Customer Reviews

The Welfare of Children

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The Welfare of Children is a stunning achievement. Lindsey examines several vital issues heretofore untouched, charting a course for the future of child welfare with remarkable clarity of vision.

In this most comprehensive and thoroughly annotated volume, Lindsey traces the transformation of child welfare into child protective services.

Lindsey explodes the many myths which have served for so long to perpetuate this transformed system. Chief among them are those most commonly held misperceptions that child welfare programs based on the "residual model" have reduced child fatalities by any measure, and that they have served to increase the welfare of children overall.

Lindsey explores in depth the critical decision-making processes involved in making the determination of whether or not to remove a child from his home. He clearly demonstrates that the field of child welfare lacks a scientific knowledge base from which to draw, and that the critical decisions involving the welfare of children and families are inherently unreliable.

Rather than offer another book replete with anecdotal "horror stories," Lindsey offers instead a scholarly work which will serve to greatly enhance the reader's understanding of the history and dynamics of child welfare, and the forces driving its transformation from child welfare into child protective services.

Lindsey offers a blueprint for a future which will better serve children. He offers a compelling argument for the criminal justice system to assume responsibility for dealing with the problem of child abuse, such that the child welfare system can return to its role of addressing the overall well-being of a greater number of children.

He makes extensive use of charts and graphs, while managing to do so in such a way as not to distract the more casual reader. His use of advanced statistical analysis is explained clearly, for the benefit of all readers. Few books can so magnificently reach out to touch such a potentially diverse audience of readers, reaching the intellect as effectively as it does the heart.

This is one of those rare volumes that no student of the child welfare system should be without. Put this book at the top of your list.

Have you ever read a book on a subject with which you have some expertise and wonder if the writer is just making things up as he goes along? This was nearly the experience in reading this book by Duncan Lindsey a UCLA professor.

The first problem is that Lindsey takes the shotgun approach to arguing his points against the existing child protective services system. Instead of centering his arguments on a few specific issues and developing his thesis, he tries to address every conceivable aspect of the child welfare system and liberally scatters his thoughts and comments without a strong basis of analysis. The result is a loose confederation of ideas none of which with a firm foundation for acceptance.

The second problem is that Lindsey attempts to address issues for which he does not seem to have actual knowledge. His attack on the legal basis of the child protective system, for being a civil model rather than a criminal model, is amateurish (at best). His understanding of the social workers management of the case lacks first hand understanding of the field. I wanted to give some examples to explain my points, but it would result in a much longer review than what I prefer. It must suffice to say that I believe the professor's expertise is apparently more academic and esoteric than real life.

A third problem is Lindsey's contradicting himself in various parts of his book. For example, he spends time discussing how children's deaths is increasing, but in another chapter argues that death is but a small area of concern for protecting children. He titles this later chapter as "Child abuse, the red herring of child welfare." Therefore, he argues that the current system is not doing enough to protect children from destructive parents, but argues that too much of the same system focuses on a problem that is a small issue in child welfare. So which is it?

It is unfortunate that the author did not sacrifice a couple of hundred pages and written a monograph on one of his points. Then he could have provided a document worth quoting and considering. Instead, we have a lengthy diatribe absent developed charges worth remembering.

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