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In the United Kingdom, professionals are not legally required to report suspected cases of child abuse. The Children Act (1989) specified that local authorities have a duty to safeguard the welfare of children, but did not make reporting mandatory. It identified specific tasks for teachers in the process of reporting and established joint communication between schools and social service departments. The act moved schools and teachers to acknowledge the responsibility they have in child protection. Government guidelines recommended that schools appoint a staff member who would have responsibility for coordinating action within the school and form the liaison with other agencies. Major concerns voiced by teachers about these directives include: (1) the need for more communication with social service departments; (2) a lack of knowledge about procedures for new teachers; (3) differences of opinion between teachers and social workers about the child's experience of abuse; and (4) an increase in the number of cases for teachers to handle without an increase in supportive services. The paper suggests that for the process to be successful, teachers must feel confident in knowing what to look for in child abuse, social workers must respect the professional judgment of teachers, and structures must be in place to facilitate referrals. (Contains 28 references.) (JDM)

Representing the accumulated expertise of the Spanish Speaking/Surnamed (SS/S) multi-disciplined service provider network, this position paper is designed to focus national, state, and local attention to the Latino/Chicano child abuse and neglect (ca/n) problems and on the bilingual/bicultural resources needed to improve the degree and type of response to ca/n within the Latino community. A brief overview of the state of the art of the ca/n field and the SS/S population discusses child abuse systems and their problems, dynamics of child abuse in the Latino community, family dynamics/family stress, role of the court and protective services, alternative models/bilingual-bicultural resources, demographic profile of the Latino population regarding child abuse risk, and multiple high risk factors faced by SS/S people (e.g., health, emotional, intellectual, and cultural hazards). Among 25 specific recommendations on how ca/n systems can become more responsive to SS/S people are: that a network of bilingual/bicultural referral services be established, advocated for, and sponsored by the state and county ca/n service network and that alternative responses be considered, e.g., bilingual/bicultural manpower resources, family oriented crisis intervention services, and parents as resources. Resolutions presented by the National Chicano/Latino Caucus and the California Latino Federation of Child Abuse and Neglect Councils at the conference are appended. (NQA)

This background paper examines the relationship between child abuse and the workplace and discusses employer-based strategies that can reduce the stress levels of working parents and provide a buffer against problems of child abuse and neglect. Part 1, "Child Abuse and the World of Work," discusses the kinds of stress experienced by working parents, work as a deterrent to child abuse, neglect and latchkey children, and job stress and family violence. Also discussed are heavy work demands and absent fathers, and childbirth and the working parent. Part 2, "Preventive Strategies in the Workplace," briefly describes workplace-related interventions such as employer-supported day care, flexible worktime options, and employee assistance programs. Educational programs and support networks for parents are also described. Concluding remarks assert that workplace supports for employed parents are both feasible and necessary. (RH)

This report of the Child Welfare League of America calls for a meaningful national strategy to protect and invest in children and their families. The report outlines and documents essential investments, and highlights the costs of deficits and disinvestments in children. Specific actions are proposed to improve the well-being of vulnerable children, improve child safety, promote child and family well-being, and enhance the child and family service systems. Following an introduction that describes areas of significant legislation in 1997 and outlines the legislative challenges for 1998, the report presents a discussion of the federal budget as it relates to programs for children and families, and a chart of funding for selected children's programs. The 1998 legislative agenda is proposed in seven areas: (1) protecting children from abuse and neglect; (2) protecting children and strengthening families with quality child day care; (3) preventing crime and ensuring justice for young people; (4) helping young people become productive adults and build healthy communities; (5) ensuring adequate and appropriate health care for every child; (6) ensuring economic protection for children; and (7) helping vulnerable families with children secure housing. The report's three appendices define key legislative terms, list Congressional committees, discuss the importance of voting, and outline steps to implement the children's legislative agenda. (KB)

