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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

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Sociology

Western Michigan University

Child welfare

Publication Year

Articles 1 - 5 of 5

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Expanding The Ecological Lens In Child Welfare Practice To Include Other Animals, Christina Risley-Curtiss Dec 2013

Expanding The Ecological Lens In Child Welfare Practice To Include Other Animals, Christina Risley-Curtiss

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Sixty-nine million U.S. households have companion animals and most of these families consider these animals to be family members. Research shows that children have powerful emotional connections with animals that can be both beneficial and harmful. Considerable research findings report that violence against animals often co-occurs with, indicates, or predicts other forms of family violence, including child abuse. A companion animal may be an abused child's confidante, and separation from that animal through foster care may be a source of stress and grief for that child. Child welfare agencies are slowly acknowledging some animal-human relationships, especially in regard to animal …


Rescuing Children And Punishing Poor Families: Housing Related Decisions, Corey Shdaimah Sep 2009

Rescuing Children And Punishing Poor Families: Housing Related Decisions, Corey Shdaimah

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Child welfare policy is not self implementing; an understanding of child welfare policy must therefore include the decision making practices by those whom Michael Lipsky (1980) has called "streetlevel bureaucrats." This article reports data from a qualitative study exploring perceptions of child welfare professionals about housing-related child welfare decisions. Interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of 18 child welfare lawyers, judges, and masters level social workers from a large city in the mid-Atlantic U.S. All agreed that there is insufficient affordable adequate housing. They held conflicting views, however, on: 1) the standard for adequate housing in the absence of …


The Social Construction Of Client Participation: The Evolution And Transformation Of The Role Of Service Recipients In Child Welfare And Mental Disabilities, Terry Mizrahi, Mayra Humphreys-Lopez, Denise Torres Jan 2009

The Social Construction Of Client Participation: The Evolution And Transformation Of The Role Of Service Recipients In Child Welfare And Mental Disabilities, Terry Mizrahi, Mayra Humphreys-Lopez, Denise Torres

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This article presents a comparative analysis of client participation (CP) in child welfare and mental health and mental retardation systems. It identifies three rationales for client participation (philosophical, pragmatic, and political), along with the limitations surrounding each rationale. It uses social construction theory to examine the historical and ideological underpinnings of organized, institutionally-sanctioned client involvement inside and outside government. In order to enhance the capacity of clients to influence service and benefit systems, their role must evolve through the mutual efforts of government-strengthening client participation policies and independent organizing from the bottom up through community development and advocacy programs.


Establishing A Basis For Multi-System Collaboration: Systemic Team Development, Rosalyn M. Bertram Dec 2008

Establishing A Basis For Multi-System Collaboration: Systemic Team Development, Rosalyn M. Bertram

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Reports of child sexual abuse require police, child protective services, forensic and medical evaluators, prosecutors, family court and treatment providers to negotiate complementary, overlapping roles with children and families. Administrators from these agencies in Kansas City, Missouri clarified this multi-system response by applying a theory-based model for team development previously studied in direct practice with families. This article presents that model and an exploratory case study of this effort. Findings suggest the model's efficacy for resolving inter-agency conflict and may contribute to constructing logic models in multi-system collaboration


"Seen And Not Heard" Sociological Approaches To Childhood: Black Children, Agency And Implications For Child Welfare, Mekada Graham, Emily Bruce Dec 2006

"Seen And Not Heard" Sociological Approaches To Childhood: Black Children, Agency And Implications For Child Welfare, Mekada Graham, Emily Bruce

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

In this article, the authors consider the socio-historical conceptions of childhood in relation to Black children and their unique relationship with child welfare institutions. Against this background we apply models of childhood to issues of race and social agency and argue that these elements have been inadequately addressed in developmental models of childhood. Following these concerns, we present a social model of childhood and consider how these distinct and different ways of understanding children might be applied to child welfare practice. This child centered approach presents a unique opportunity to incorporate the differential positioning of Black children in the wider …