About the blog I'm Sharon Vincent, a research fellow at CLiCP. In 2010, I was given the opportunity, via a Leverhulme Fellowship, to find out about child protection in Australia, New Zealand, USA and Canada. This blog captures some of the
organisations, practices and policies I have come across. The views expressed in this blog represent those of the author only.
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July 5th, 2011
Casey Anthony was today found not guilty of murdering her 2 year old daughter Caylee and not guilty of aggravated child abuse and aggravated manslaughter of a child. She was convicted on charges of misleading law enforcement but since she has already served 3 years behind bars it is possible that she may soon be freed. As the verdict was announced there were angry scenes outside the courtroom and Facebook pages became filled with hundreds of comments, most of them expressing outrage that Casey should have been found not guilty.
In my mind the jury reached a fair decision since much of the evidence presented by the prosecution was circumstantial. I was horrified that Casey Anthony could have faced the death penalty if convicted. I have also been shocked by much of the media’s portrayal of the case. Much of the hype around the case was generated by HLN presenter and former prosecutor Nancy Grace who has been outspoken in labelling Casey Anthony, or ”tot mum” as she insisted on calling Casey throughout the trial, as guilty. Her current affairs programme discusses issues from what she describes as a victims’ rights standpoint yet Caylee’s rights have surely not been best served by HLN’s unbalanced portrayal of this case and their insistence that Casey Anthony was guilty before she was even tried .
June 22nd, 2011
The US has been gripped this week by the trial of Casey Anthony in Florida. Casey is on trial for the first degree murder of her 2 year old daughter Caylee. Caylee went missing in June 2008 and was found 5 months later. The state alleges Casey murdered Caylee with a chemical substance, put her body in the boot of her car and discarded it in a wood near her parents’ home. They have, however, been unable to present any hard evidence that establishes the exact cause of death. The defense claim Caylee drowned accidentally in the family pool; they also claim Casey was sexually and emotionally abused by more than one family member, including her father, Caylee’s grandfather. In many respects this case is very similar to cases that have gone to trial in the UK. There is, however, one shocking difference – should she be convicted of first degree murder Casey Anthony could face the death penalty. The case has attracted an unprecedented amount of media attention with the trial becoming one of the most high profile to be held in the US this century and questions have been raised as to whether the media’s extensive coverage has threatened Casey’s right to a fair trial. We have faced similar problems in the UK in relation to largely unhelpful media coverage of high profile child death cases but we can at least be thankful that the media do not engage in debates about whether alleged perpetrators should or should not be sentenced to death.
May 31st, 2011
On 23rd May I visited the National Center for Prosecution of Child Abuse (NCPCA), part of the National District Attorney’s Office (NDAA):
http://www.ndaa.org/ncpca_home.html
NCPCA’s mission is to reduce the number of children victimized and exploited by assisting prosecutors and allied professionals laboring on behalf of victims too small, scared or weak to protect themselves. To achieve its goal of enhancing the effectiveness of the investigation and prosecution of child abuse, NCPCA has the following four objectives: 1) Host national, regional and local training on state-of-the-art basic and advanced training utilizing evidence based and victim centered practices; 2) Provide immediate, comprehensive technical assistance; 3) Develop and distribute publications on a range of child maltreatment topics; and, 4) Contribute to coordination efforts to improve resource delivery.
May 31st, 2011
On 23rd May I visited the National Children’s Alliance in Washington DC:
http://www.nationalchildrensalliance.org/
The National Children’s Alliance provides training, support, technical assistance and leadership on a national level to local children’s and child advocacy centers and communities responding to reports of child abuse and neglect. A children’s advocacy center is a child-focused, facility-based program in which representatives from many disciplines, including law enforcement, child protection, prosecution, mental health, medical and victim advocacy, child advocacy, work together to conduct interviews and make team decisions about investigation, treatment, management and prosecution of child abuse cases.
May 19th, 2011
Most US states have Safely Surrendered Baby laws enabling parents to surrender a baby confidentially and without fear of prosecution within 72 hours of birth. California introduced legislation in 2001. 326 newborns were safely surrendered between January 1st 2001 and December 31 2010. We do not have safely surrendered baby laws in the UK but in practice parents are rarely prosecuted for abandoning babies.