This publication documents resolutions of the Council of Representatives of the American Psychological Association (APA) related to children, youth, and families. It includes resolutions on: (1) children's mental health as indicated in Public Law No. 89-97; (2) the national commitment to early child development; (3) corporal punishment in institutions where children are cared for or educated; (4) sex discrimination in child custody issues; (5) the International Year of the Child; (6) psychological abuse of children and youth; (7) television violence and children, including encouraging parental monitoring of children's viewing, reducing televised violence, and supporting relevant research; (8) the establishment of an APA Committee on Children, Youth, and Families; (9) motor vehicle trauma to infants and children; (10) violence against children by governments; (11) the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child; (12) an initiative to develop and implement a national strategy for preventing and treating child abuse and neglect; (13) the use of anatomically detailed dolls in forensic evaluations; (14) lesbian, gay, and bisexual youths in the schools; (15) the United Nations International Year of the Family, 1994; (16) firearm safety and youth, including nationwide licensing, reduction of access, and school-based educational programs; (17) violence in mass media, including dissemination of research results, endorsement of warning labels for violent material, revision of the Film Rating System, and reduction of media violence; (18) psychological needs of children exposed to disasters; and (19) access to sexuality education. (Contains 51 references.) (KDFB)

The first and central issue in children's services is the extent to which government may limit or supplant parental action in the control, nurture, and direction of children. Three major governmental approaches include prohibiting behavior; prescribing behavior; and taking direct protective action. There are two legal issues related to prevention of child maltreatment. First, government may use its power to spend to promote pro-social attitudes and values through public awareness campaigns for prevention. However, government may not ban anti-social attitudes and violence from the content of the media. Second, there is the issue of neonatal home visitation for prevention of maltreatment. Although it has been promoted this method raises significant issues of due process. Risk assessment for child protection is in a very rudimentary state. Much of the child welfare class action litigation has focused on the failure of the public child welfare agencies to use "reasonable efforts" to reunify families whose children are in foster care, or to terminate parental rights in a timely manner so that the child may be adopted. Poor families are disproportionately represented in the child protection and child welfare systems. In child protection systems in the year 2000 the emphasis will be on a private-public, community-based, multidisciplinary, coordinated approach to primary prevention. There will also be continued emphasis on a multidisciplinary approach to non-coercive secondary prevention. (ABL)

Noting that one of the most powerful weapons to prevent crime are programs such as quality educational child care, after-school and summer programs, and child abuse prevention, this brief presents the school and youth violence prevention plan of an organization of Illinois law enforcement officers, state's attorneys, crime survivors, and leaders of police officer organizations. The plan is detailed in four steps: (1) assure all school-age children and teens access to after-school, weekend, and summer youth development programs to shut down the "prime time for juvenile crime"; (2) assure all babies and preschool children access to early childhood care and school readiness programs proven to cut crime; (3) help parents, early childhood caregivers, and schools identify and assist troubled and disruptive children at an early age, and provide children and their parents the counseling and training that can help equip children with the social emotional skills needed for success; and (4) prevent child abuse and neglect by providing resources and well-trained child protective services to safeguard endangered children and offering high-risk parents the in-home parent-coaching programs proven to cut in half abuse, neglect, and subsequent teen delinquency. The brief asserts that investing in children and youth now will have monetary benefits later in the form of savings to crime victims and society. A list of crime and violence prevention policy recommendations specifically for the state of Illinois concludes the brief. (KB)

Asserting that children who are abused or neglected are at risk of becoming future violent criminals, this report argues that this cycle of violence can be prevented by investing in recently confirmed abuse prevention and intervention strategies. The report presents information on the number of deaths each year due to abuse and neglect and calls upon state and federal officials to fund a comprehensive, research-driven initiative to eliminate most abuse and neglect in high-risk families. This plan calls for efforts to: (1) offer coaching in parenting skills to all at-risk parents; (2) offer quality prekindergarten programs with parent-training for at-risk children; (3) ensure that pregnant women who are addicted have access to drug and alcohol treatment programs; and (4) provide mental health services for depressed or mentally ill parents. The report argues that such efforts are fiscally sound and that failure to invest in programs proven to prevent child abuse and neglect will cost billions of dollars while endangering millions of children and ensuring there will be thousands of future crime victims. The report's two appendices contain technical notes on how projections in the report were calculated and a list of federal programs used to provide funding for child welfare. (Contains 107 endnotes.) (KB)

Based on findings that high-quality early care and education, youth development programs for after-school and summer hours, child abuse and neglect prevention, and intervention programs can help to prevent violence crime, this document presents a violence prevention plan for the schools and youth of Pennsylvania. Four actions are proposed to reduce school and youth violence: (1) assure all children access in the earliest years to quality early care and education programs proven to reduce crime; (2) assure all school-age children and teens access to after-school, weekend, and summer youth development programs to shut down the "prime time for juvenile crime"; (3) help schools identify troubled and disruptive children at an early age, and provide children and their parents with the counseling and training that can help kids get back on track; and (4) prevent child abuse and neglect by offering high-risk parents in-home parenting-coaching and making sure that child protection, foster care, and adoption services have policies and sufficient well-trained staff to protect and heal abused and neglected children. The report concludes by urging the Commonwealths public officials to invest in the components of the four-part plan to reduce crime and violence. (KB)

