6-Year-Old Child

“I just knew the phone would ring some day and Joshua would be dead,” stated social worker Ann Kemmeter regarding Joshua DeShaney and the ongoing abuse he endured from his father. Joshua’s father brutally and repeatedly abused his four-year-old son Joshua (Wichenbach). The State of Wisconsin was aware of this abuse, but still did nothing to intervene and stop the mistreatment of this child (Wichenbach). The State’s inaction led to the Supreme Court case DeShaney v. Winnebago Department of Social Services, in which Joshua’s mother, Melody, sued the Winnebago Department of Social Services claiming, “the social worker deprived Joshua of his liberty without due process of law” (Alexander). In order to fully understand the DeShaney case, one must conduct thorough background research, delve into the court case itself, and analyze the impact the case has yet today.

In the “High Stakes and Frightening Lapses” case study, the report indicates various problems that face individuals with careers in the social services cluster. There was evidence of high case loads with low pay, lack of attention to families that needed it the most (the Ventura family), absence of leadership from administration, broken promises, bureaucratic issues, etc., which can all lead to unsuccessful relationships between clients and social workers as well as distrust within the helping process. The actions pursued by both DSS and La Alianza Hispana (LAH) resulted in the horrifying situation of several children that could have ultimately been prevented by the professionals.

The controversial issue of whether or not Child Protective Services are doing their jobs properly, has grabbed nationwide attention. Child Protective Services is the name of a government agency in many states of the United States whose mission is to respond to reports of child abuse and neglect. Some of these cases may include physical abuse, sexual abuse, and mental abuse (Wikipedia). The child welfare system is corrupted. The parents and guardians who are accused of abuse are automatically labeled as guilty and will have to prove their innocence; instead of being innocent until proven guilty.

I need to start by admitting that this video was difficult to watch! Within a few seconds of watching the video I was reminded of the level of difficulty of the social work profession. As described in the video, Child Protection Services’ role is to protect children from neglect and abuse (Mierendorf, 2000). Similarly, social workers play several significant and complex roles within child advocacy. Social workers need to ensure the safety and well-being of children and be their voice when they are being silenced or maltreated. Social workers need to identify the abuse and address the situation accordingly. This could be particularly difficult when is in the best interest of children to be removed from their

A nine year old in Oregon was removed from her home by child protective services in 2010 and placed into the care of Kamlo and Dwight Reed. Even though the state Department of Human Services allegedly knew that Dwight had been accused of sexually abusing a another foster child, the adoption still went through. After the Dwight couple abused the young girl sexually, physically, and emotionally, a a guardian who was court-appointed for the child filed a lawsuit against the department in 2016. If the agency had looked into the allegations, the child would have likely been saved from suffering through years of abuse by being placed into a different home. The social service workers receive a large amount of cases each year. According to the U.S. Children 's Bureau, children protection agencies received nearly 3.6 million reports of abuse or neglect concerning 6.6 million children; however, the agency only reported roughly 702,000 children who suffered from abuse, including 1,580 children who died. The number of cases reported is less than ¼ of the cases received. If the agency discovered some of the 1,580 cases quicker, adolescent deaths

This case deals with the current issue of failures in the system of child protection in NSW.

Jill Lepore’s New Yorker article Baby Doe: A political history of tragedy provides documented history of child abuse in the U.S. that date back to colonial times. She illustrated tragic cases Massachusetts Child Protective Services had been confronted with and gave a synopsis of the challenging history the Department of Children and Families.

This is possibly the hardest assignment I’ve had to do to date. It’s difficult to examine how much this little boy had to suffer at the hands of his father. The crimes that took place here were more than abuse. I believe that the case worker is culpable for refusing to protect the child and should have been disciplined if not charged with a crime. The mother deserved a more severe sentence for allowing this abuse to go on for so long and should have been charged as an accessory to the crime. This case did lead to outrage and sweeping legislation in the state of Washington was enacted. Most of the legislation was aimed at allowing and even mandating that child protective services make protecting the child a higher priority than keeping the family together.

