id=60129542244 Year: 2012 Country: Australia URL: http://www.aihw.gov.au/publication-detail/?id=60129542244 Shelf Number: 126947 Keywords: Child ProtectionChild WelfareHomelessnessJuvenile Justice Systems (Australia) |
Author: Phillips, Susan D. Title: Children in Harm's Way: Criminal Justice, Immigration Enforcement, and Child Welfare Reports Summary: 1998, the Child Welfare League of America published a seminal issue of Child Welfare describing the needs of children with parents in prison. It marked a milestone in what has become an ongoing effort to influence how the child welfare system responds to children whose parents are arrested and the support available to relatives caring for children whose parents are incarcerated. It pointed to policies and practices that either ignored the needs of this group of vulnerable children and their families, or created impediments to reunifying children with parents who had been incarcerated. This publication, produced jointly by The Sentencing Project and First Focus, introduces readers to concerns about a subgroup of this vulnerable group of children: children whose parents are affected by the interplay of the criminal justice, child welfare, and immigration enforcement systems. In the past decade, the federal government dramatically changed its approach to enforcing federal immigration laws and the scale of its efforts. As a result, a growing number of parents are being apprehended by local and state police (often for relatively minor offenses), turned over to federal immigration authorities, held in federal detention centers, and then returned to their home countries. In many cases, their children are U.S. citizens who are forced to leave their homes to be with their parents, or who remain in the United States permanently separated from their parents. Others end up in the foster care system where they may be placed for adoption. The number of people being held in immigration detention centers while waiting for their cases to be heard in administrative immigration proceedings has reached a historic high at a time when prison growth is otherwise beginning to slow. For-profit prison companies are poised to seize on this opportunity to bolster their profit margins. This became most evident in 2010 when Arizona legislators adopted the notorious S.B. 1070 law, perceived by many as an open invitation for law enforcement agencies to engage in racial profiling. Not long after the enactment of S.B. 1070, it became clear that the legislation was based on a blueprint that had been handed out by representatives of the private prison industry at a meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council. Like an echo from the past, the questions being raised about children whose parents are targets of stepped-up immigration enforcement are similar to those that were first raised nearly 20 years ago about children whose parents were then being sent to jails and prisons in record numbers. Those questions include: What happens to children in the wake of authorities taking their parents into custody?; How do children of color view the legal system after seeing so many members of their communities being taken away by police?; And how are communities changed when arrests or immigration enforcement actions can happen at any time? And, a central issue in the articles assembled here: How does the child welfare system help or hinder families in the wake of criminal or immigration court actions against parents? Details: Washington, D.C.: Jointly published by The Sentencing Project and First Focus, 2013. 73p. Source: Internet Resource: accessed February 16, 2013 at: http://sentencingproject.org/doc/publications/cc_Children%20in%20Harm's%20Way-final.pdf Year: 2013 Country: United States URL: http://sentencingproject.org/doc/publications/cc_Children%20in%20Harm's%20Way-final.pdf Shelf Number: 127648 Keywords: Child ProtectionChild WelfareIllegal ImmigrantsImmigrant ChildrenImmigrant DetentionImmigration EnforcementImmigration Policy |
Author: Otero, Cathleen Title: Methamphetamine Addiction, Treatment, and Outcomes: Implications for Child Welfare Workers Summary: Methamphetamine is a highly addictive stimulant associated with serious health and psychiatric conditions, including heart damage and brain damage, impaired thinking and memory problems, aggression, violence, and psychotic behavior. Methamphetamine is also associated with the transmission of infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS and hepatitis. Child welfare workers are seeing growing numbers of children and families affected by the parent’s use of methamphetamine. In order to make sound decisions for the benefit of children and families, child welfare workers need accurate information about methamphetamine, its effects on parents and their children, and the effectiveness of treatment. This paper presents the most current research in these areas, and offers recommendations for child welfare workers to help them identify and assist children and families affected by a parent’s use of methamphetamine. Details: Irvine, CA: National Center on Substance Abuse and Child Welfare, 2006. 39p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 22, 2013 at: http://www.ncsacw.samhsa.gov/files/Meth%20and%20Child%20Safety.pdf Year: 2006 Country: United States URL: http://www.ncsacw.samhsa.gov/files/Meth%20and%20Child%20Safety.pdf Shelf Number: 127704 Keywords: Child ProtectionChild WelfareMethamphetamines (U.S.) |
Author: Sheridan, Kathryn M. Title: Mental Health Outcomes, Social Functioning, and the Perspectives of Children from Methamphetamine-Involved Families in the Rural Midwest: Challenges and Strengths Summary: Social workers must confront a number of significant challenges as front-line workers in their efforts to provide appropriate prevention and intervention services to children from methamphetamine-involved, rural-dwelling families. Developing an understanding of children’s strengths as well as their limitations is necessary to the development of interventions that not only remediate deficits, but develop strengths. This cross-sectional, descriptive research describes the mental health, social functioning, and social context of 39 children aged 6 to15 from methamphetamine-involved families receiving child protective services in rural Illinois. An examination of how social context may provide protection from risks to children’s mental health and social competence posed by parent substance misuse was explored. Two illustrative cases of children experiencing differing levels of risk and protection are also presented. Mental health was assessed utilizing the Child Behavior Checklist and Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children and results indicate half of the children in this study were experiencing internalizing symptoms and over half were experiencing externalizing problem behavior based on the CBCL. Slightly less than half of the children were experiencing problems associated with dissociation, post-traumatic stress, anger, and depression and over half of children had clinically significant scores on one or more of the five TSCC subscales. As a group, children scored in the normal range on the CBCL Competence scales. This finding suggests that children had some level of protection from the risks associated with substance-affected homes. Children reported that they received social support from a variety of sources including immediate and extended family members. Importantly, family history of intergenerational substance misuse and the presence of a supportive grandparent were shown to be significantly related to children’s mental health and adaptive functioning. Details: Urbana-Champaign, IL: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2010. 120p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed March 5, 2013 at: https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/24045/Sheridan_Kathryn.pdf?sequence=1 Year: 2010 Country: United States URL: https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/24045/Sheridan_Kathryn.pdf?sequence=1 Shelf Number: 127847 Keywords: Child ProtectionChild WelfareDrug Use and AbuseMethamphetamine (U.S.)Rural Areas |
Author: Campbell, Sarah Title: Fractured Childhoods: The separation of families by immigration detention Summary: Under s55 of the Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act 2009, the UK Border Agency has a duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. However, this report presents evidence of cases in which the Border Agency repeatedly failed to safeguard children when making decisions to detain their parents, with appalling consequences for the children concerned. Research was carried out into the cases of 111 parents who were separated from 200 children by immigration detention between 2009 and 2012. 85 of these children were in fostering arrangements or local authority care during their parents’ detention. Parents were detained without time limit, for an average of 270 days. In 92 out of 111 cases, parents were eventually released, their detention having served no purpose. In 15 cases, parents were deported or removed from the UK without their children. It is difficult to imagine any other situation where children in the UK could be separated from their parents indefinitely and have such scant attention paid to their welfare. From 1st April 2013, Legal Aid ceased to be available to the vast majority of people making immigration claims. The complexity of immigration law means that it is extremely unlikely that parents will be able to successfully represent themselves. Bail for Immigration Detainees (BID) therefore anticipates that we will be dealing with very many more cases where parents are separated from their children by detention and removal from the UK. Details: London: Bail for Immigration Detainees, 2013. 126p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 25, 2013 at: http://www.cypnow.co.uk/digital_assets/WEB_VERSION_FULL_REPORT.pdf Year: 2013 Country: United Kingdom URL: http://www.cypnow.co.uk/digital_assets/WEB_VERSION_FULL_REPORT.pdf Shelf Number: 128490 Keywords: Child WelfareIllegal ImmigrationImmigrant ChildrenImmigrant Detention (U.K.) |
Author: Corcoran, Su Title: Evaluating Outcomes: Retrak’s use of Child Status Index to measure wellbeing of street-connected children Summary: Retrak’s vision is a world where no child is forced to live on the street. The child is always at the centre of our work and therefore measurements of organisational impact must place the progress of the child at the centre of assessment. In establishing a system of measurement to effectively and consistently monitor the changes in the lives of children as a result of Retrak’s work, the Child Status Index (CSI) has been adapted to apply to the context of children connected to the street. This paper is the initial review of the findings of the CSI in the pilot period, 2011 and 2012, as a measurement of child wellbeing and a tool for tracking children’s progress along their Retrak journey to establish the impact of Retrak’s programmes in both Ethiopia and Uganda. The CSI, developed by Measure Evaluation1, allows Retrak to trace the progress of the child along the Retrak journey, as they transition from the street to family homes, and comprises of a system of indicators to assess the multidimensional wellbeing of the individual child. The CSI assessments were conducted with cohorts of children on streets who access Retrak’s drop-in centres (baseline); at the point of reintegration with their families (placement); and again at intervals of approximately six months during follow-up with the child and their family (follow-up within six months of placement, between six months and one year of placement, and more than one year since placement). Each indicator of wellbeing on the CSI is given a score between one and four. Children scoring one or two, a deprivation score, for any indicator are considered to be at risk in that domain of wellbeing. Retrak’s aim is to ensure that children’s wellbeing improves after their placement at home, and continues to progress, and that they become deprivation free. Summary of findings This pilot study has demonstrated that Retrak’s reintegration programmes contribute to improvements in children’s wellbeing. Through analysing children’s wellbeing on their journey with Retrak in both Ethiopia and Uganda it is possible to show that: • The wellbeing of the children improved across all areas of wellbeing during their time in Retrak’s reintegration programmes. Family reintegration programmes with street children are successful. We have shown that such programmes are able to overcome children’s prevalent deprivations in shelter, care, abuse and exploitation and legal protection experienced when they are living alone on the street at an increased level of vulnerability. • Performance and access to education were areas of wellbeing which were slow to improve at the placement and follow up level. This could be partially a result of the national education systems and its ability to support the successful reintegration of vulnerable children into the classroom. • In Ethiopia, wellbeing in the areas of emotional health and social behaviour were also slow to improve at placement and follow-up. Much of this is to do with the survival traits developed by the children to help to combat stigmatisation while on the streets. • In Uganda it was shown that wellbeing in the areas of food security, shelter and legal protection were of concern at all stages of a child’s journey with Retrak. Analysing the data collected for each child reflecting their life on the street, highlights the following trends: • Street-connected children and youth in Ethiopia, over 14 years old, have more deprivations than those under 14; and all new arrivals to the street in Ethiopia have fewer deprivations than those who have spent a number of months there. The longer a child spends in the street the more deprivations they experience. • In Uganda children aged 14 or 15 years have fewer deprivations than those aged 13 years and younger. Unlike the Ethiopia data, those aged 14 years and younger when they migrated to the street have fewer deprivations than those children aged over 14 years. • There is a relationship between the level of schooling achieved by the children in Ethiopia and the number of deprivations they experience: the longer the child spends in school before migrating to the street the lower the number of deprivations on average. • There appears to be little distinction between region of origin and level of deprivation for both countries. In Uganda the data showed that children on the streets of Kampala and originating from Kampala and the surrounding district are just as disadvantaged as their peers from further afield, showing that their proximity to their family is of little benefit. Recommendations This pilot study has demonstrated that reintegration programmes contribute to improvements in children’s wellbeing and that the Child Status Index is an extremely useful tool to monitor reintegration programmes through tracking children’s wellbeing. In addition, this study has shown that the risks children face on the streets vary according to age, education and other variables. Details: Retrak, UK: Retrak; 2013. 43p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed June 18, 2013 at: http://www.retrak.org/uploaded/Retrak%20Research%20Evaluating%20Outcomes%20May%2013.pdf Year: 2013 Country: Africa URL: http://www.retrak.org/uploaded/Retrak%20Research%20Evaluating%20Outcomes%20May%2013.pdf Shelf Number: 129016 Keywords: Child ProtectionChild WelfareFamily ReintegrationRunawaysStreet Children (Uganda, Ethiopia) |
Author: Young, N.K. Title: Guidance to States: Recommendations for Developing Family Drug Court Guidelines Summary: As States, courts and service providers strive to use evidence‐based or evidence‐informed practices in their services, determining which practices are best can be challenging. Children and Family Futures produced this document with the National Drug Court Institute and with Federal, State, and other stakeholders to offer guidelines to help states and programs create systems changes that will have a lasting impact on FDCs, the policies of courts and child welfare and treatment service systems, and community‐based organizations serving parents, children, and families. The document provides guidance for implementing an FDC, including the development of FDC partnerships and a common vocabulary for describing FDC components, with a focus on improving services to families who are involved with the child welfare system and are affected by substance use disorders. The authors hope that this document will help jurisdictions select and improve practices and, ultimately, outcomes for children and families. After the introduction, the next two sections of this document describe the methods used to develop the 10 recommendations in the document and how to use the document. Each of the following 10 sections focuses on one of the 10 recommendations. These sections explain each recommendation, summarize the research supporting it and list Effective Strategies (practices that States can use to assess their progress). Asterisks identify Effective Strategies that are supported by research conducted in FDCs. The 10 recommendations are: 1. Create a shared mission and vision 2. Develop interagency partnerships 3. Create effective communication protocols for sharing information 4. Ensure cross‐system knowledge 5. Develop a process for early identification and assessment 6. Address the needs of parents 7. Address the needs of children 8. Garner community support 9. Implement funding and sustainability strategies 10. Evaluate shared outcomes and accountability. Details: Washington, DC: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Programs, 2013. 108p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 3, 2013 at: http://www.cffutures.org/files/publications/FDC-Guidelines.pdf Year: 2013 Country: United States URL: http://www.cffutures.org/files/publications/FDC-Guidelines.pdf Shelf Number: 129249 Keywords: Child WelfareEvidence-Based PracticesFamily Drug Courts (U.S.)Problem-Solving Courts |