Although Massachusetts ranks in the top 10 percent among states on several key indicators of child well-being, the state's growing incidence of child maltreatment is stark and confounding. This report launches a state call to action aimed at ending child maltreatment through revising and strengthening systems to protect children, providing support and education for families of young children to prevent abuse/neglect, and providing therapeutic and other services to allow abused/neglected children and their families to recover as fully as possible. The report is presented in six sections. Section 1 presents information on the incidence of abuse/neglect and its impact on children. Section 2 examines key causes and links between abuse and domestic violence, substance abuse, and homelessness. Section 3 addresses key proposals to modify the child protection network, including developing a multi-track system for differential response to abuse/neglect cases, depending on seriousness. Section 4 details recommendations for improving treatment and support for abused/neglected children and their families, including promoting schools as safe havens and healing places for abused, neglected, and traumatized children. Section 5 focuses on prevention, proposing the building of a strong infrastructure of family supports across the state to address family needs early so that state intervention could be avoided or reduced. Section 6 identifies child maltreatment as the common denominator underlying serious social problems that translate into enormous fiscal costs for society; the section calls for a commitment to ensure effective treatment for abused/neglected children, to strengthen state systems charged with the care and protection of these children, and to expand family support and prevention services significantly. The report's three appendices detail the activities of work groups related to the Summit Initiative on Child Protection and Family Support, list the participants of the Summit Initiative, and delineate child maltreatment numbers by city/town in Massachusetts for 1997. (Contains 292 endnotes.) (KB)

This issue brief from the National Association of Child Advocates provides background on traditional child protective services (CPS) systems, including weaknesses of the traditional CPS model, and describes the underlying philosophy and practical application of the CPS reform models that are being implemented in a number of states. Key elements of CPS reform systems are: (1) multi-tiered response; (2) family assessment; (3) community-based case workers; (4) changing role of the central child abuse registry; and (5) community collaboration. The brief also analyzes the differences between various state reform initiatives and illustrates some of the challenges experienced by these first efforts. Initiatives in Jacksonville, Florida; St. Louis, Missouri; Cedar Rapids, Iowa; and Louisville, Kentucky are described. Drawing on these lessons, the brief offers an "Advocate's Checklist for Implementation of Child Protective Services Reform," which provides a framework for advocates to use to participate in designing a CPS reform initiative that will best fit the resources, needs, and political realities of their individual communities. The philosophy behind CPS reform efforts offers a promising response to the deficits in traditional CPS practice, because it is shaped by the premise that CPS must service families both when they are at risk for neglect and abuse, and after neglect and abuse have already occurred. (EV)

Introduces six papers that address policy issues and alternatives related to the provision of child protective services. Papers focus on perceptions and reports of child maltreatment, decisions to investigate cases of abuse or neglect, and the effects of proposed federal legislation on service provision. (MDM)

Specific ethical problems caused by the multiple roles of the psychologist in cases involving child protection are discussed. Psychologists may serve as consultants, evaluators, therapists, reporters, or monitors for the client and/or the court. When more than one person in the family is involved, or the court orders an additional role for the therapist, conflicts of interest result. Professional practice in psychology has undergone many changes since the introduction of managed care in the mid 1980s. Despite the availability of guidance regarding issues of roles and boundaries, violations occur. Efforts to address this issue, particularly the arena of child protection issues, are discussed. Relevant ideas from the "APA Ethical Principles and Code of Conduct,""Specialty Guidelines for Forensic Psychologists," and the American Psychological Association's "Guidelines for Psychological Evaluations in Child Protection Matters" are introduced. Problems and role conflicts that arise as a result of the several roles psychologists may play in such situations are discussed. Some illustrations are provided of the ethical dilemmas and pitfalls that await the psychologist who, either as an expert consultant or as a mandated reporter of child abuse, becomes involved in a relationship with the court. Guidelines are offered for resolving some of these dilemmas. (EMK)

