homework

Chapter 1

The Maltreatment of

Children Then and Now

Early Views of Children  Initially children were the property of their parents who

could decide their life, death, or discipline.  Infanticides in ancient world was not an uncommon practice.

Infanticide is a term referring to the killing an infant within a year of birth, typically carried out by the parents of the child.

 Children were placed in Farm labor in feudal societies

 Matters of Discipline  Corporal punishment

 Sexual exploitation of children  Female children were often bartered and abused in convents,

while pederasty for boys were a common practice.

 Pederasty in ancient Greece was a socially acknowledged romantic relationship between an adult male and a younger male usually in his teens.

 Awareness, not until 1500’s

Early Views of Children  Contradictions in Victorian era

 Strict moral code

 Yet rampant pornography and child prostitution

 Child Labor  During Industrial Revolution  Slavery in the southern state  Child Labor during industrial revolution and slavery in the

southern states. Indenture was a popular form of child labor in the early United States. Indenture also provided an opportunity for children to be abused. Indenture was a term used to refer to a to a person being bonded as an apprentice or laborer.

 Child Labor in America: Industrial Revolution: https://youtu.be/j-fbnS6sSZA

Growing Concerns &

Awareness

 Settlement Houses (late 1880’s) - provided

refuge from child labor, mostly for white

children

 African American children were

neglected by child welfare system

 Native American children were removed

from home and sent to boarding schools

to assimilate them into the White culture

Early Attempts  1838. Dickens wrote Oliver Twist & campaigned for child

protection. Dickens was a British writer who wrote an autobiographical book Oliver Twist and brought the issue of child abuse to public attention.

 1875. Mary Ellen Wilson: first child removed from her home due to abuse. The case of Mary Ellen, the first child removed from her home due to abuse, gave rise to a myriad of reforms, such formation of Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (SPCC) in 1875 and The Child Welfare League of American in 1920.  The Stranger who Cared: The Story of Etta Wheeler & Mary Ellen

Wilson: https://youtu.be/GG3OI2JwaYY

 1875. Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (SPC C) was founded

 1920. Child Welfare League of America

Early Attempts  1935. Social Security Act: established Aid for

Dependent Children (ADC)

 1962. Dr. C. Henry Kempe published “The Battered- Child Syndrome” in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The coining of the term “the battered Child Syndrome” by C. Henry Kempe was a result of the discoveries of abuse made by Caffey and his colleagues when they noticed unexplained breaks on x-rays. The use of this term furthered both research and treatment efforts.

 1972. The National Center for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect was established.

Further Efforts on Behalf of

Children  1974. The Child Abuse Prevention Act

 Mandated reporting

 Funds for research

 1978. The Indian Child Welfare Act  Terminated the practice of removing children from their

parents and tribes

 1993. Family Preservation and Support Services Act

 Several pieces of federal legislation have had an impact on intervention with abused and neglected children. The Child Abuse Prevention Act (1974), The Indian Child Welfare Act (1978) and Family Preservation and Support Services Act (1993).

Emerging Influences  Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study

 Significant correlation between child abuse and household dysfunction  Ted Talk on How childhood trauma affects health across a lifetime

| Dr. Nadine Burke Harris: https://youtu.be/95ovIJ3dsNk

 Psychological Trauma Theory  Neurological findings: insight into the causes of behavioral

and psychological problems correlated with childhood maltreatment

 Emerging theoretical influences include Adverse Childhood Experiences Study (ACE) and Psychological Trauma Theory. Studies have found significant correlation between child abuse and household dysfunctions.

Child Protection Services Now  From ‘taking kids away’ to Family Rehabilitation

 Trauma-informed intervention & treatment

 The search for risk assessment tools

 The development of child abuse registers

 The formation of multidisciplinary child protection teams

 Child Protection Services (CPS) has become more involved in solidifying risk assessment criteria, advocating for child protection teams, and offering more family centered services, following the model of Family Rehabilitation.

 In 2012, New Jersey's Division of Youth and Family Services (DYFS) was officially renamed the Division of Child Protection and Permanency (DCP&P) as way to more precisely define the agency's core mission of providing safety, permanency, and well-being for New Jersey’s most vulnerable children and families.