Author: Dwyer, James G. Title: Jailing Black Babies Summary: In many situations of family dysfunction stemming from poverty, the interests of parents are in conflict with the interests of their offspring. This presents a dilemma for liberals. We want to mitigate the harsh consequences and suffering that conditions we deem unjust have caused some adults, especially adults of minority race. But we are also concerned about the welfare of children born into impoverished and troubled communities. The predominant liberal response to this dilemma has been to sidestep it by ignoring or denying the conflict and to then take positions aimed at protecting parents' interests, without giving serious attention to the impact on children. The result is a set of liberal polies that effectively imprison black children in dysfunctional families and communities and so ensure that they fall into the inter-generational cycle of poverty, addiction, and criminality. Epitomizing this phenomenon is the fast-growing phenomenon of states' placing newborn children, predominantly of minority race, into prison to live for months or years with their incarcerated mothers. Advocates for incarcerated women, not advocates for children, have promoted prison nurseries, and they have done so with no research support for any hope of positive child welfare outcomes. Conservative legislators and prison officials agree to experiment with such programs when convinced they will reduce recidivism among female convicts, a supposition that also lacks empirical support. Remarkably, states have placed babies in prisons without anyone undertaking an analysis of the constitutionality of doing so. This Article presents a compelling child welfare case against prison nurseries, based on rigorous examination of the available empirical evidence, and it presents the first published analysis of how constitutional and statutory rules governing incarceration and civil commitment apply to housing of children in prisons. It shows that prison nursery programs harm the great majority of children who begin life in them, and it argues that placing infants in prison violates their Fourteenth Amendment substantive and procedural due process rights as well as federal and state legislation prohibiting placement of minors in adult prisons. This Article further challenges liberal family policy more generally. Its final Part describes other policy contexts in which liberal advocacy and scholarship relating to persons who are poor or of minority race consistently favors the interests of adults in this population over the interests of children. It offers a diagnosis of why this occurs, and it explains why this is both morally untenable and ultimately self-defeating for liberals committed to racial equality and social justice. The Article's broader thesis is that liberals bear a large share of the responsibility for perpetuation of blacks' subordination. Details: Williamsburg, VA: William & Mary Law School, 2013. 89p. Source: Internet Resource: William & Mary Law School Research Paper No. 09-239: Accessed March 12, 2014 at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2231562 Year: 2014 Country: United States URL: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2231562 Shelf Number: 131875 Keywords: Child WelfareChildren of PrisonersFemale InmatesPrison Nurseries |
Author: Boles, Sharon Title: Sacramento County Dependency Drug Court Year Seven Outcome and Process Evaluation Findings Summary: The Sacramento County Dependency Drug Court (DDC) began in October 2001. The Sacramento DDC was developed as part of a system-wide reform effort to address the needs of families with substance use disorders in the child welfare system. The Sacramento DDC operates parallel to the dependency case proceedings, which are conducted on a regular family court docket. Compliance reviews and management of the recovery aspects of the case are heard by the DDC officer throughout the life of the parents' participation in the dependency drug court. Parents begin DDC services promptly to pre-empt the possibility of noncompliance of court orders regarding substance abuse treatment participation. The focus of this report includes: 1) a description of the program participants; 2) findings regarding treatment engagement, retention and completion; and 3) 12, 18, and 36 month findings regarding child safety and permanency. For this report, the 24 month findings are presented in Appendix A. For a complete description of the DDC model and programmatic components, please contact the authors for a report issued in April 2002. Details: Irvine, CA: Children and Family Futures, 2010. 84p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 23, 2014 at: http://www.cffutures.org/files/publications/Year%207%20Summary%20Report%20Final.pdf Year: 2010 Country: United States URL: http://www.cffutures.org/files/publications/Year%207%20Summary%20Report%20Final.pdf Shelf Number: 132149 Keywords: Child ProtectionChild WelfareDrug CourtsDrug Offender TreatmentDrug OffendersProblem Solving Courts |
Author: Hughes, Karissa Title: Literature Review: Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children Summary: - While various promising program models and strategies for providing services to victims of the commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) have been occurring for over a decade, the lack of a current evidence-base related to prevention, identification and interventions available to inform such programs and practices underscores the need for additional work in this area. - Currently, federal (Federal Strategic Action Plan on Services for Victims of Human Trafficking, 2013-2017) and state (the California Child Welfare Council CSEC Action Team) efforts are underway to strategically respond to the existing gaps in knowledge and practice around CSEC, in order to better identify and meet the needs of victims. - In the meantime, while not exhaustive this literature review intends to highlight an array of current efforts and components that merit additional attention when considering residential placement types and the provision of services to this vulnerable population. - The perception that victims of CSEC should be handled in the juvenile justice system as opposed to the child welfare system is changing with evidence supporting the key role child welfare agencies play. Even if child welfare agencies are not currently required to intervene with CSEC victims under the existing California Welfare and Institutions Code (WIC) Section 300, the reality is CWS staff are already working with a significant number of victims and survivors of these crimes, whether or not they recognize them as such. Thus two roles emerge, preventing CSEC among populations already involved in child welfare, and identifying/assisting CSEC victims in their care. - Understanding the extreme physical, psychological, emotional and social harms associated with CSEC and the stages of change youth experience as they attempt to exit CSE informs the need for a range of victim services across a number of agencies and a continuum of care model to fully address their spectrum of needs. Therefore broad-based multi-sector response including interagency collaborative approaches/community coalitions should be utilized. - Coordinated communication between service providers is necessary in order to share information on available resources, services and trends which will allow involved systems/agencies/service providers to more efficiently and effectively provide the services needed at any given point in the restoration process. - Based on the literature more support is needed for comprehensive and specialized programs that provide youth with a safe place to stay, positive support networks that address their needs and empower them to make safe choices; and interventions for trauma and behavioral issues that make it difficult for them to function in traditional settings. - Components of promising services and strategies identified by providers who serve CSEC victims include safety planning, collaboration across providers, trust and relationship building to foster consistency, culturally appropriate services, trauma-informed programming, and survivor involvement in the development and implementation of programming. Services for CSEC victims and those at-risk should also be informed by a comprehensive and standardized screening assessment that evaluates particular needs and levels of risk. - In terms of shelter/housing additional residential placements are needed to specifically serve CSEC with appropriate security features to prevent access by exploiters, clear protocols, allowance to return following runaways, and qualified personnel. - Several promising models for better understanding and serving CSEC victims via the child welfare system are shared across the nation. Such policies and procedures may provide beneficial for California, particularly to integrate this population into their missions and mandates. Broadly, the main areas include: designating CSEC as a specific form of child abuse to improve case management, requiring reporting to child protective services, raising awareness and building capacity in child welfare, and developing child welfare system guidelines, protocols and tools for working with CSEC victims. - Additionally in May 2013, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families (ACF) released as part of their Human Trafficking Briefing Series Emerging Practices within Child Welfare Responses, highlighting 10 promising practices already underway in child welfare agencies across the United States. This is included in Section X of the literature review. - In addition to the work of child welfare, law enforcement, and other governmental organizations, several nongovernmental and community-based organizations play a key role in providing direct services to victims. These include the 10 programs identified by the California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse (CEBC) for Child Welfare in the area of "Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents: Services for Victims." While some of these may offer promise for replication locally, at this point none of these ten programs have been given a scientific rating by the CEBC, meaning currently there are not sufficiently published, peer-reviewed research evidence examining outcomes for these programs. - Recently there has been an emphasis on the importance of expanding outreach to the at-risk population so they can better protect themselves from CSEC and recognize risky situations. Disseminating educational materials and providing training programs to these youth as well as to CSEC victims and service providers will increase awareness of CSEC and the services available to victims. Examples of existing CSEC training and prevention programs are provided in Section XII. - In conclusion a range of web resources, resource guides, action plans, publications and reports on the topic are offered for additional information and further developments on the topic of CSEC. Details: San Diego, CA: Academy for Professional Excellence at San Diego State University School of Social Work, 2014. 112p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 15, 2014 at: https://theacademy.sdsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/sachs-csec-lit-review-02-2014.pdf Year: 2014 Country: United States URL: http://theacademy.sdsu.edu/programs/SACHS/literature/SACHS_CSEC_Lit_%2https://theacademy.sdsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/sachs-csec-lit-review-02-2014.pdf Shelf Number: 133302 Keywords: Child Abuse and NeglectChild ProstitutionChild ProtectionChild Sexual AbuseChild Sexual ExploitationChild WelfareVictim Services |
Author: Tribal Law and Policy Institute Title: Promising Strategies: Tribal-State Court Relations Summary: Tribal courts and state courts interact across an array of issues, including child welfare, cross-jurisdictional enforcement of domestic violence orders of protection, and civil commitments. In Public Law 2801 (PL 280) jurisdictions, the concurrent jurisdiction of state and tribal courts over criminal prosecutions and civil actions arising in Indian Country creates even more interactions and complications. Tensions and misunderstandings have been common features of tribal and state court relations in the past, sometimes erupting in jurisdictional conflicts. The different cultures, legal traditions, political systems, histories, and economic positions of state and tribal courts have contributed to these challenges. Since the early 1990s, however, initiatives by judges' organizations within both judicial systems have focused on an agenda of greater mutual understanding and cooperative action. Individual judges and court systems have also taken up the challenge, devising innovative programs that sidestep conflict in the interests of common goals such as greater community safety and child protection. State court leadership and court improvement organizations, such as the Conference of Chief Justices and the National Center for State Courts, and funding agencies, such as the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) in the U.S. Department of Justice, have supported their undertakings. This publication spotlights some of the most successful strategies within these initiatives. The authors hope is that other tribes and states seeking to negotiate complicated relationships will discover new options for solutions and find inspiring stories of collaboration within this publication. Details: West Hollywood, CA: Trial Law and Policy Institute, 2013. 55p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 20, 2014 at: http://www.walkingoncommonground.org/files/Promising%20Strategies%20Tribal-State%20Court%20Final%203-13.pdf Year: 2013 Country: United States URL: http://www.walkingoncommonground.org/files/Promising%20Strategies%20Tribal-State%20Court%20Final%203-13.pdf Shelf Number: 134175 Keywords: American Indians Child WelfareCourt SystemsDomestic ViolenceIndians of North AmericaJudicial SystemsTribal Courts |
Author: Saavedra, Enrique Title: Invisible no more: Children of Incarcerated parents in Latin America and the Caribbean. Case study from Brazil, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and Uruguay Summary: Over the past two decades, the number of people incarcerated in Latin America has skyrocketed, with more than 1.2 million prisoners overcrowding correctional facilities across the region. Accompanying this, we estimate that the number of children with an incarcerated parent in the region is currently around 1,5 to 1,9 million (see Appendix A for more details). This marginalized and vulnerable group of young people has been neglected by, and remained virtually "invisible" to public policies, programs and civil society. In order to assess the situation and needs of these children, and following the recommendations made by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child during its Day of General Debate in 2011, CWS, with the technical leadership of Uruguayan NGO Gurises partnered with organizations in Brazil, Dominican Republic and Nicaragua to conduct the first regional study of children with incarcerated parents. The participating organizations surveyed 193 children with an incarcerated parent (or adult referent), and 50 of these children and 46 of their caregivers or guardians were interviewed. 23 government officials and regional experts working in child protection were also surveyed. The results of this study demonstrate the profound impact that the incarceration of a parent has on the life of a child. Families face increased financial strains which force many children to work outside the home or assume adult roles in their household. Children undergo emotional changes, becoming sad, withdrawn or sick, and they face social stigmatization and discrimination in their communities. Their experience with police and the justice system typically creates a negative perception of these authorities, and these elements combine to alter the development of childrens' self-identity, leading some to develop identities based on resistance to existing social structures. Research confirms that maintaining the child-parent relationship during the incarceration is one of the best ways to help children cope with such difficulties. However, it is difficult for families to maintain such relationships when their only face-to-face interaction is through prison visits, where children must endure unhealthy prison conditions, invasive body searches, and mistreatment from prison guards. Government officials and experts working in the area acknowledge the vulnerability of this group of children, and provide important insight into their situation. They describe the justice and penal systems as "adult-centric," looking at matters only from the perspective of the adults involved. In fact, no country in the region even systematically documents or registers the number of children of prisoners. Without any idea of the scope of the problem, it is nearly impossible to create policies and programs to address it. Likewise, the judicial system does not account for the best interests of related children when it decides appropriate punishment for those convicted of crimes. While the legal rights and responsibilities of fathers and mothers are identical, some experts prioritize the issue of incarcerated mothers, particularly those whose children live with them in prison. It appears that the incarceration of a mother has a more dramatic impact on family dynamics and significantly increases vulnerability of children. Whether it is the mother or father that is convicted of a crime, the use of alternative punishments (eg. open and semi-open prisons) would lessen the negative impact on children. Likewise, improved coordination between state actors involved in the justice system and child protection would improve services and support to children of incarcerated parents. It is clear that governments are the main responsible of protecting the rights of all children, and that they should, in coordination with civil society, begin to develop policies, programs and initiatives that support and empower children of incarcerated parents. Details: Buenos Aires: CWS Regional Office Latin America and Caribbean and Gurises Unidos, 2013. 26p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 26, 2014 at: http://www.cwslac.org/en/docs/Invisible_no_more.pdf Year: 2013 Country: Latin America URL: http://www.cwslac.org/en/docs/Invisible_no_more.pdf Shelf Number: 134264 Keywords: Child ProtectionChild WelfareChildren of Prisoners (Latin America)Families of Inmates |