Creation of a parent license would validate parental rights, establish parental responsibility, and provide a basis for societal support of parenting through financial benefits, parent education and training, and protective services for children. Government has played an increasing role in family life through laws defining and mandating parental responsibilities because too many parents neglect their childrearing responsibilities or have misused their power. Childrearing styles that produce competent adults are characterized by secure relationships with dependable parents who model self-control; lack of bonding with parents is the critical factor related to future criminal behavior, abuse, and neglect. Economic factors related to affluence and material aspirations, attitudinal factors emphasizing individualism and dependency on experts, and psychological factors regarding absent or insecure parent-child attachment bonds underlie contemporary social values that undermine parenting and obscure the importance of competent parenting to society. Because society's future depends upon competent parents and children, parents are accountable to, and need the support of, society. Rather than assuming that all parents are competent, it is more accurate to assume that most parents are competent, but children need protection from incompetent parents. Society may strengthen parenting by creating a paradigm in which parenthood is an earned relationship, with a license signifying that the parent is committed to rearing the child. Procedures for licensing parents would involve timing of application, licensure criteria, and administration. By increasing competent parenting, parent licenses would substantially reduce the need for governmental intervention in families. (KDFB)

This report presents recommendations and outcomes of a November 1994 invitational symposium on abuse and neglect of children with disabilities. Individual sections provide a summary of the recommendations resulting from the symposium, the symposium's purposes, a list of participants and cosponsors, the meeting's charges and concerns, definitions, a statement of the extent and nature of the problem, and a listing of work groups. The 17 recommendations are organized into seven issues: (1) awareness (promote awareness within and by existing organizations and service systems); (2) prevention (provide universal prevention efforts through public health initiatives); (3) collaboration (collaborate across all professions to increase service effectiveness); (4) training (train professionals on the multiple issues regarding children with disabilities who have been abused and neglected); (5) families (increase the capacity of families to withstand stressors contributing to the abuse and neglect of children); (6) children (listen to and respect the informed preferences and priorities of children); and (7) policy (adopt a uniform child protection statute). (DB)

Legal issues have become of increasing concern to school teachers and school officials. This article addresses the need for teachers, administrators, and students to have a basic awareness of their legal rights and responsibilities. Based upon a review of leading law digests, the following significant legal issues are identified and examined: integrating special needs students, child abuse or neglect, supervision of school activities, and maintaining an appropriate educational climate. Two models (figures appended) are proposed to incorporate these issues into preservice teacher education programs in the context of coursework in the liberal arts curriculum. The first model assumes the format of a cluster course surrounding a central theme such as basic rights. In such a cluster, several courses would be offered in different disciplines and would address aspects of the issue of basic rights. Participating courses might include philosophy, political science, sociology, and education, and would provide opportunites for active learning and integration of learning across the curriculum. The second model proposes broad-based topics presented in teacher education courses and the liberal arts curriculum, capped by a seminar which would integrate topics and issues. (LL)

The University of South Carolina (USC) Child Abuse and Neglect Interdisciplinary Training Project provides students with the opportunity to gain advanced knowledge and skills for work with maltreated children and families through didactic courses, practica, and community placements. The project involves interdisciplinary collaboration between students and faculty from social work, psychology, nursing, education, criminal justice, public health, law, and medicine. A unique aspect of the USC project has been the development of an assessment clinic for providing comprehensive multidisciplinary evaluations of maltreated children and families. In this project the clinical psychology supervisor is part of the assessment team and assists directly in guiding the multidisciplinary process as needed. The supervisor also meets with the psychology students individually and as a group to provide direct teaching and supervision of psychology training. Students need a strong theoretical background in normal child development before they can understand maltreatment. Issues such as maltreatment require a multidisciplinary approach in university settings. By exposing bright and concerned graduate students early in their professional development to questions about how children cope with maltreatment, what treatment approaches help, what placement alternatives work best, and how to prevent future maltreatment, research and applied programs will be stimulated. (ABL)

The report examines the nature of multidisciplinary teams in identification, treatment, and prevention of child abuse and neglect. Reviewed is the operation of three types of multidisciplinary teams: hospital based programs, interagency programs, and state mandated multidisciplinary teams. The bulk of the document is composed of appended material, including brief descriptions of approximately 50 child abuse and neglect programs using the multidisciplinary approach (arranged according to federal regions), and guidelines for the operation of the multidisciplinary team as formulated by the states of Virginia and Pennsylvania. (CL)