The Book of David discusses how preserving families in some cases can cost the lives of innocent children. Richard J. Gelles was once a prominent defender of family preservation and believed that keeping troubled families together was what was best for the child. However, he changed his mind after he reviewed the tragic case of David Edwards, who was an infant killed by his mother after falling through the gaps of the child welfare system. David had an older sister who was taken from their home after obtaining juries leading to hospitalization. She was later removed from her parents care after they pleaded guilty to child neglect. A month after David’s birth, Mr. and Mrs. Edwards voluntarily terminated their parental rights and a year later, David was killed. Even with the red flags that the Edwards exhibited with the neglect of Marie, did not prompt social workers to monitor the welfare of David. The case of David completely transformed Gelles’s opinion of family preservation and how our child welfare system is fundamentally flawed and has to be changed so other children do not end up like David. He believes that David’s death could have been prevented and that the idea of family preservation should not be applied to every abuse case. Gelles claims that the child welfare system needs to be reformed and that family preservation does not need to be as strictly reinforced to all cases of child abuse or neglect. Throughout the book, Gelles

If I were the child protective services worker that was working and involved with the Krasniqi family I would have done several things differently. There are several themes and concepts in this case that should have been dealt with differently than how they were. In particular there are three that I would reexamine first. I would reexamine and address the cultural competency of the workers and the agency. Next I would reexamine the religious competency of the works as well as the agency. I would also look into alternative placements for these children to go to. Within this essay I will examine certain mistakes that were made by child protective services and law enforcement.

‘When a child dies, and abuse or neglect is known or suspected to be a factor in the death…. Organisations should consider whether there are any lessons to be learnt about the ways in which they work together to safeguard and promote the welfare of children’ (DfES 2006: 8.2 p169)

While looking at the dangers and environment in a child’s home, advocates such as employees of the Department of Family and Protective Services of the State of Texas, have the moral obligation to take into consideration safety of children shelters and foster homes. Morally, advocates for the children should also take into consideration the psychological trauma that the child may or may not experience through being taken away from family and being placed, possibly multiple times, at new places away from everything they know.

The tragic case of two-year-old Caylee Anthony reveals the devastating consequences that murders can have on victims and their families. Caylee was an innocent toddler that lived with her mother, Casey Anthony and her maternal grandmothers, Cindy and George. On July 15, 2008 a call to 911 was sent in by Caylee’s grandmother Cindy, reporting that she hasn’t seen Caylee in 31 days and that the toddler’s mother’s car smelled like a dead body has been inside it. The toddler’s mother gave varied explanations on where her daughter was located but then admitted she hasn’t seen her in weeks. She told police that she left Caylee at her nanny’s apartment and when she returned, they were both missing. Detectives found discrepancies in a signed statement she made about Caylee’s disappearance. Casey’s friends and family had never heard of Gonzales, and detectives later found the nanny never existed. The apartment Casey and Caylee were supposed to be living with was found to be vacant for more than 140 days. On December 11, 2008, Caylee 's body was found in a blanket inside a trash bag in a wooded area near the child’s home. Investigative reports and trial testimony found duct tape near the front of the skull] and on the mouth of the toddler. In result, Casey Anthony was charged on October 2008 with first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse, aggravated manslaughter of a child, and four counts of providing false information to police.

The impacts of DeShaney v. Winnebago are used in cases of psychiatric patients and many other child abuse cases. In the context of psychiatric patients, two Supreme Court cases lead the legal precedent on how psychiatric cases are followed through: The case of Youngberg v. Romeo, which held that the government takes on affirmative duties in involuntarily confining a mental health patient, and also the case of DeShaney v. Winnebago, which lessened the range of affirmative duties given to the government (Hagan 735). Although DeShaney v. Winnebago protected social workers, it also created a more difficult space for child abuse cases to actually be carried out. For example, Jessica Gonzales tried to steer around the DeShaney v. Winnebago case when her husband murdered their three kids despite Jessica’s multiple reports of his

The workers’ interaction with the mother is informed by professional power relations and systematic surveillance and serves to police, discipline, and control vulnerable mothers, thus contributing to the increased criminalization of women. The child welfare system would benefit from taking an intersectional approach when attempting to protect children to ensure that they are not just creating an alternative binary that oppresses disadvantaged children and their families. As Baines (2008) so rightfully states social work practitioners “should develop ways to assess the options available for resistance to oppressive policies to tie professional intervention into larger strategies and relations of resistance in local and global arenas”