Author: Swain, Shurlee Title: History of Child Protection Legislation Summary: This paper surveys the legislation relating to the out-of-home care of children. It identifies four chronological but overlapping waves of legislation. The first, beginning in the 1860s, documents the ways in which different jurisdictions structured their child welfare system, initially influenced by concerns around vagrancy, but later revised in the light of the child rescue movement. The second, dating from the 1860s, focuses on regulating care providers, establishing systems of inspection and regulations covering punishment and employment. The third concerns the ways in which legislation constructed the childrens parents, initially seeking to deter them from foisting their children on the state but, from the 1880s, introducing measures designed to keep families together. The fourth covers legislation designed to deal with children seen as requiring special provision: child migrants, Aboriginal children, infants, and children with disabilities. The survey concludes that child welfare provision in Australia is better described as a patchwork than a coordinated model. Poorly resourced and often slow to respond to international developments in the field, it left children exposed to a system which had more interest in economy and deterrence than in ensuring their rights and best interests. Details: Sydney: Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, 2014. 93p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed January 30, 3015 at: http://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/documents/published-research/historical-perspectives-report-1-history-of-instit.pdf Year: 2014 Country: Australia URL: http://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/documents/published-research/historical-perspectives-report-1-history-of-instit.pdf Shelf Number: 134494 Keywords: Child Abuse and Neglect (Australia)Child ProtectionChild Sexual AbuseChild Welfare |
Author: Epstein, Rebecca Title: Blueprint: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Domestic Sex Trafficking of Girls Summary: The sex trafficking of American children is one of the most shocking and hidden crimes against our nation's youth. Approximately 83 percent of confirmed sex trafficking victims in this country are United States citizens, and 40 percent of cases involve children. In total, from what few statistics have been gathered, at least 100,000 American children every year are victims of commercial sexual exploitation. These children have fallen through the cracks of our public systems. They remain invisible and unidentified. Yet these girls are known to us. They attend our schools, live in our communities, and many have passed in and out of our child welfare and juvenile justice systems. We can, and must, do better for our girls. This report grows out of a conference held on March 12, 2013, that was hosted by Georgetown Law's Center on Poverty and Inequality; the Human Rights Project for Girls; and The National Crittenton Foundation. The conference, "Critical Connections: A Multi-Systems Approach to the Domestic Sex Trafficking of Girls," gathered survivors, direct service providers, advocates, and state and federal government officials to discuss the challenges of addressing the domestic sex trafficking of children and the importance of working collaboratively to help identify and support survivors. The first half of this report identifies the core components of a comprehensive and collaborative approach to the domestic sex trafficking of girls. This approach, often referred to as "cross-system" or "multidisciplinary," requires cooperative work by relevant agencies and experts to identify and assess survivors' needs and provide the treatment and tools the girls require to heal and to succeed. The second half of this report describes how three jurisdictions have created a multidisciplinary response to the sex trafficking of children, each from a different system perspective: groundbreaking work was initiated in Suffolk County, Massachusetts, by a child advocacy center; in Los Angeles County, by the juvenile justice system; and in Connecticut, by the child welfare system. We elevate these three jurisdictions as models of promising collaborative approaches to the sex trafficking of children. It is our hope that other communities can adapt these models to their unique needs, networks, and sets of systems to improve their recognition and response to these children and this national tragedy. Details: Washington, DC: Center on Poverty and Inequality, Georgetown Law, 2013(?). 47p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 12, 2015 at: http://www.law.georgetown.edu/academics/centers-institutes/poverty-inequality/loader.cfm?csmodule=security/getfile&pageid=169026 Year: 2013 Country: United States URL: http://www.law.georgetown.edu/academics/centers-institutes/poverty-inequality/loader.cfm?csmodule=security/getfile&pageid=169026 Shelf Number: 134616 Keywords: Child ProstitutionChild Sexual ExploitationChild WelfareProstitutionSex Trafficking (U.S.) |
Author: Mathews, Ben Title: Mandatory reporting laws for child sexual abuse in Australia: A legislative history Summary: 1.1 Scope and purpose of this report 1. History of Australian mandatory reporting legislation for child sexual abuse The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is required to inquire into, among other things, 'what institutions and governments should do to achieve best practice in encouraging the reporting of, and responding to reports or information about, allegations, incidents or risks of child sexual abuse and related matters in institutional contexts'. An aspect of the nature of allegations of child sexual abuse occurring within institutional contexts is that they often relate to events that took place years and sometimes decades before the allegations are brought to light. This report is intended to assist in understanding the development of mandatory reporting laws and to establish a means of determining the existence and scope of mandatory reporting laws in any jurisdiction at a given point in time. To assist the Royal Commission in addressing our terms of reference, the major focus of this report is to review and explain the legislative principles for mandatory reporting to child welfare agencies of child sexual abuse in each state and territory of Australia, and to trace changes in the development of the laws since their inception to the present day. In doing so, the report identifies differences within and between state and territory laws over a period of 44 years, from 1969 to 2013. The report does not discuss obligations to report criminal conduct to law enforcement agencies in detail (see Part 2.6). It is not the purpose of this report to make recommendations for reform of law, policy or practice. Nevertheless, the outcomes of the legal analyses indicate areas for possible reform, enhancement and research. The law and historical developments in each state and territory are detailed in Part 3 of this Report. A timeline is also provided for each jurisdiction showing the major developments in graphic form. Nine tables in the Executive summary of this report display the most essential information in summary form. 2. Precursors to and reasons for the introduction of the laws in each jurisdiction, and for substantial amendments to the laws A second purpose of this report is to identify why the legislation changed in each jurisdiction. This task involved research into publicly available records in each state and Letters Patent for the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, S No 12 of 2013, 11 January 2013, territory, focusing on significant government inquiries and law reform reports, and parliamentary debates. Findings regarding the precursors to legal developments are integrated within the treatment of the historical legal developments in Part 3 of this report. Discussion of these precursors is presented in shaded boxes. In addition, Table 9 in the Executive summary of this report highlights the major influential factors. 3. Overseas learnings A third, minor aspect of the report is to summarise other jurisdictions' reporting laws and developments over time, to identify issues of interest. For feasibility, this is limited to selected jurisdictions having the most detailed experience of mandatory reporting laws and the most detailed data about child protection. Details: Sydney: Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, 2014. 149p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 9, 2015 at: http://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/documents/royal-commission-report-ben-mathews-for-rc-publica.pdf Year: 2014 Country: Australia URL: http://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/documents/royal-commission-report-ben-mathews-for-rc-publica.pdf Shelf Number: 135548 Keywords: Child MaltreatmentChild ProtectionChild Sexual AbuseChild Sexual ExploitationChild Welfare |
Author: Martin, Shawn M. Title: Policy Evaluation of Hillsborough County's Family Dependency Treatment Court Summary: Child abuse and neglect is a troubling issue all too familiar with courts in the United States. The problem becomes even more complicated when substance abuse is involved. In 2004, approximately 500,000 children were removed from their homes because of abuse and neglect issues1. In the past few years, a judicial model appeared to address both substance abuse and child dependency issues. This model, entitled Family Dependency Treatment Court (FDTC) enables the court to mandate treatment for parents and make reunification dependent on treatment compliance. The FDTC program in Hillsborough County, Florida is now in its second year and has raised a host of policy and procedural issues. As such, 20 key FDTC informants and 6 clients were interviewed to identify strengths and weaknesses of the program. Key areas identified as requiring improvement include increasing communication and collaboration among key stakeholders, training on FDTC inclusion criteria, and increased funding for treatment services and resources. Identified strengths included being a court-based treatment program, providing a supportive atmosphere for clients, and maintaining reunification as a goal. The results of this evaluation emphasize the importance of diverse organizations working collaboratively to achieve this often difficult objective within the child welfare setting. Details: Tampa, FL: Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute, University of South Florida, 2013. 27p. Source: Internet Resource: Mental Health Law & Policy Faculty Publications. Paper 579; Accessed May 23, 2015 at: http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1578&context=mhlp_facpub Year: 2013 Country: United States URL: http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1578&context=mhlp_facpub Shelf Number: 135773 Keywords: Child Abuse and NeglectChild ProtectionChild WelfareFamily Treatment CourtsProblem Solving Courts |
Author: Walker, Kate Title: Ending the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children: A call for multi-system collaboration in California Summary: Within the United States, California has emerged as a magnet for commercial sexual exploitation ("CSE") of children ("CSEC"). The FBI has determined that three of the nation's thirteen High Intensity Child Prostitution areas are located in California: the San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego metropolitan areas. Child sex trafficking, child pornography, and child sex tourism are all forms of CSEC. Frequently, victims are exploited through more than one form of abuse, and they cycle through the stages of exploitation many times before they are able to leave their exploitative relationships. To address this problem, California must develop a comprehensive and collaborative response to ensure CSE victims are identified and receive the services they need to overcome trauma and live healthy, productive lives. The children who fall prey to exploiters are frequently those with prior involvement with the child welfare system, such as through child abuse report investigations and placement in foster care. Other victims should have received Child Welfare services and protections but never gained access to the system, and are instead treated like criminals and funneled into the juvenile justice system. Details: Sacramento: California Child Welfare Council, 2013. 100. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed June 2, 2015 at: http://www.chhs.ca.gov/CWCDOC/Ending%20CSEC%20-%20A%20Call%20for%20Multi-System%20Collaboration%20in%20CA%20-%20February%202013.pdf Year: 2013 Country: United States URL: http://www.chhs.ca.gov/CWCDOC/Ending%20CSEC%20-%20A%20Call%20for%20Multi-System%20Collaboration%20in%20CA%20-%20February%202013.pdf Shelf Number: 130001 Keywords: Child PornographyChild ProstitutionChild Sex TraffickingChild Sexual AbuseChild Sexual ExploitationChild WelfareHuman Trafficking |