Written as a quick reference for busy persons interested in the legal issues in child care, this booklet in no way pretends to be a legal authority on the issues, but was designed to serve as a practical guide. Content is based on questions frequently asked in the summer of 1986 during the Legal Issues Seminars held by Child Development Designs, Inc., and attended by administrators, teachers, corporate employers, and parents. Discussion of children's issues focuses on high quality programs, records on children and families, right to privacy, medical care, custody, child abuse and neglect, and handicapped children. Organizational issues are discussed in terms of the organization of the day care center, insurance, contracts, liability, and licensing. Personnel issues explored concern interviewing, dismissal, wages, benefits, and contracts. (RH)

A developmental dialectical approach to understanding and working with lower and middle class damaged parents--those identified as abusive and neglectful--has specific features and implications. The approach suggests that (1) the personality characteristics and interpersonal relations of parents are inseparable from their social conditions; (2) characteristics of adequate and damaged parents of lower and middle classes are both product and contributor to the social and material conditions of their classes; (3) poor parents' powerlessness and external locus of control reflects contradictions resulting from the interpenetration of social and psychological structures; and (4) the middle class's internal locus of control is as far from (or as close to) reality as the poor's external locus of control. Dialectics' affirmation of the integrity of levels of systems suggests that all generalizations about social status cannot substitute for knowing the individual and that development and change ensue from contradictions inherent within and between systems. Intervention with low-power-position damaged parents involves clarifying their personal and social victimization. For middle class parents, too, intervention involves clarification of personal victimization and social pressures involved in maintaining social status. Team work, group therapy, and parent support groups should be the contexts of work with damaged parents; therapists should be supportive and affirmative. While healing might be slow and incremental, enough quantitative change will result in a qualitative difference in the parent. (RH)

Addresses the critical need for culturally competent assessments of the risk of child maltreatment in African American families and the implications for both policy and practice. Advocates development of comprehensive, community-based, and culturally synthesizing approaches to evaluating potential and realized risks to the healthy development of African American children. (MOK)

Social problems such as poverty, homelessness, prenatal drug exposure, and teen pregnancy require teachers who can identify those at risk and help them cope so that they can learn. (SK)

Neglected children need teachers who are not judgmental, moralistic, or easily shocked; who listen, understand, and recognize their own fears and prejudices; and who enjoy interacting with children and define their work as eliciting effort and growth. (SK)

This report discusses the impact of federal budget cuts, program restructuring, and rescissions in programs crucial to child survival. It summarizes the changes voted in by House committees, including changes in school meal programs; combining the Child and Adult Care Food Program with the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Program; removing guarantees for poor children to receive Aid to Families with Dependent Children; cutting funds for foster care, adoption assistance, and child abuse prevention and treatment services; eliminating cash assistance to indigent children with disabilities; developing child care block grants that end child care entitlements for poor families; and cutting youth's summer jobs programs. The impact of the Personal Responsibility Act on the following programs is discussed: (1) Aid to Families with Dependent Children; (2) Supplemental Security Income for children; (3) child care assistance for families on welfare; (4) services for abused and neglected children; and (5) child nutrition programs, such as WIC, the Child and Adult Care Food program, and school meal programs. Appendices discuss why safety net entitlements are ill-suited as block grants, contend that consolidating some federal programs can increase efficiency and service to children and families but that losing the "entitlement" status places children and families at risk when the economy is in a downturn or when caseloads increase, and present state and national data on projected funding cuts in the year 2000 for the programs discussed in this document. (KDFB)

The association between violence to children and violence to animals remains largely unacknowledged in the child abuse/ neglect arena. Several reasons justifying further exploration of the link are discussed, along with suggestions for enhancing our awareness, knowledge, and services. (Author)

Examines possible solutions for improving the status of children in India. Suggests that there is a need to focus on child rights issues related to public awareness, attitudinal change, political commitment, mass sensitization, and outreach. Suggests an appropriate strategy for the restoration of the rights of children in India. (AA)

Discusses strategies the government should employ to end violence in the streets: create a Peace Officer Corps, reduce demand for drugs, reduce the prevalence of domestic violence and of child abuse and neglect, reduce violence on television and in movies, and reduce and regulate possession of handguns. (HTH)

