Child Neglect and "Unfit" Mothers:

The state's reaction to pregnant mothers who use drugs today has major continuities with the Progressive Era's response to mothers accused of child neglect. The child savers in both historical eras have imposed their class, ethnic and racial biases upon poor, immigrant and African-American women. These child savers imposed a gender ideology of maternal care on mothers, labelling those mothers who did not conform to their cultural ideal, "unfit" mothers in need of state control. In the modem era, physicians collude with prosecutors and social workers to prosecute and medicalize pregnant mothers who use drugs through the use of mandatory reporting laws together with drug tests, often resulting in the removal of their children from their homes. Historical comparison provides us with insight into how processes of engendering state power have disempowered mothers.     

The Missing Child in Child Protection: The Constitutional Context of Child Maltreatment From Meyer to DeShaney

This paper employs DeShaney v Winnebago County (1989) as an illustration of how the law has lost sight of the interests of children in cases of child maltreatment. The historical constitutional context of child maltreatment – balancing state's interests and parental rights – is discussed. The opinions in DeShaney and two of the major criticisms of the majority's opinion – the action versus inaction dichotomy and the restrictive interpretation of the special relationship doctrine – are then considered. Legislatively created entitlements to protection are suggested as an avenue of relief for injured children which also necessitates a focus on the rights and interests of children.     

Infanticide, physicians, and the law: the "Baby Doe" amendments to the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act

Infanticide, like most other species of homicide, is probably coeval with the human race itself. In modern Western civilization, what were formerly the most powerful incentives to infanticide have virtually disappeared. As with other social problems that affluence has seemed to solve, however, infanticide has reappeared in a new form that seems to have been made possible by affluence itself. This "new infanticide" occurs in a place whose very existence is the result of a tremendously wealthy society's devotion to its most vulnerable and least "useful" members. The modern neonatal intensive care unit, which treats, and often saves, extremely ill newborn children, who during most of history would surely have died, has proven to be a setting where many of the age-old incentives for infanticide have begun to operate again. The "new infanticide" consists of withholding food or needed medical treatment from selected infants who suffer from one or more serious, though treatable, medical problems. The national government has now enacted legislation designed to curtail the practice of infanticide by the medical profession. This paper traces the genesis of that legislation, explores the problem to which it is addressed, and evaluates its prospects for success.     

澳大利亚“子女接触令”实施的改进建议对我国之启示

联合国1959年《儿童权利宣言》和1989年《儿童权利公约》均倡导应当依据＂儿童最大利益原则＂处理一切与儿童有关的问题。来自澳大利亚家庭法立法会的报告《子女接触令——执行和处罚》,正是基于＂儿童最大利益原则＂,为保障＂子女接触令＂的实施,提出了改进的建议。研究和评析这些建议,可汲取其有益的经验,从我国实际出发,修改、补充我国的探望权制度,以期保障父母与子女之间探望权的行使,维护子女的最大利益。     

Child Fatalities in Dammam: A Call for Child Fatality Reviews in Arab Countries

Identifying children's risk exposure is the first step toward mortality prevention. This retrospective study determined the causes of child fatalities in Dammam, Saudi Arabia. Death reports of children and adolescents from 1999 to 2015 (N = 157) were analyzed. Boys represented most cases (69%) and there were two age peaks (1–5 years and 16–18 years). Accidents (typically immersion) defined the main death circumstance (51%) followed by homicide (25%). Only 33% of cases underwent autopsy, and the most common cause of death was head injury (27%) followed by firearm injury. Only one immersion death underwent autopsy. This study revealed important data about the risk exposure of children in Dammam and emphasizes deficient investigative procedures. Child fatality reviews comprise systematic data collection by multidisciplinary teams to determine the true risks toward children in a community. Such teams do not exist in Arab countries; therefore, strategies should be implemented to initiate them.     

In the Best Interests of an Indian Child: The Indian Child Welfare Act

Before passage of the Indian Child Welfare Act in 1978, state, private, and federal agencies systematically removed Indian children from their families and tribal communities, placing them with non‐Indian families with little appreciation for the detrimental impact that cultural deprivation would have on these children. State courts often ignored the sovereign authority of tribal courts with regard to their children, and were, more often than not, unwilling to acknowledge the importance of the perspective of the child's tribe and/or extended family members. With passage of the Indian Child Welfare Act in 1978, Congress imposed upon state child welfare practices substantive and procedural requirements to which state courts must adhere, most notably the mandate that state courts must now give primary consideration to the placement of Indian children within their extended families and tribal communities. In addition, federal law requires state courts to recognize tribal court authority and jurisdiction over tribal children. This article reviews the history of federal, state, and private practices that propelled Congress to pass the ICWA, the changes that have resulted from this vital legislation, and the challenges that face courts in ensuring that state courts meet these requirements.     

Child Maltreatment Risk Inventory: Pilot Data for the Cleveland Child Abuse Potential Scale

This article presents data on the development of a child maltreatment actuarial risk inventory, The Cleveland Child Abuse Potential Scale (C-CAPS). The study consisted of three groups in a juvenile court setting: child custody cases without indication of maltreatment (N = 34), cases where maltreatment was indicated (N = 37), and a third middle ground group of cases referred to the court’s Diagnostic Clinic (N = 47). This third group of cases had not elevated to court involvement with a filing of child maltreatment. Study results provide compelling support for overall classification accuracy, with 100% specificity and 95% sensitivity and an overall hit rate of 98%, when only the maltreatment and non-maltreatment groups were compared. Adding the third group of possible maltreatment cases dropped the overall hit rate to 71%. The instrument was able to correctly classify 85% of Non-Maltreatment cases and 76% of Maltreatment cases. The overall factor structure of the instrument is also reviewed.     

儿童精神分析学的主要方法及其应用

儿童精神分析的出现被视为是精神分析"新范式的开始".儿童精神分析学的方法主要来自并运用于临床实践与临床发现,迥异于学院心理学的方法,有其自身的特色与优势.其方法主要包括两个方面,一是研究方法,二是治疗方法.儿童精神分析学最主要的方法包括重构法、观察法、实验法、测验法以及游戏疗法.纵观儿童精神分析学的主要方法,我们会发现它们与发展心理学的研究方法有某些共同之处,但发展心理学则更多地是进行标准化研究和对发展过程的详细描绘,而儿童精神分析学者更多研究心理发展动力与潜意识的影响.二者在研究结果与研究内容方面出现了逐渐融合的趋势,越来越多的儿童精神分析学的研究主题,如母婴关系、自我功能、自我发展、分离与剥夺、受挫与攻击性等逐渐纳入发展心理学的视野.     

Child sexual abuse: an Italian perspective

The problem of child sexual abuse is a growing reality in Italy. The experience of over 200 children seen by the SVS (Soccorso Violenza Sessuale) Centre in Milan (the first Italian large-scale study) may give more information on the European situation. This study is a retrospective study based on information contained in the files of children beneath the age of 14 seen at the SVS Centre between May 1996 and May 2003, who arrived with a suspicion of child sexual abuse. Over 80% of all cases fell within the normal-aspecific category according to Adams' 2001 classification. This first Italian survey, though not based on substantiated cases but only on cases of suspected sexual abuse, supplies a perspective on a large northern European city such as Milan. Data seem similar to those published in other non-European studies, particularly as regards clinical signs observed. Thus, the results of this study, with all their limitations, start to give a perspective on the frequency and type of child population reaching this Italian center, what the scenarios are, what signs the children present and how infrequent it is to find clinical anogenital signs concerning for sexual abuse.