Author: Galm, Beate Title: Combating Child Abuse and Neglect: Child Protection in Germany Summary: The Federal Republic of Germany is a federal state with 16 partially sovereign constituent Lander (Federal States). The authorities of the Lander extend to legislation. The distribution of legislative and other competences between the federal government and the Lander is governed by the German Constitution, which is binding for all. The constitution stipulates the basic rights of its 82 million citizens. To promote and protect the child's rights, the constitution stipulates the distribution of responsibilities between parents and government as follows: Childcare and the education of children are the right and duty of the parents. The national community monitors their activities. Only if the parents fail to fulfill their care and educational duties sufficiently, then state is not only entitled to intervene but also mandated. This happens in child endangerment cases, which the parents themselves cannot or do not want to avert. Moreover the state has the general duty to support families in their task of care and education. So far, there is no significant information available in Germany about how often cases become known in the children and youth protection system, where violence against children transgresses the threshold of child endangerment. In fact, there is a nationwide unified official child and youth welfare statistic; however, it focuses on actions and not on cases or case situations. Currently, a Federal Child Protection Act (Bundeskinderschutz-gesetz) is under way which is likely to come into force in 2012. It provides for expanding the child and youth welfare statistic with the objective of collecting the number of cases of child endangerment known in the area of child and youth welfare. In general, only limited assertions can be made concerning the extent of various types of violence against children in Germany. These are based on few studies with a representative selection of the population, on methodologically insufficient estimates (overview in Pothmann, 2006), and on smaller samples in the area of healthcare and Children and Youth Services. Moreover, various statistics (e.g. child and youth statistic, the crime statistic of the police, the statistic of the cause of death) provide information about various partial quantities, e.g. cases of abuse, which are criminally prosecuted or cases, in which children are removed from the family for a short or long-term. In light of the widespread child neglect and psychological child abuse there is a recent representative study (Hauser et al., 2011). Lesser intensity of neglect included, almost 50% of the respondents (juveniles and adults were surveyed, n = 2504) report physical neglect and nearly 50% report emotional neglect in their childhood and adolescence. Serious physical neglect was experienced by 10.8%, serious emotional neglect by 6.6%. The proportion auf psychological abuse reported is 15%, if moderate intensity is included and 1.6% for serious psychological abuse. Non-representative data suggest that child neglect is by far the most common form of endangerment known in the area of child and youth welfare. This assertion is strengthened by the tendency that the situation is similar in all countries, which so far have examined the frequency of various forms of child endangerment (Galm et al., 2010, p. 38-40). In the case of Germany, this was confirmed by a study based on cases over which the family court had to decide about an intervention concerning the parental care (Munder et al., 2000, n = 318). In nearly two-thirds (65 percent) of the cases, the presence of child neglect was affirmed by the social workers. In every second case (50 percent), it was seen as the main cause for endangerment. The same study described psychological child abuse as the second most frequent form of endangerment after child neglect and before physical abuse and sexual abuse of children. Moreover, there is a high rate of overlapping between various forms of child endangerment. These findings are reflected internationally as well (e.g. Jonson-Reid et al., 2003). The few representative study results suggest, that the majority of parents in Germany - even with a decreasing trend - still use at least some minor forms of corporal punishment against their child such as a light slap in the face or a spanking (Bussmann, 2004, 2005, 2008, Wetzels, 1997, Pfeiffer et al., 1997, 1999, Baier et al., 2009). In this connection, Germany is in a middle position in a European comparative study about corporal punishment (Bussmann, 2008). This study also shows that most parents - in Germany about 90% - are aiming to raise their children free of violence. In a summary of German study results, Engfer (2005) concludes that 10% to 15% of parents use more severe and more frequent corporal punishments. In the survey of Hauser et al. (2011) 12% of the respondents re-port physical and 2.8% serious physical violence. In three representative surveys, women, men (Wetzels & Pfeiffer, 1995, Wetzels, 1997, Bienek et al., 2011, Hauser, 2011), juvenile girls, and boys (repeat survey of BZgA, 2010) are asked among others about sexual violence during their childhood and youth. The results show that based on a wider definition of sexual violence up to 19% of women and 8% of men were affected by sexual violence during childhood in Germany. The follow up survey (n = 11,428) by Bienek et al. (2011) is interesting: The results show a significant reduction of sexual violence in the last 20 years. Depending on the definition, in international studies the figures fluctuate between 7% and 36% in affected women and between 3% and 19% in affected men concerning the extent of sexual violence (Finkelhor, 2005). Since the end of the last century the awareness of the negative effects of partnership violence on children has increased in Germany (Kavemann, 2006) According to international studies, partnership violence, which has a special potential for injury and which is embedded in forms of control and debasement is mainly initiated by men toward their partners (research over-views e.g. in Johnson, 2001, Saunders, 2002). In Germany, these findings are confirmed by a representative study (a representative community sample of 10,000 women from all over Germany) concerning living situations, security, and health of women commissioned by the Federal Ministry for Families, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (Muller et al., 2004). This study concludes that at least every fourth woman (25 %) between the ages of 16 and 85 years, who has lived in a partnership, has experienced one or several times physical (23 %) or - in part additionally - sexual (7 %) violence by their partner (Muller et al., 2004, p. 8). Compared to the prevailing data from other European studies (overview in Hagemann-White 2001), these results are in the medium to upper level, whereby the methods and instruments of the survey, the topic and content of focus as well as the included age and examination samples vary greatly and make a comparison the more difficult. In this survey 60% of the women, who had experienced a violent relationship were living with children at the time (N=485). Asked about how they thought this affected their children 57% of these women reported that the children had overheard violent situations, 50% that children had seen these situations and 25% stated that children had tried to defend them against their violent partner. 23% of the women believed that the children had not noticed the partnership violence at all. (Muller et al., 2004, pp. 276-277) In surveys of unreported incidents with juveniles (Enzmann & Wetzels, 2001), approx. 7 % of the ones surveyed stated that they experienced frequent violence of the (social) father against the mother or of both parents against one another during the year prior to the survey. Details: Munich: Deutsches Jugendinstitut e.V., 2011. 54p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed June 4, 2015 at: http://www.youthpolicy.nl/yp/downloadsyp/Daphne-report-Germany.pdf Year: 2011 Country: Germany URL: http://www.youthpolicy.nl/yp/downloadsyp/Daphne-report-Germany.pdf Shelf Number: 135901 Keywords: Child Abuse and NeglectChild MaltreatmentChild ProtectionChild WelfareCorporal Punishment |
Author: Koball, Heather Title: Health and Social Service Needs of U.S.-Citizen Children with Detained or Deported Immigrant Parents Summary: Between 2003 and 2013, the U.S. government deported 3.7 million immigrants to their home countries. According to the most reliable estimates, parents of U.S.-born children made up between one-fifth and one-quarter of this total. This Urban Institute-MPI report examines the involvement of families with a deported parent with health and social service systems, as well as their needs and the barriers they face accessing such services. Drawing from fieldwork in five study sites in California, Florida, Illinois, South Carolina, and Texas, the researchers find that family economic hardship is highly prevalent following parental detention and deportation, while child welfare system involvement is rarer. Schools represent a promising avenue for interaction with these families and delivery of services, as school officials are perceived as safer intermediaries by unauthorized immigrant parents who may be skeptical of interaction with other government agencies. Other important sources of support include health providers, legal service providers, and community- and faith-based organizations that immigrants trust. The authors suggest a number of ways to provide services and reduce harm to children with detained and deported parents. First, health and human service agencies could improve their staff's language capacity, cultural competence, and knowledge of issues associated with immigration status. Another approach involves building bridges between health and human services agencies and informal local organizations that immigrants trust. Coordination among the key agencies (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, social service agencies, and foreign country consulates) is critical, especially for the provision of child welfare services. And small organizations implement many promising strategies to serve children with detained and deported parents, but often face limited resources and high staff turnover. Institutionalizing such strategies would provide a stronger safety net for these children and families in need. Details: Washington, DC: Urban Institute and Migration Policy Institute, 2015. 86p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 21, 2015 at: http://www.migrationpolicy.org/research/health-and-social-service-needs-us-citizen-children-detained-or-deported-immigrant-parents Year: 2015 Country: United States URL: http://www.migrationpolicy.org/research/health-and-social-service-needs-us-citizen-children-detained-or-deported-immigrant-parents Shelf Number: 136850 Keywords: Child WelfareDeportationIllegal ImmigrantsImmigrant ChildrenImmigration Enforcement |
Author: Lerpiniere, Jennifer Title: Overseen but often overlooked: Children and Young People 'Looked After at Home' in Scotland. Report 2: Identifying needs and outcomes Summary: More than 5,000 children and young people are looked after at home in Scotland; this represents around a third of all looked after children. Children and young people looked after at home are subject to a compulsory supervision order, but without a requirement to be placed in a particular setting (such as kinship care, foster care, residential care, etc). This type of legal supervision order is unique to the Scottish system of child legislation, children who are supervised in this way are "looked after" by a local authority whilst still living at home with a parent or relevant person. Home supervision has been used since the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968, a period of more than forty years. Despite this long history and extensive use, little is known about home supervision or the experiences of the children who are subject to this intervention. This study seeks to begin to remedy this situation. The study covers considerable ground, and so, a decision was taken to report the findings in three separate reports: - Report 1 in this series reports the findings of a literature review undertaken to identify what research has been conducted into the unique needs, outcomes and experiences of children and young people looked after at home. - This document is Report 2; it focuses on what we learned about the needs and outcomes of children and young people on home supervision and compares this to what was found in the literature review. This report also provides the background to the study and describes the methods used in the primary research. Details: Glasgow: Centre for Excellence for Looked After Children in Scotland (CELCIS), 2015. 38p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 19, 2015 at: http://www.celcis.org/media/resources/publications/Overseen_but_often_overlooked-Report-2-needs_outcomes.pdf Year: 2015 Country: United Kingdom URL: http://www.celcis.org/media/resources/publications/Overseen_but_often_overlooked-Report-2-needs_outcomes.pdf Shelf Number: 137001 Keywords: At-Risk YouthChild Abuse and NeglectChild MaltreatmentChild ProtectionChild WelfareFamiliesHome Supervision |
Author: Welch, Vicki Title: Overseen but often overlooked: Children and Young People 'Looked After at Home' in Scotland. Report 1: Reviewing the literature Summary: This document is the first report from a study commissioned by Barnardo's Scotland. The study explores experiences, needs and outcomes for children and young people in Scotland who are (or have been) looked after at home (ie subject to a home supervision requirement or order). The research aims to do several things: determine in what ways outcomes for this group differ from their peers, address factors which are unique to this group and which may contribute to any differences in outcomes, and investigate emerging models of practice to support young people who are, or have been, looked after at home. The study seeks to capture and summarise what is currently known, identify what the needs of this group are likely to be and recommend future actions related to services, policies and research. This first report details the findings of a comprehensive review of literature sources to identify, analyse and synthesise existing knowledge. The review was systematic inasmuch as the methods are made explicit. However, literature directly focused on home supervision is rare so we have used a two-tiered approach to identify wider material which is likely to throw light on the situation of this group of children and young people. The review process was influenced by a five-stage approach originally developed for scoping studies (Arksey & O'Malley, 2005). Identification of sources was based on a number of searches and personal requests for recommendations by those with knowledge of the field. The review was not restricted to peer-reviewed sources and other good quality sources were considered where they were sufficiently pertinent. Documents were screened according to a number of inclusion and exclusion criteria and if selected they were included in the appropriate section of the review: Section A, concerning research which specifically identifies needs, outcomes or characteristics of children and young people looked after at home, or Section B, concerning other research likely to be relevant to the needs, outcomes or characteristics of children and young people on home supervision. Details: Glasgow: Centre for Excellence for Looked After Children in Scotland (CELCIS),2014. 46p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 20, 2015 at: http://www.celcis.org/media/resources/publications/Overseen_but_often_overlooked-Report-1-literature.pdf Year: 2014 Country: United Kingdom URL: http://www.celcis.org/media/resources/publications/Overseen_but_often_overlooked-Report-1-literature.pdf Shelf Number: 137022 Keywords: At-Risk Youth Child Abuse and Neglect Child Maltreatment Child Protection Child Welfare FamiliesHome Supervision |
Author: Young, Emma Title: Overseen but often overlooked: Children and Young People 'Looked After at Home' in Scotland. Report 3: Exploring service provision Summary: This report is part of a series of documents outlining the findings of a study funded by Barnardo's Scotland and conducted by researchers from the Centre for Excellence for Looked After Children in Scotland. This document is Report 3; it explores what we learned in this study in relation to provision of services for children and young people currently or previously on home supervision. In this document we include findings from different strands of the study including the survey, interviews and service case studies where relevant. We cover the types of services responding to the survey along with the numbers and groups of children served (including age ranges). Results include the proportion of children on home supervision or previously looked after at home who use the services, the types of outcomes that services address in their work with children and young people, and current plans to make service changes. This report is accompanied by a separate document (Annex 3a) which contains more detailed descriptions of five services which provide examples of a range of supports for children and young people on or formerly on home supervision. These small case studies are important; they provide valuable real-life context, illustrate some of the challenges faced by children and provide examples of how providers are responding to these. Details: Glasgow: Centre for Excellence for Looked After Children in Scotland (CELCIS), 2015. 39p., app. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 20, 2015 at: http://www.celcis.org/media/resources/publications/Overseen_but_often_overlooked_Report-3-Service-provision.pdf Year: 2015 Country: United Kingdom URL: http://www.celcis.org/media/resources/publications/Overseen_but_often_overlooked_Report-3-Service-provision.pdf Shelf Number: 137023 Keywords: At-Risk Youth Child Abuse and Neglect Child Maltreatment Child Protection Child Welfare FamiliesHome Supervision |