Examines the relationship between political correctness, social work, and breakdown of the child abuse system. Examines groups that stand to gain from perpetuating the myth of classlessness. Investigates high turnover rates among social workers, declassification of public welfare jobs, and problems in screening and provision of services to families and children. (DR)

Examines definitions, scope, and negative effects of child abuse and neglect. Recommends inclusive therapeutic preschool programs to address special needs of children with significant histories of child maltreatment. Identifies service coordination for families and integration of early education and related services as critical components of the program. Recommends that programs implement developmentally appropriate practices and use a transdisciplinary approach. (BAC)

Reviews existing research about the scope and consequences of child abuse and neglect, and addresses methodological issues pertinent to research, including definition of the problem, study design, and issues of causality and bias. Concludes with a discussion of ethical and legal issues related to such research. (JPS)

Describes some of the problems that have been identified in federal research funding, administration, and support of research initiatives and training concerning child abuse and neglect. Remedies for these difficulties are outlined, research priorities are identified, and ways to rejuvenate the federal government's role in this area are suggested. (GR)

Examines the promotion of the Homebuilders type of family preservation services. Suggests that successful marketing and dissemination of a single program design, in this policy environment, may displace other, equally effective programs and models. Notes that such success in marketing may also have adverse effects on research, education, continued innovation, diversity, and the public policy-making system. (AA)

Describes an approach to welfare services based on a home visitor model. Notes that child welfare agencies have moved to a decidedly short-term orientation toward service delivery, whereas the problems faced by many families require a more long-term approach, with services designed to address problems with roots in a host of social, economic, and familial troubles. (AA)

Focuses on current knowledge of families' involvement in intensive family preservation services. Identifies gaps in knowledge pertaining to the context of service delivery, the theory of family preservation practice, the process of service delivery, and the conceptualization and meaning of service outcomes. Suggests that gaps might be appropriately filled by exploration with qualitative methodologies. (AA)

Discusses areas where federal oversight of state compliance with foster care case-review guidelines needs improvement. Suggests avenues, such as issuing more clear and precise regulation, by which the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) could best ensure that children in foster care receive the prompt case review to which they are entitled. (AA)

Provides a brief overview and analysis of the legislation of Family Preservation and Support Services. Suggests that the legislation provides the states with the necessary funding to conduct needs assessments and prepare thorough plans to address the problems facing families. Notes that the legislation involves some risks due to lack of strong guidelines for establishing family preservation programs. (AA)

Provides the historical background and policy framework of child protection and family preservation approaches. Examines the complementarity between these efforts as exemplified by family reunification as a major component of the service delivery system in child welfare. Suggests that family reunification protects children and families to the greatest possible extent, illustrating this point with various practice examples. (AA)

Examines the proposal to assign the child protective investigative function to law enforcement agencies, while maintaining the family service function in the child welfare system. Reviews the national experience with the separation of income maintenance and social services in public welfare, advising extreme caution in the implementation of this proposal. (AA)

Provides an overview of the articles presented in this special issue on matters affecting family preservation services, related policies, and evaluation. Discusses concerns related to the preservation approach and child protection, suggesting that although it is an improvement on the previous protection approaches, it is fraught with difficulties and may divert child welfare reform from its central focus. (AA)

Examines common conflicts that arise between and among day-care administrators, staff, and parents, many of which occur because of unresolved childhood problems, such as abuse and neglect. Suggests that administrators and staff need to understand how their childhood experiences can affect the dynamics of the child-care workplace. (MDM)

Argues that an awareness of other countries' child protection systems can help in appraising child protection in Britain. Suggests that, by recognizing that there are different solutions, as well as different ways of defining and conceptualizing problems, policymakers can better identify the strengths and weaknesses of the British child protection system. (HTH)

In 1991, the U.S. Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect recommended the federal government begin phasing in a national, universal home visiting program for children during the neonatal period to help prevent child abuse and neglect. This article discusses the political and social factors affecting this recommendation, as well as the response to it from the public and private sector. (MDM)

After brief history of development of mandatory reporting laws to protect children from maltreatment and evaluation of assumptions underlying use of these laws for case finding, analyzes costs and benefits of reporting laws for four stakeholders (state, professionals, families, and children) and concludes that costs of laws outweigh benefits. (Author/NB)