Author: African Child Policy Forum Title: The African Report on Violence against Children Summary: This report, The African Report on Violence against Children, the first comprehensive analysis of violence against children in Africa, comes at an opportune moment in the history of child rights in Africa and the world. It comes at a time when the child rights community is taking stock of the progress made in advancing child rights 25 years since the adoption of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and the un Convention on the Rights of the Child. The report makes an in-depth exposition of the magnitude as well as the causes and consequences of violence against children and analyses the various vulnerability factors that underlie or aggravate violence such as, gender, social practices, homelessness and disability. The report looks into the multifarious community and family cosmos within which the African child grows. It analyses how a complex web of community values and socio-cultural factors bear upon the child's upbringing and protection, and how some of these factors may occasionally expose the child to violence. The report seeks to find answers for why the problem of violence still persists despite the proliferation of child protection programmes and services by critically examining both the achievements and the gaps cutting across the legislative and programmatic realms. Building upon existing efforts and persisting gaps the report lays down the priorities for action at various levels and the interface that is required amongst the various actors for better protection of children. The report calls for a shift towards a systems approach to child protection that emphasises prevention and collaborative responses at multiple levels, including at the family and community levels. The report echoes what others have reiterated in the past that violence, in whatever form, is unacceptable and cannot be justified on cultural or religious grounds whatsoever. Details: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: African Child Policy Forum, 2014. 134p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 20, 2015 at: https://app.box.com/s/iclv9c70sigmceyl30ym Year: 2014 Country: Africa URL: https://app.box.com/s/iclv9c70sigmceyl30ym Shelf Number: 137032 Keywords: Child Abuse and NeglectChild MaltreatmentChild WelfareViolence Against Children |
Author: Greater London Authority Title: Confronting Child Sexual Exploitation in London Summary: Child sexual exploitation (CSE) is not new, but recent high profile investigations and criminal trials have raised awareness of the possible widespread nature of these offences and the gravity of their impact. Professor Alexis Jay's report, the Independent Inquiry into child sexual exploitation in Rotherham (the Jay Report), and cases such as those in Rochdale, Oxford and Derby, have uncovered the previously hidden scale and organised nature of much CSE. Our investigation examines London's approach to safeguarding children in the light of the lessons that can be learned from tackling CSE in Rotherham. There is an expectation that the local response to CSE is led by Local Safeguarding Children Boards (LSCBs). LSCBs have a statutory duty to bring agencies together to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. They have a range of functions and play a key role in developing local safeguarding children policy and procedures and scrutinising local arrangements - including CSE. The multi-agency London Safeguarding Children Board provides strategic advice and support to London's 32 LSCBs. Its membership is made up of representatives from London boroughs, police, health, probation and independent, voluntary and community agencies in London. We would welcome assurance from London's Directors of Children's Services, the lead professionals responsible for the provision of children's services in London, the London Safeguarding Children Board and LSCBs that all London boroughs have robust mechanisms in place to protect London's children and young people from CSE. No one knows the true scale of CSE. The Jay Report made a conservative estimate that approximately 1,400 children were sexually exploited in Rotherham over the 16 year inquiry period. The Met anticipates it will receive between 1,800 and 2,000 referrals a year. From January 2014 to October 2014, the Met reported 1,612 referrals of CSE, including 265 positive interventions and 55 detections. High profile cases of CSE have raised concerns about how the police and other services work together to respond to CSE. The Jay Report documented a number of ways the police and partner agencies failed to prevent abuse or prioritise dealing with CSE in Rotherham and the Serious Case Review into CSE in Oxfordshire reported multiple missed opportunities by agencies to act rigorously. Rotherham had many policies and plans to tackle CSE. However, inspection reports describe how children's social care was typically understaffed, overstretched and struggling to cope with demand. Thresholds for action were identified as very high and there were significant weaknesses in scrutiny and challenge within Rotherham's governance system. Professionals ignored warnings about the scale of CSE and failed to recognise and believe victims and young people at risk of CSE. Similarly, the Serious Case Review in Oxfordshire found that it took agencies too long to recognise CSE, used language that blamed the victims, and a lack of understanding led to insufficient inquiry. Many London boroughs have made significant developments in their response to CSE over the past few years. Policies and procedures have been developed, multi-agency groups have been established, and investment in training increased. The Met has shown positive progress in developing its approach to CSE. In February 2014, the Met launched The London Child Sexual Exploitation Protocol. The protocol sets out the procedures for the Met and partner agencies for safeguarding and protecting children from sexual exploitation. Our report, Keeping London's children safe welcomed the protocol and recommended the Met should review the evidence and impact of the CSE Protocol on reporting and identifying CSE in London, and the level of resource dedicated to tackling CSE. The Met told us it has scheduled a review of the Pan-London CSE Protocol to start in January 2015 and will also publish a good practice guide. CSE is not a MOPAC 7 priority.6 We were told that as borough police are not measured on CSE it becomes less of a "priority" in some areas. This is a concern. MOPAC is establishing a performance monitoring framework for crimes that fall out of the MOPAC - However, while the Met has made progress in recording CSE data, MOPAC is yet to establish its performance monitoring framework. MOPAC must set out a clear performance monitoring framework for holding the Met to account on its safeguarding children duties, including CSE, as a matter of urgency. National guidance requires local areas to have appropriate policies and procedures in place to tackle CSE. We found that CSE is a strategic priority for London boroughs and the challenge is to ensure boroughs work together to deliver a system that can effectively implement strategies, plans and protocols to tackle CSE and safeguard children across the whole of London. Strategies, policies and procedures need to be robustly monitored and regularly reviewed to ensure effectiveness. While Rotherham had good inter-agency CSE policies and procedures, members of the Safeguarding Board rarely checked whether they were being implemented or effective. Strong leadership and full commitment from partner agencies is essential. We ask that LSCBs have robust governance mechanisms in place to ensure effective monitoring, oversight and regular review of the local response to CSE. This should include well-defined links with other safeguarding children strategies and robust reporting structures between the LSCB and the Community Safety Partnership and Children's Board. Agencies must work together to tackle CSE. While we are encouraged by local arrangements and the progress made by the police, local authorities and other partners that have come together to tackle CSE, partnership working is one area where further work is required. Details: London: Greater London Authority, 2015. 37p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 18, 2016 at: https://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/gla_migrate_files_destination/Confronting%20CSE%20in%20London%20-%20final.pdf Year: 2015 Country: United Kingdom URL: https://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/gla_migrate_files_destination/Confronting%20CSE%20in%20London%20-%20final.pdf Shelf Number: 137878 Keywords: Child PornographyChild ProstitutionChild ProtectionChild Sexual AbuseChild Sexual ExploitationChild WelfareInteragency Cooperation |
Author: Fernandez, Elizabeth Title: A Study of the Children's Court of New South Wales Summary: Australia's child welfare system can be traced to the period of white settlement. Significant child welfare problems emerged in this period when mortality rates and levels of neglect and deprivation were high (Liddell 1993). From the earliest days of the New South Wales colony, concern was expressed about the care and protection of convict children who roamed the streets and who were thought to be responsible for petty crime. A charity set up by Governor King's wife was to provide schooling for these vulnerable children. As early as the mid nineteenth century state involvement in children and families is evident through the establishment of universal schooling and industrial schools (Van Krieken 1991). Later in the nineteenth century child labour laws and compulsory education were established, along with policies to board out children rather than accommodate them in institutions (Picton and Boss 1981, Tomison, 2001). Unsurprisingly, child care and juvenile justice were seen hand-in-hand both to protect children and to protect the wider society from crime. This report is concerned with reviewing this complex system for the twenty-first century. Details: Sydney: University of New South Wales, 2014. 54p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 30, 2016 at: http://www.childrenscourt.justice.nsw.gov.au/Documents/chcourt%20assessment.pdf Year: 2014 Country: Australia URL: http://www.childrenscourt.justice.nsw.gov.au/Documents/chcourt%20assessment.pdf Shelf Number: 138498 Keywords: Child ProtectionChild WelfareJuvenile CourtJuvenile Offenders |
Author: Whitman, Shelly Title: Understanding the Recruitment and Use of Child Soldiers as an Early Warning Indicator Summary: Despite attempts to define early warning, a precise and comprehensive definition of what constitutes early warning is still elusive. The international community has made steps towards adopting a strategy of early warning to prevent and disrupt the outbreak of mass atrocities and violent conflict, yet it still reacts to conflict already underway. It is possible that our failure to prevent and react to conflicts is directly correlated to our failure to protect children and prevent their deliberate use and abuse in armed conflict. How can we find solutions to prevent deadly conflict and mass atrocities through improvement of our approaches to prevent the use of children as soldiers Details: Halifax, NS: Dalhousie University, the Romeo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative, 2015. 32p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 14, 2016 at: http://www.childsoldiers.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Early_Warning_Web_Final.pdf Year: 2015 Country: International URL: http://www.childsoldiers.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Early_Warning_Web_Final.pdf Shelf Number: 138676 Keywords: Child Protection Child Soldiers Child Welfare |
Author: National Council on Crime and Delinquency (NCCD) Title: A Profile of Youth in the Los Angeles County Delinquency Prevention Pilot Summary: Children involved in the child welfare system are more likely than other children to be arrested or referred for delinquent offenses. Their risk of involvement in the juvenile justice system also increases as exposure to violence increases. Although the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) had a program in place for children who were dually involved with the child welfare and juvenile justice systems, they sought to develop a mechanism for identifying youth served by DCFS who were at greatest risk of juvenile justice system involvement. This would allow provision of targeted services to those youth in an effort to prevent such involvement. Since 1999, DCFS has used the Structured Decision Making (SDM) decision-support system, developed by the NCCD Children's Research Center. The SDM system for child welfare includes an actuarial risk assessment to identify families investigated for child maltreatment who were at greatest risk of subsequent maltreatment. In 2010, DCFS staff involved in the Crossover Youth Practice Model (CYPM) asked NCCD to examine the possibility of creating a similar assessment for assessing the risk of delinquency among children receiving child welfare services in the county. NCCD conducted a study in 2011 and was able to develop an actuarial assessment, the SDM delinquency prevention screening assessment (DPSA),2 to help the county identify children at higher risk of subsequent delinquency than other children. The assessment was initially piloted by four Los Angeles County offices (Compton, Glendora, Palmdale, and South County) in the fall of 2012 as part of the Delinquency Prevention Pilot (DPP). Children identified as high risk of subsequent delinquency in the pilot offices were to receive resources targeted to their needs and risk factors related to delinquency (e.g., substance abuse, education, mental health, and delinquency) during the subsequent six months. In order to assess implementation, NCCD sought and received funding for a process evaluation from the Center for Juvenile Justice Reform (CJJR) at Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy. CJJR received funding for the evaluation of DPP and its work with CYPM from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation. In 2013, the evaluation plan was modified to include short-term monitoring of process and outcome measures including service provision and entry into the juvenile justice system. The following literature review provides an empirical and theoretical basis for the project. The evaluation provides background for the development and implementation of DPP, describes successes and challenges related to implementation, serves as a first step in evaluating the effectiveness of the program to reduce delinquency over time, and offers recommendations for improving implementation of a delinquency prevention model in Los Angeles County and other sites. Details: Oakland, CA: NCCD, 2015. 47p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 25, 2016 at: http://www.nccdglobal.org/sites/default/files/publication_pdf/la_dpp_evaluation_report.pdf Year: 2015 Country: United States URL: http://www.nccdglobal.org/sites/default/files/publication_pdf/la_dpp_evaluation_report.pdf Shelf Number: 139835 Keywords: Child WelfareDelinquency PreventionJuvenile DelinquencyJuvenile DelinquentsJuvenile Offenders |
Author: Piza, Caio Title: Short- and Long-Term Effects of a Child-Labor Ban Summary: This is the first study to investigate the short- and long-term causal effects of a child-labor ban. The study explores the law that increased the minimum employment age from 14 to 16 in Brazil in 1998, and uncovers its impact on time allocated to schooling and work in the short term and on school attainment and labor market outcomes in the long term. The analysis uses cross-sectional data from 1998 to 2014, and applies a fuzzy regression discontinuity design to estimate the impact of the ban at different points of individuals' lifecycles. The estimates show that the ban reduced the incidence of boys in paid work activities by 4 percentage points or 27 percent. The study finds that the fall in child labor is mostly explained by the change in the proportions of boys working for pay and studying, and observes an increase in the proportion of boys only studying as a consequence. The results suggest that the ban reduced boys' participation in the labor force. The study follows the same cohort affected by the ban over the years, and finds that the short-term effects persisted until 2003 when the boys turned 18. The study pooled data from 2007 to 2014 to check whether the ban affected individuals' stock of human capital and labor market outcomes. The estimates suggest that the ban did not have long-term effects for the whole cohort, but found some indication that it did negatively affect the log earnings of individuals at the lower tail of the earnings distribution. Details: Washington, DC: World Bank Group, 2016. 54p. Source: Internet Resource: Policy Research working paper; no. WPS 7796; Impact Evaluation series: Accessed August 29, 2016 at: http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/146211471281195366/pdf/WPS7796.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Brazil URL: http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/146211471281195366/pdf/WPS7796.pdf Shelf Number: 140074 Keywords: Child LaborChild ProtectionChild Welfare |
Author: Quattri, Maria Title: Child Labour and Education: A survey of slum settlements in Dhaka Summary: Urbanisation has powered Bangladesh’s development. But it has gone hand-in-hand with the rapid growth of urban slums marked by high levels of poverty and low levels of service provision. In these slums, child labour is rife. Child labour and education: a survey of slum settlements in Dhaka presents findings from one of the largest surveys on child work and education conducted in Bangladesh. ODI research found that 15% of 6 to 14-year-old children in Dhaka's slums were out of school and engaged in full-time work. Average working hours for these children were well beyond the 42-hour limit set by national legislation. The garments sector accounted for two thirds of female working children, raising serious concerns over garment exports and child labour. By the age of 14, almost half of children living in the slums of Dhaka were working. The research shows how early exposure to work and withdrawal from education are harmful to children. This report offers recommendations for coordinated, cross-sectoral policies to break the link between child labour, social disadvantage and restricted opportunities for education. Policies must be integrated to span the regulation of labour markets, education, child welfare and wider global strategies for poverty reduction – what we found in Dhaka is a microcosm of a global problem that should be at the centre of the international agenda. Details: London: Overseas Development Institute (ODI), 2016. 80p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed December 16, 2016 at: https://www.odi.org/sites/odi.org.uk/files/resource-documents/11145.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Bangladesh URL: https://www.odi.org/sites/odi.org.uk/files/resource-documents/11145.pdf Shelf Number: 147763 Keywords: Child LaborChild WelfareEducationPovertySlums |
Author: Donger, Elizabeth Title: Is This Protection? Analyzing India's Approach to the rescue and reintegration of children trafficked for labor exploitation Summary: This report provides a comprehensive and critical analysis of the Indian government's efforts to rescue and reintegrate children trafficked for their labor. Despite frequent expressions of public concern, the government’s main responses to this entrenched problem have not been carefully evaluated to date. As a result, no metrics for gauging reintegration success have been developed, nor is there a process for evaluating the impact of interventions over time. This paper measures existing legal and policy frameworks against current realities, based on empirical findings from a qualitative study carried out by the FXB Center for Health & Human Rights at Harvard University. The survey under-girding the study produced rich data from interviews with 49 governmental and non-governmental actors in three North Indian states: the trafficking source state of Bihar, the transit state of Delhi, and the trafficking destination state of Rajasthan. The results reveal startling inconsistency between policy commitments and on-the-ground realities. Raids of workplaces that rely on forced child labor are executed with variable levels of success and attention to the best interests of trafficked child laborers. A lack of detailed standard operating procedures and centralized information systems leads to confusion around responsibilities, as well as reactive, poorly planned raids that are often overly dependent on nonprofit leadership. The quality of immediate post-rescue care delivered is also inconsistent: children do not receive adequate medical or counseling support and are often subjected to multiple interviews about their experience. Legally mandated and essential First Information Reports, prepared by the police to initiate criminal proceedings, are sporadically filed and victimizers are rarely prosecuted Existing reintegration frameworks also fail to protect children's rights and needs. They do not comprehensively address the diverse post-rescue needs of trafficked children. Rather, despite incontrovertible evidence to the contrary, they treat reintegration as a fixed, short-term process. The significant and complex risks facing trafficked children following return to their families are not carefully addressed and standards for gauging what counts as appropriate alternative accommodation are lacking. Education programs work in isolation from formal schools and do not adequately address the curricular and teacher training issues that reintegration of trafficked children raise. Children who have never had an opportunity to attend school consistently need dedicated services to facilitate their integration into a system of learning; and their families need structured and ongoing support to mitigate the risk that a child will be re-trafficked for economic reasons. Instead, at present, the challenge of supporting the family's economic reintegration is, at best, reduced to the provision of lump sum compensation. Finally, the acute health needs of rescued children, both physical and psychological, are acknowledged as an afterthought, without concrete policy initiatives to ensure delivery of suitable services. This report outlines several overarching challenges to the successful rescue and reintegration of children trafficked for labor: failure to provide adequate reintegration services; a focus on short term rescue from child labor in place of systemic child welfare approaches; organizational failures including lack of clear accountability, inter-agency coordination and training; poorly structured NGO government partnerships; insufficient human and financial resources; lack of centralized information systems; and weak policy frameworks. The report concludes by making several recommendations to address these gaps. One critical recommendation is an insistence on the prioritization of a child rights approach to intervention, so that the child’s best interests and views are always a primary consideration. Another overarching recommendation highlights the imperative of instituting comprehensive and sustained reintegration efforts instead of perpetuating the current short term approach that simply returns trafficked children to circumstances that led to trafficking in the first place. This analysis should form the basis for future research, debate and, most important, concrete reforms to protect children from exploitation. Trafficking for forced labor constitutes a gross violation of rights that affects hundreds of thousands of Indian children every year. It is the government's obligation to ensure an end to these abusive practices and to institute sustained interventions that deliver access to health, education and financial security for these children and their families. Details: Boston: François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University, 2016. 54p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 20, 2017 at: https://cdn2.sph.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2016/03/Is-this-Protection-Final.pdf Year: 2016 Country: India URL: https://cdn2.sph.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2016/03/Is-this-Protection-Final.pdf Shelf Number: 141121 Keywords: Child Labor Child Protection Child Trafficking Child WelfareForced Labor Labor Exploitation |
Author: Mathews, Ben Title: Oversight and regulatory mechanisms aimed at protecting children from sexual abuse: Understanding current evidence of efficacy Summary: The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (the Royal Commission) is required to inquire into, among other things, 'what institutions and governments should do to achieve best practice in encouraging the reporting of, and responding to reports or information about, allegations, incidents or risks of child sexual abuse and related matters in institutional contexts'. Across Australia, oversight bodies enable monitoring of aspects of child welfare, particularly for children in the care and protection system. For this report, the Royal Commission examined oversight bodies including ombudsmen offices (including children's ombudsmen); reportable conduct schemes; children's commissions; community visitors schemes; child advocates and children's guardians; and crime and misconduct commissions. In some instances, these agencies facilitate oversight and responses to child sexual abuse; in other instances, this facility is an implicit or consequential aspect of their authority. These bodies differ across jurisdictions in their form, scope and power. In addition, various regulatory mechanisms exist in Australia. For this report, the Royal Commission has examined regulatory bodies including non-government schools' accreditation boards; early childhood and care regulators; and medical sector regulators. In some instances, agencies' express purpose is to prevent or minimise the likelihood of child sexual abuse; in other instances, this function is an implicit or consequential aspect of their authority. These bodies also have different features across jurisdictions. To assist the Royal Commission in addressing its terms of reference, the report initially focuses on understanding the nature of these oversight and regulatory bodies. This is presented in Part 2. The report then assesses the efficacy of these bodies in protecting children from sexual abuse, focusing on institutional contexts. To fulfil the aims of the study as stated by the Royal Commission, this report covers narrow efficacy and broad efficacy. The report has been informed by regulatory theory, and has used legal analysis, policy analysis and public health research methods, to review and analyse literature for its evaluative purpose. Appendix 2 explains in more detail the concepts of narrow efficacy and broad efficacy, and how they are measured. In sum, the evaluation of narrow efficacy explores the presence and nature of key requirements enabling the protection of children from child sexual abuse in institutional contexts; it does so through synthesis and doctrinal analysis. Broad efficacy is conceptualised as the effect in practice of the oversight or regulatory mechanism in protecting children from sexual abuse in institutional contexts. The evaluation of broad efficacy asks whether the oversight or regulatory body achieves the policy goal of improving protection of children from sexual abuse in institutional contexts. Accordingly, the report first analyses narrow efficacy using selected significant features and parameters of the relevant legislative and regulatory frameworks. This analysis is presented in Part 2, alongside the synthesis of the nature of these bodies. The report then analyses broad efficacy using a systematic review of literature, according to the normal conventions of social science and public health scholarship. This is presented in Part 3. A third, less central, aspect of the report is a summary of evidence about the efficacy of other innovative regulatory models for protecting children from sexual abuse in institutional contexts. This is presented in Part 4. A fourth, again less central, aspect of the report is a summary of models of regulation from other fields or industries that may be applicable or adaptable for protecting children from sexual abuse in institutional contexts. This is also presented in Part 4. Two additional substantial components of the project were added after parts 1-4 were completed. To assist the Royal Commission in addressing its terms of reference, Part 5 explores how components, structures and mechanisms from occupational health and safety regulatory models in Australia could be used to inform a regulatory approach to protecting children from sexual abuse in institutional contexts. Accordingly, Part 5 presents a synthesis of these occupational health and safety regulatory models. It also analyses whether and how their central concepts and mechanisms may inform a regulatory approach to protecting children from sexual abuse in institutional contexts. Finally, to assist the Royal Commission in addressing its terms of reference, and with special reference to different kinds of organisations that serve children and youths, Part 6 explores the regulatory models and approaches that could be used to ensure that smaller organisations with limited resources (namely, sporting, cultural and arts, and recreational groups) are not overburdened with regulation, while still keeping children safe from sexual abuse. As with Part 5, the completion of Part 6 involved research, synthesis and analysis, and the development of reform proposals informed by the relevant principles, theory and evidence. Details: Sydney: Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, 2017. 258p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 11, 2017 at: http://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/getattachment/f6d43e2a-48b2-4999-9867-3938dcbcdf7e/Oversight-and-regulatory-mechanisms-aimed-at-prote Year: 2017 Country: Australia URL: http://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/getattachment/f6d43e2a-48b2-4999-9867-3938dcbcdf7e/Oversight-and-regulatory-mechanisms-aimed-at-prote Shelf Number: 144782 Keywords: Child Abuse and Neglect Child Institutional AbuseChild MaltreatmentChild ProtectionChild Sexual Abuse Child Welfare |
Author: Marcus, Rachel Title: Poverty and violations of children's right to protection in low- and middle-income countries: A review of the evidence Summary: Why do up to 1.5 billion children suffer physical violence every year? Why do up to 2251 million children suffer sexual violence every year? Why are 14.2 million girls every year married off to start adult lives in adolescence or before?2 Why are considerable numbers of young children left alone for long hours without competent adult supervision? Historically, in studies of violence against children in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, explanations emphasised the role of individual psychological factors. The pendulum swung in the 1960s to highlight structural forces contributing to the abuse and neglect of children, in particular poverty and unemployment. In more recent years, understanding of the factors underlying violations of children's right to protection has drawn on an ecological model that emphasises factors at several levels: individual, family, household, community and broader society (Frederick and Goddard, 2007). The international child protection community generally sees three broad sets of factors as underlying many child protection violations: sociocultural norms, weak protective structures and poverty or deprivation. However, within this community there are divergences of opinion concerning the extent to which poverty is a significant underlying or risk factor. Interviews with child protection and poverty specialists and an electronic survey conducted for this research programme revealed a notable split. The majority considered poverty an important and often-neglected factor underpinning many child protection violations, but a significant number of respondents highlighted the fact that abuse, exploitation and neglect of children occurs across all socioeconomic groups, and thus felt economic deprivation played a more minor role. Perspectives varied considerably across different types of violation, with most respondents feeling that economic deprivation was a critical factor in early marriage, inadequate care and sexual exploitation, but relatively fewer convinced it was an important factor underpinning corporal punishment or sexual abuse. The electronic survey, like the majority of the literature examined for this review, focuses on children's vulnerability to protection violations, not whether poverty increases the risk of perpetrating abuse. Broadly, these perspectives concur with insights from the literature examined for this study. Despite increased recognition of the importance of effective joined-up child protection systems (e.g. World Vision, 2011; Wulcyzn et al., 2010), state agencies charged with child protection in most low- and middle-income countries are severely underfunded (Everychild, 2010b; Holmes and Jones, 2009). At the same time, there is a global move towards strengthening social protection - much of which has a partial focus on children in poverty, and thus is directing resources towards realising children's survival and development rights. In this context, there is growing interest in exploring the potential and limitations of social protection, human development and other anti-poverty programmes to reduce violations of children's protection rights - and of action to protect children's rights to promote better anti-poverty and human development outcomes. As a contribution to emerging practice and debate in this area, the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) and the Oak Foundation are undertaking a two-year programme of work to explore the potential for greater linkages between child protection and anti-poverty work in low- and middle-income countries. This report - the first output of the programme - has two main objectives: 1. To examine how far and in what ways poverty contributes to violations of children's rights to protection in four key areas - child marriage, sexual and physical violence against children and inadequate care of children - and thus to clarify the significance of poverty as an underlying or risk factor for these different violations of children's protection rights; and 2. To assess the strength of evidence concerning the relationship between poverty and child marriage, sexual and physical violence against children and inadequate care of children, and thus to identify knowledge gaps. It reviews evidence from low- and middle-income countries on the linkages between poverty and child marriage, sexual and physical violence against children and inadequate care of children. It also draws selectively on evidence from OECD countries in areas where the low- and middle-income country literature is sparse, or to highlight differences related to income and institutional capacity. It is intended as a detailed resource on the issues explored. Key findings are summarised in a short background note (Marcus, 2013). Other components of this programme include an adapted systematic review of the extent to which child protection policies and programmes involve attention to anti-poverty issues, and the contribution of antipoverty components to effective action on specific child protection issues (Marcus and Page, 2013); an electronic survey of practitioners and key informant interviews; and fieldwork exploring the relationship between poverty and violation of children's protection rights in Ethiopia, Uganda, and Vietnam. The programme is also exploring the potential for and different ways of promoting greater synergies between analysts and practitioners with anti-poverty and child protection foci. Details: London: Overseas Development Institute, 2014. 97p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 1, 2017 at: https://www.odi.org/sites/odi.org.uk/files/odi-assets/publications-opinion-files/9309.pdf Year: 2014 Country: International URL: https://www.odi.org/sites/odi.org.uk/files/odi-assets/publications-opinion-files/9309.pdf Shelf Number: 145223 Keywords: Child Abuse and NeglectChild MaltreatmentChild MarriageChild ProtectionChild Sexual AbuseChild WelfarePoverty and CrimeSocioeconomic Conditions and CrimeViolence Against Children |