Conditions in India that contribute to child abuse and neglect are discussed. Sections focus on child rearing practices, discipline of children at home and in school, the nation's six million abandoned children, child sexual abuse, causes of abuse, poverty, lack of education, characteristics of abused children and their abusers, situational factors and the socialization process, sex problems of adults, and the prevention and treatment of child abuse and neglect. Thirty-three references are listed. (RH)

This paper reports on the enigma of Casper Hauser (1812-1833), a child isolated from human contact for the first sixteen years of life. Upon his release (from incarceration in a cell), on the streets of Nurnberg, Germany in 1828, at the age of sixteen, he could barely walk, and could not talk. Although he appeared completely retarded, his senses were extremely acute; he possessed unusual sensitivity toward animals, people and metals. He had a phenomenal memory. After several years of socialization and education with an adopted family in Nurnberg, he learned to write, read, speak, calculate, paint and draw and to participate in the social activities and games of his time. He became a subaltern clerk at the local court of justice in Ansback. Casper Hauser's remarkable recovery from sixteen years of utter isolation (with only a diet of bread and water), contradicts all other historical and recent case studies that show the effects of early isolation are irreversible. In many cases, infants died from maternal deprivation. How did Casper Hauser manage to recover? His recovery is an enigma. (Author/RH)

This paper examines the ability and inclination of contemporary American family systems to allocate resources on a child-centered rather than an adult-centered basis. Specifically, the discussion considers whether the changing economic context of family life results in placing inappropriate demands for maturity upon children--albeit differently for affluent and low income families. The latchkey child phenomenon provides an illustrative case study of this issue. The increasingly "monetarized" nature of family households generates an internal economic climate in which children often appear to offer the only degree of freedom in allocating family resources. One result is pressure for a rapid assumption of self-care responsibilities. This analysis suggests two research questions. First, what is the life-span value of childhood as it has evolved culturally in the modern era? Second, to what extent are children being deprived of childhood in the name of the financial and psychic needs of parents? These lines of inquiry will illuminate the basic issue of whether or not childhood as we have known it at its best has become an unaffordable luxury for increasing numbers of American parents. (Author/RH)

America's children and their families are in trouble, trouble so deep as to constitute a serious threat to the future of our society. The major source of that threat is bureaucratic "benign neglect." We have failed to recognize that the problems of the multitroubled family in a changing society are the problems of the entire society in the midst of moral and economic crisis and cannot be solved except in that context. Unless government and the people join child and family advocates the well being of American families will continue to decline and the forces that produce alienation of our youth will increase. Within the larger issue of families in trouble, we have the ravages of child abuse, wife battering, alienated, troublesome, and troubled adolescents, epidemic divorce rates, teenage pregnancies, drug and alcohol abuse--all of which are adding to the difficulties of a multitroubled fragmented family. These outward expressions of violence and unrest are truly symptomatic of the much larger and deeper problem of family dysfunction. Many government-supported programs are necessary, but let us not forget that the prevention of child abuse and neglect ultimately depends on the restoration of a sense of family and a healthy community life. (RH)

This paper examines the role of Colorado's community-based child protection teams in the investigation and treatment of child abuse and neglect. The first section contains data from a survey of all Colorado counties as reported by team coordinators and members. It includes information on team composition, structure and operation, and training. The distribution of teams throughout the state is described, and staffing patterns and staff time spent on team activities are examined. The role of the team and its relationship to the Placement Alternatives Commission are discussed. A section on team meeting data looks at frequency of meetings, attendance, cases reviewed, and the creation of mini-teams to handle volume of cases. Team member responses to training issues are presented in text and graph form, and team coordinator comments are listed by county. The factors contributing to the success of a child protection team are examined in the second section. Issues of group dynamics, equal participation, commitment, recognition, logistics, training, leadership, mutual respect, task orientation, and desirable personality traits of members are discussed. Appendices contain lists of county teams, sections of relevant Colorado statutes, child protection team questionnaires for leaders and members, and a list of teams and coordinators. (NRB)

Discusses incidents of violence in communities and describes the relationship between poverty, media violence, easy access to handguns, violence at home and on the streets, and neglect and abuse of children. Advocates living nonviolently and viewing the prevention of violence as a multifaceted task. (DR)

This editorial addresses issues arising from accounts of child abuse or neglect obtained through facilitated communication with autistic children. In the light of research finding that the communication appears to originate with the facilitator and not the autistic individual, practitioners are urged to be very cautious regarding allegations of abuse obtained with facilitated communication. (DB)