Author: Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action Title: Toolkit on Unaccompanied and Separated Children Summary: This toolkit includes the following: Key international instruments and guidelines relating to UASC Child-specific human rights instruments - United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), 1989 - Optional Protocol to the CRC on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict, 2000 - Optional Protocol to the CRC on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography, 2000 - Optional Protocol to the CRC on a Communications Procedure, 2011 - Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, 1998 - Convention Concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour (International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention No. 182), 1999 - Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, and the Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (Anti-Trafficking Protocol), 2000 - The Hague Conference on Private International Law - Convention for the Protection of Minors, 1961 - Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, 1980 - Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Inter-country Adoption, 1993, and its Recommendation Concerning the Application to Refugee Children and Other Internationally Displaced Children, 1994 - Convention on Jurisdiction, Applicable Law, Recognition, Enforcement and Cooperation in Respect of Parental Responsibility and Measures for the Protection of Children, 1996 - Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of their Liberty, 1990 Details: s.l.: The Alliance, 2017. 250p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 11, 2017 at: https://childprotectionallianceblog.files.wordpress.com/2017/04/tools-web-2017-0322.pdf Year: 2017 Country: International URL: https://childprotectionallianceblog.files.wordpress.com/2017/04/tools-web-2017-0322.pdf Shelf Number: 147220 Keywords: Child ProtectionChild TraffickingChild WelfareHuman RightsHuman SmugglingRights of the ChildUnaccompanied Children |
Author: Tilley-Riley, Jo Title: Collateral Damage: An inquiry into the impact of witnessing a home raid by the police, on the children and the siblings of offenders in England Summary: This inquiry focuses on the impact on children and siblings in England who have witnessed a home raid by the police. Its purpose is to inform police, policy makers and those concerned with the welfare of children. The key points that have emerged during the course of this project are: - Innocent children and young people who witness a home raid are likely to be traumatised by the incident, and develop strong negative views of the police. - Possibly as many as 80,000 children experience this each year. But the exact scale of the issue is still unknown. At the core of this challenge is the tension between the needs of the police to enforce the law with regards to other family members in a shared property and Article 16 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child: "Children have a right to privacy. The law should protect them from attacks against their way of life, their good name, their families and their homes." But while this problem could be seen as one of the entrenched "wicked" social issues that are overwhelmingly complex to solve, in this case huge improvements could be made to protect vulnerable children and young people at a very minimal cost. This can be seen clearly in the example of the Chief of Police in San Francisco who has instigated a trauma-informed approach to arrests and raids, which is sensitive to the impact on the wider family. Details: London: Clore Social Leadership Program, 2016. 20p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 18, 2017 at: http://www.i-hop.org.uk/ci/fattach/get/805/0/session/L2F2LzEvdGltZS8xNTA1NzQxMzU5L3NpZC9QdVRjYipzbg==/filename/Collateral+Damage.pdf Year: 2016 Country: United Kingdom URL: http://www.i-hop.org.uk/ci/fattach/get/805/0/session/L2F2LzEvdGltZS8xNTA1NzQxMzU5L3NpZC9QdVRjYipzbg==/filename/Collateral+Damage.pdf Shelf Number: 147378 Keywords: Child Protection Child WelfareChildhood Trauma Children and Violence Police Raids |
Author: Millar, Hayli Title: The Impact of Sentencing and Other Judicial Decisions on the Children of Parents in Conflict with the Law: Implications for Sentencing Reform Summary: The situation of children whose parents are involved in adult criminal proceedings is emerging as a pressing public policy concern. There is a growing body of empirical evidence recognizing the adverse effects for dependent children both as direct and indirect victims of their parents' criminal behaviour and in relation to criminal justice decisions about their parents, especially when a court is remanding or sentencing a parent who is a primary or sole caregiver to custody. At the same time, the empirical research shows that both formal and informal support and interventions can mitigate the negative effects of such an adverse experience on children, especially when activated early in the criminal justice decision-making process. In this report, we highlight the growing influence of an evolving international legal standard establishing a yet to be fully defined requirement for criminal courts to systematically recognize and consider the best interests of a child when sentencing a parent or a legal guardian as a specific and independent legal consideration in order to mitigate foreseeable and avoidable harms to the child. We also examine how selected, mainly common law, countries, including Canada, are interpreting and applying this standard in their domestic policy and laws and review some of the innovative child and family focused criminal justice practices that are being adopted in various jurisdictions. Finally, we briefly discuss the implications of these various developments for sentencing reform in Canada and point to some opportunities for Canadian legal and institutional reforms to move forward on this important child and family rights issue. Details: Abbotsford, BC: University of the Fraser Valley, Centre For Public Safety And Criminal Justice Research, 2017. 41p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 4, 2017 at: https://cjr.ufv.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Millar-and-Dandurand-_2017_Impact-of-Sentencing-on-Children-on-Parents_07_02_2017.pdf Year: 2017 Country: Canada URL: https://cjr.ufv.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Millar-and-Dandurand-_2017_Impact-of-Sentencing-on-Children-on-Parents_07_02_2017.pdf Shelf Number: 148037 Keywords: Child WelfareChildren of Inmates Families of Prisoners |
Author: McCormick, Amanda V. Title: In the Best Interests of the Child: Strategies for Recognizing and Supporting Canada's At-Risk Population of Children with Incarcerated Parents Summary: Children whose parents are incarcerated have been acknowledged internationally as a vulnerable population facing serious challenges. In 2011, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child convened a Day of General Discussion on Children with Incarcerated Parents during which it was stressed that the best interests of children must be considered throughout the criminal justice system processing of their parent (Robertson, 2012). Although Canada is a party to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, children of criminally incarcerated parents are an invisible population in Canada. As official statistics do not appear to be consistently collected in Canada, the size of this at-risk population is currently unknown. However, given an increasing rate of pre-trial detention and incarceration of women, Aboriginal people, and foreign-born persons in Canada (Babooram, 2008; Sapers, 2013), many of whom are parents, the size of the affected population of children is likely growing. This report is the result of a project assessing the available policies, programs, and practices concerning children with incarcerated parents. The information collected for this report was largely collated from literature reviews, as well as consultations conducted with government and nongovernmental agencies across Canada. In addition, feedback gathered from a day-long expert working group on children with incarcerated parents conducted by the UFV Centre for Safety Schools and Communities in December 2013 was integrated into the final report. Details: Abbotsford, BC: Centre for Public Safety and Criminal Justice Research, University of the Fraser Valley, 2015. 71p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 4, 2017 at: https://cjr.ufv.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Children-with-Incarcerated-Parents_Amended.pdf Year: 2015 Country: Canada URL: https://cjr.ufv.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Children-with-Incarcerated-Parents_Amended.pdf Shelf Number: 148038 Keywords: Child WelfareChildren of PrisonersFamilies of Inmates |
Author: Munro, Emily R. Title: Daybreak Family Group Conferencing: children on the edge of care Summary: Daybreak is a charity specialising in the provision of family group conferences (FGCs). Their approach is underpinned by commitment to the active participation of children, young people and their families to support the resolution of family problems. For this Children's Innovation Fund project, Daybreak, in collaboration with Southwark and Wiltshire children's services, offered an FGC to all families to whom a letter of intent to initiate care proceedings (Public Law Outline Letter) was issued between 1 April 2015 and 31 March 2016. The aims of the project were to: - demonstrate, codify and evaluate a robust model and approach with a view to raising the quality of FGCs, promoting consistently good outcomes and improving value for money - reduce court costs and delays; fully integrate the voice of the children in decision making, and divert children from care when safe to do so - strengthen adherence to existing policy, in particular the requirements of the Public Law Outline (PLO) and the Children and Families Act 2014 Details: Darlington, UK: Department of Education, 2017. 71p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 9, 2017 at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/625372/Daybreak_Family_Group_Conferencing.pdf Year: 2017 Country: United Kingdom URL: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/625372/Daybreak_Family_Group_Conferencing.pdf Shelf Number: 148096 Keywords: Child ProtectionChild WelfareFamily CounselingGroup ConferencingSocial Work |
Author: Dank, Meredith Title: Pretesting a Human Trafficking Screening Tool in the Child Welfare and Runaway and Homeless Youth Systems Summary: Despite the fact that youth involved in the child welfare (CW) and runaway and homeless youth (RHY) systems are particularly vulnerable to being trafficked, there is no consensus screening tool to identify trafficking experiences among such youth. In order to better serve youth trafficking victims, this study developed a Human Trafficking Screening Tool (HTST) and pretested it with 617 RHY- and CW-involved youth. This research established that the screening tool is accessible to youth and easy to administer, and that both the full-length tool and a shorter version were effective in identifying youth who are trafficking victims in RHY and CW systems, though additional research with more youth is needed. Methodology The tool was pretested with 617 youth, ages 12 to 24, across 14 RHY and CW settings in New York, Texas, and Wisconsin from March to November 2016. The survey captured their trafficking experiences as well as demographic characteristics and other life experiences related to trafficking (e.g., running away, drug abuse). The 19-item HTST was embedded in a longer Life Experiences Survey, along with a 6- item short-form version called the HTST-SF. The full HTST took approximately two minutes to complete, while the HTST-SF took less than a minute. Most youth completed the survey in an anonymous self-administered electronic form. A random 25 percent were administered the survey by a practitioner, who also recorded their own perspective on the youth's trafficking status. Key Findings Overall, the HTST (which measures both lifetime and past-year experiences) and the HTST-SF performed equally well at capturing trafficking experiences for most youth. Sampled youth were mostly 18 to 24 years old and in RHY-system settings. - HTST covered the key dimensions of youth's trafficking experiences, according to Urban Institute researchers, members of the HHS study team, and RHY and CW youth helping on the study's youth advisory council. - HTST could be implemented and understood in RHY and CW settings. Practitioners assessed the tool as easy to administer and youth's responses as truthful and understanding HTST questions. Further, youth's inclination to respond was not affected by whether the tool was self- or practitioner administered. - Responses to the HTST were correlated to known trafficking risk factors and outcomes, including running away from home, being kicked out of one's home, abusing prescription or over-the-counter drugs, trading sex for something of value on their own (i.e., without the presence of a third-party exploiter), being arrested, and seeking help. - The HTST correctly predicted trafficking victimization. For approximately 6 in 10 youth, the HTST correctly predicted youth to be trafficking victims according to administrating practitioners' beliefs and observations. Additionally, the HTST correctly predicted 8 in 10 times which youth were not trafficking victims, according to practitioners' beliefs and observations. - The short form of HTST performed equally well as the full version, with regard to all measures of validity. Since the HTST-SF took less than a minute to administer, it would appear preferable when time is an issue, unless practitioners are interested in capturing more specific dimensions of youth's trafficking experiences. Table 3 on page 21 shows the long form of the tool, and Figure 2 on page 30 lists the questions from the short form. Conclusion Responses to the 19-item HTST and 6-item HTST-SF were correlated with several known risk factors and outcomes associated with trafficking victimization, including running away from home, being kicked out by parents/guardians, exchanging sex on their own for something of value, abusing over-thecounter drugs, and seeking help. Further, both tools correctly identified trafficking victims 6 in 10 times and nonvictims 8 in 10 times, based on practitioners' assessments of youth's trafficking experiences. Given that practitioners also provided positive feedback on the tools, which took two minutes or less to administer, this study concludes that both the HTST and HTST-SF are accessible, effective tools for screening youth for human trafficking in CW and RHY settings. Given limited samples of certain subpopulations, we recommend additional testing of youth under age 18 and youth in CW settings, in addition to further validation work with a nationally representative sample of youth. Details: Washington, DC: Urban Institute, 2017. 80p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed January 20, 2018 at: https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/93596/pretesting_tool_1.pdf Year: 2017 Country: United States URL: https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/93596/pretesting_tool_1.pdf Shelf Number: 148890 Keywords: Child WelfareHomeless YouthHuman TraffickingRunaways |
Author: Quadara, Antonia Title: The effects of pornography on children and young people: An evidence scan Summary: In 2016, the Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS) was engaged to review what the available research evidence tells us about the impact exposure to and consumption of online pornography has on children and young people. The increasing availability of pornography online has raised concerns about the impacts it may have on children and young people's: knowledge of, and attitudes to, sex; sexual behaviours and practices; attitudes and behaviours regarding gender equality; behaviours and practices within their own intimate, sexual or romantic relationships; and risk of experiencing or perpetrating sexual violence. The purpose of this project was not to duplicate the considerable work undertaken by other researchers working on these issues (e.g., Flood, 2009; Flood & Hamilton, 2003a, 2003b; Sabina, Wolak, & Finkelhor, 2008; Wolak, Mitchell, & Finkelhor, 2007; Ybarra & Mitchell, 2005). Rather, the purpose was to synthesise recent research and current approaches/interventions across this range of domains to inform future initiatives to reduce the negative impacts of pornography on children and young people. Approach Between August and October 2016, the research team reviewed the available research regarding: the effects of pornography on children and young people in relation to the issues listed above; and current approaches and interventions that have been developed to address the negative effects of pornography and support respectful relationships. Research undertaken in Australia, New Zealand, the UK, the USA, Ireland, Scandinavia and Canada was prioritised. To varying degrees, the international contexts listed here share some similarities with Australia, such as political and legislative systems. However, the implications of the research are not fully transferable. The literature was then synthesised to: draw conclusions about the key effects of pornography on children and young people and how this relationship between pornography and associated impacts is best understood; identify factors that might help explain or mediate the relationship between exposure to pornography and other "sexualising" materials and the impact on children and young people (i.e., risk and protective factors); and identify promising approaches to addressing this issue with children and young people, including key learnings. Details: Melbourne: Australian Institute of Family Studies, 2017. 62p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed January 20, 2018 at: https://aifs.gov.au/sites/default/files/publication-documents/rr_the_effects_of_pornography_on_children_and_young_people_1.pdf Year: 2017 Country: International URL: https://aifs.gov.au/sites/default/files/publication-documents/rr_the_effects_of_pornography_on_children_and_young_people_1.pdf Shelf Number: 148896 Keywords: Child WelfarePornographySexual Violence |
Author: Kofol, Chiara Title: Child Labor and the Arrival of Refugees: Evidence from Tanzania Summary: The impact of hosting refugees on child labor in host countries is unclear. This paper estimates both the short and the long term consequences of hosting refugees fleeing from the genocides of Rwanda and Burundi in the Kagera region of Tanzania between 1991 and 2004. The study uses longitudinal data from the Kagera Health and Development Survey. Using the exogenous nature of refugee settlement in Kagera due to geographic and logistical reasons, we find the causal impact of hosting refugees on child labor and children's schooling outcomes. The results suggest that the impact of hosting refugees on children living in Kagera decreases child labor in the short run (between 1991 and 1994), but increases it in the longer run (1991-2004). The results are heterogeneous across gender and age. The study aims at understanding the mechanisms behind the variation in child labor outcome due to the forced migration shock exploring various channels. Details: Bonn: Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), 2017. 37p. Source: Internet Resource: IZA Discussion Paper No. 11242: Accessed January 31, 2018 at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3097360 Year: 2017 Country: Tanzania URL: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3097360 Shelf Number: 148934 Keywords: Child LaborChild WelfareForced MigrationRefugees |
Author: Western, Bruce Title: Formerly-Incarcerated Parents and their Children Summary: The negative effects of incarceration on child well-being are often linked to the economic insecurity of formerly incarcerated parents. Researchers caution, however, that the effects of parental incarceration may be small in the presence of multiple partner fertility and other family complexity. Despite these claims, few studies directly observe either economic insecurity or the full extent of family complexity. We study parent-child relationships with a unique data set that includes detailed information about economic insecurity and family complexity among parents just released from prison. We find that stable private housing, more than income, is associated with close and regular contact between parents and children. Formerly-incarcerated parents are less likely to regularly see their children in contexts of multiple partner fertility and in the absence of supportive family relationships. Significant housing and family effects are estimated even after controlling for drug use and crime which are themselves negatively related to parental contact. The findings point to the constraints of material insecurity and family complexity on the social support provided by formerly incarcerated parents to their children. Details: Cambridge, MA: Department of Sociology, Harvard University, 2017. 35p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 8, 2018 at: https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/brucewestern/files/formerly-incarcerated_parents_and_their_children.pdf Year: 2017 Country: United States URL: https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/brucewestern/files/formerly-incarcerated_parents_and_their_children.pdf Shelf Number: 149070 Keywords: Child WelfareChildren of PrisonersEx-OffendersFamilies of InmatesPrisoner Reentry |
Author: Nebraska. Office of Inspector General of Nebraska Child Welfare Title: Sexual Abuse of State Wards, Youths in Adoptive or Guardian Homes, & Youth in Residential Placement. Reported July 2013 - October 2016 Summary: Child sexual abuse remains a widespread problem in the United States. Recent estimates show that 1 in 10 children will be subject to sexual abuse involving sexual contact before the age of 18, either by an adult or another youth. Child sexual abuse is generally understood to include everything from child rape and molestation, sexual touching, and coercing or persuading a child to engage in any type of sexual act to exposure to pornography, voyeurism, and communicating in a sexual manner by phone or Internet. In an estimated 90 percent of cases, children are sexually abused by someone they know and trust. Between 2013 and 2016, there were 1,284 substantiated victims of child sexual abuse in Nebraska. While DHHS does not track how many of those victims were involved with the child welfare system, national research indicates that youth in this system are at higher risk of experiencing sexual abuse and exploitation than their peers in the general population. Exact numbers of child sexual abuse victims are difficult to calculate because many victims do not report sexual abuse or wait for long periods of time before disclosing. Available research indicates that false reporting of child sexual abuse is extremely rare - occurring in only 4 to 8 percent of cases. The impact of child sexual abuse can be lifelong - placing survivors at heightened risk for physical and mental health diagnoses, increasing the likelihood they will encounter academic problems and engage in risky behaviors, and even negatively impacting lifetime earnings. Findings and Recommendations of the OIG Investigation Through its investigation, the OIG identified cases of child sexual abuse of state wards, of youth in residential facilities, and of youth reaching permanency through the child welfare system. The OIG used these cases as a starting point in identifying systemic issues that hinder DHHS and the child welfare system's ability to appropriately prevent and respond to cases of child sexual abuse. Throughout the report, the OIG also makes recommendations to DHHS for system improvements, in addition to identifying action items for the child welfare system as a whole. Of the 18 recommendations made, DHHS has accepted 11. Recommendations and action items are detailed in each section of the report. The OIG has also added DHHS's response to each recommendation and action item. A full list can be found in Appendix A. Cases of Child Sexual Abuse The OIG identified 50 children who were victims of sexual abuse that had been substantiated by DHHS or the courts, or where the case was court pending. Substantiated cases are those where it has been determined sexual abuse occurred. Court pending sexual abuse cases are cases that have been investigated and enough evidence exists that sexual abuse occurred that a juvenile or criminal court action was filed. The outcome of such juvenile or criminal proceeding has not yet been determined. Twenty-seven victims were in state care at the time of their sexual abuse and 23 were sexually abused in an adoptive or guardian home in which the state had placed them. The 23 youth who were sexually abused in adoptive or guardian homes were no longer involved in the child welfare system when the abuse was reported, although for some the sexual abuse they experienced began before permanency was achieved. All of the sexual abuse allegations were reported to DHHS between July 2013 and October 2016. The OIG also identified, reviewed, and analyzed some sexual abuse allegations of children in state care that were listed as unfounded or were never investigated. Under Nebraska law, all reports of child abuse or neglect not classified as court substantiated, court pending, or agency substantiated are to be considered unfounded. Although these allegations were not substantiated, at times correctly, the cases nonetheless illustrated concerns about how the child welfare system was functioning. Seven of these cases are highlighted in the report. The OIG reviewed and gathered information on each case of sexual abuse to identify trends and systemic issues. Each case is summarized in the report. Details: Lincoln, NE: Inspector General's Office, 2017. 82p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 28, 2018 at: http://oig.legislature.ne.gov/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/OIG-Summary-Report-Child-Sexual-Abuse-1.pdf Year: 2017 Country: United States URL: http://oig.legislature.ne.gov/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/OIG-Summary-Report-Child-Sexual-Abuse-1.pdf Shelf Number: 149291 Keywords: Child Abuse and NeglectChild Sexual AbuseChild Sexual ExploitationChild WelfareInstitutional Abuse |
Author: Human Rights Watch Title: "Like a Lottery": Arbitrary Treatment of Unaccompanied Migrant Children in Paris Summary: Child protection authorities in Paris are arbitrarily refusing unaccompanied migrant youths status as minors and using flawed age assessment procedures with the result that many of these children are excluded from care they need and to which they are entitled. Arbitrary practices can lead to unaccompanied children being erroneously considered adults, leaving then ineligible for emergency shelter and other protection given to children. As a result, hundreds of unaccompanied children sleep on the streets of Paris each night, lawyers and nongovernmental organizations estimate. Human Rights Watch found that many youths who requested protection from the child welfare system were turned away summarily and inaccurately, based on appearance alone. Others are rejected without written decisions after interviews lasting as little as five minutes, contrary to French regulations. Those who do receive full interviews may be denied recognition as children because of personal judgements made for invalid reasons, for example because they worked during their journey to Europe or travelled on their ownas do many children around the world. When children seek review of adverse decisions, some judges regularly order bone tests to determine their age. Medical bodies in France and elsewhere have repeatedly found that bone and similar medical examinations are not a reliable means of determining age, particularly for older adolescents, and have called for an end to their use. French national and departmental authorities should ensure that age assessments are used only when authorities have well-founded doubts about an individual's claim to be under 18. In such cases, they should determine age through interviews by professionals with the expertise to work with children and should bear in mind that all age assessments will be estimates. France should also end the use of bone tests and similar discredited medical examinations. Details: New York: HRW, 2018. 65p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 27, 2018 at: https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/report_pdf/france0718_web.pdf Year: 2018 Country: France URL: https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/report_pdf/france0718_web.pdf Shelf Number: 150937 Keywords: Child Protection Child WelfareUnaccompanied Children Unaccompanied Migrant Children |
Author: Pascoe, Polly Title: Mapping research into child sexual abuse: Findings from an initial survey Summary: The Centre of expertise on child sexual abuse (CSA Centre) has identified that, while there is a significant level of research activity on topics related to child sexual abuse (CSA), there is a lack of coordination across the field. The survey described in this report was conducted by the CSA Centre in early 2018 with the aim of building an understanding of the current research landscape related to CSA. An online questionnaire was completed by 53 professionals involved in the commissioning, funding or delivery of research related to CSA; these respondents worked across a range of organisations in academia, practice and policy. Details of 163 projects were submitted, and additional input was provided via other stakeholder engagement during the survey period. The survey focused on ongoing and recently completed research. Its limitations are that it did not include older published research, and of course that the respondents were self-selecting from a population that may not have reflected the full extent of relevant research. Key findings The survey was intended to provide a first exploratory insight into the types and forms of research currently being undertaken within the field of CSA. ‣ Most frequently, research was both funded and commissioned primarily by academic, public sector and charity sector organisations. ‣ Online grooming and CSA imagery were key themes investigated by research into perpetration. ‣ The analysis and reporting of administrative data by practitioner organisations (mostly healthcare organisations) was a feature of a number of studies. ‣ Common topics in research included responses to CSA by the police and the ways in which educational and sporting establishments safeguard children. ‣ Evaluative studies focused mostly on services, approaches or tools related specifically to child sexual exploitation. ‣ Interventions were the most popular focus of research projects, with the majority of these studies focusing on interventions for victims/survivors. ‣ There was a noticeable lack of focus on lesser-heard voices (e.g. BAME communities, children in care, children with learning disabilities, LGBT+) within the projects submitted, highlighting areas for future knowledge development. ‣ An interest in risk assessment, with regard to victims, survivors and those who commit CSA, was observed in the data collected. This was most commonly related to preventing victimisation and reducing reoffending. Details: London: Centre of expertise on child sexual abuse (CSA Centre) , 2019. 28p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed march 7, 2019 at: https://www.csacentre.org.uk/knowledge-practice/csa-connect-community/mapping-research-into-csa-eng/ Year: 2019 Country: United Kingdom URL: https://www.csacentre.org.uk/knowledge-practice/csa-connect-community/mapping-research-into-csa-eng/ Shelf Number: 154837 Keywords: Child Protection Child Sexual Abuse Child Welfare |
Author: Mendes, Philip Title: Good Practice in Reducing the Over-Representation of Care Leavers in the Youth Justice System Leaving Care and Youth Justice: Phase Three Report Summary: Young people leaving state out of home care are one of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged groups in society, and are over-represented in the criminal justice system and youth detention facilities. This report presents findings from phase 3 of the Leaving Care and Youth Justice project, and makes recommendations for policy and practice to prevent and address this over-representation with a trauma-informed approach. Program and policy examples are also included, across the child and family welfare services, youth justice, education, mental health, and youth drug and alcohol services sectors. Details: Melbourne: Monash University, 2014. 104p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 19, 2019 at: https://aifs.gov.au/cfca/pacra/good-practice-reducing-over-representation-care-leavers-youth-justice-system Year: 2014 Country: Australia URL: https://aifs.gov.au/cfca/pacra/good-practice-reducing-over-representation-care-leavers-youth-justice-system Shelf Number: 155051 Keywords: At Risk YouthChild ProtectionChild WelfareChildren in CareFoster CareOut Of Home CareResidential Care |