May 3rd, 2011
On 18 April I visited the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia http://www.cdc.gov CDC is one of the major operating components of the Department of Health and Human Services. It is dedicated to protecting health and promoting qualtiy of life though the prevention and control of disease, injury and disability. Child maltreatment is one of the priorities of CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. The injury center is a focal point for the public health approach to preventing and treating injuries. The center’s research and programmes aim to undertsand the problem of child maltreatment and prevent it before it begins. It:
Promotes positive parenting by creating safe, stable, nurturing relationships.
Improves data collection systems for child maltreatment to guide program development and evaluation, and to support the measurement and monitoring of risk and protective factors.
Invests in programs and research that build capacity of states and communities to implement prevention research programs and to improve services for children affected by abuse.
May 3rd, 2011
On 12 April I visited the American Humane Association in Denver, Colorado www.americanhumane.org/ Their mission is to create a more humane and compassionate world by ending abuse and neglect of children and animals. Key programmes and initiatives in child protection and well being include:
Differential Response – A proven approach to customizing how communities respond to child abuse and neglect situations by factoring in real-world considerations.
Front Porch Project® - A grass-roots initiative to prevent child abuse by training community members to be aware of what to look for and how to intervene.
Fatherhood Initiative - Enables children within the child welfare system to regain connections with fathers and paternal relatives, creating stronger support systems.
Family Group Decision Making - Innovative method of getting extended families involved in making critical decisions about children who need protection or care
Child Protection Research Center - Comprehensive research and analysis to improve child protective services through evidence-based public policy and practices.
Child Welfare Disparities Resource Center – Addressing long-standing issues of how services are managed, resourced and provided based on race and ethnicity.
April 8th, 2011
NCANDS is a national data collection and analysis system created in response to the requirements of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (Public Law 93-247) as amended. NCANDS collects case-level data on all children who received a Child Protective Services (CPS) agency response in the form of an investigation response or an alternative response. States that are unable to provide case-level data submit aggregated counts of key indicators. Case-level data include information on the characteristics of screened-in referrals (reports) of abuse and neglect that are made to CPS agencies, the children involved, the types of maltreatment that are alleged, the dispositions of the CPS responses, the risk factors of the child and the caregivers, the services that are provided, and the perpetrators. Restricted usage files of State case-level data are available for researchers from the National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect at http://www.ndacan.cornell.edu. In addition, aggregated counts of key indicators by State are available for 1990–2009. Child Maltreatment reports are available on the Children’s Bureau Web site at http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/stats_research/index.htm#can.
For 2009, data were received from all 52 States ( the term States includes the District of Columbia and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico). Of the 52 reporting States, 50 States reported Child Files and 2 States reported aggregate-only data files (SDC). The population of the 50 States that submitted Child Files during 2009 accounts for more than 74 million children or 99 per cent of the United States child population younger than 18 years. If the US are able to have a national system covering 74 million children across 52 states it seems to me that we should be able to have a system that allows us to compare data across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
March 3rd, 2011
The Child Welfare Research Center undertake research on a variety of child welfare issues including adoption, case management, foster care, and welfare reform. I was really impressed by the Child Welfare Dynamic Report System http://cssr.berkeley.edu/ucb_childwelfare/ The California Child Welfare Performance Indicators Project is a collaborative venture between the University of California at Berkeley and the California Department of Social Services. It aggregates California’s administrative child welfare and foster care data into customizable tables that are refreshed quarterly and made openly available on a public website. This comprehensive data source allows those working at the county and state level to examine performance measures over time. In addition to stratifications by year and county, data can also be filtered by age, ethnicity, gender, placement type, and other subcategories. It provides policymakers,child welfare workers, and the public with direct access to information on California’s entire child welfare system.
December 7th, 2010
I have now visited the Commission for Children and Young People and Child Guardian in Queensland www.ccypcg.qld.gov.au/. The Commission promotes and protect the rights, interests and wellbeing of children and young people in Queensland, particularly those who:
- are in care or detention
- have no one to act on their behalf
- are not able to protect themselves, or
- are disadvantaged because of a disability, geographic isolation, homelessness or poverty.
The Commission is an independent statutory body established under the Commission for Children and Young People and Child Guardian Act 2000. It:
- promotes laws, policies and practices that uphold the rights, interests and wellbeing of children and young people, particularly those at risk
- conducts research into matters affecting the safety and wellbeing of children and young people
- administers an employment screening system of certain types of child-related employment including educating the community about their obligation to comply with the Commission’s Act
- monitors, audits and reviews systems, policies and practices relating to services provided to children and young people receiving child protection or youth offending services
- administers a statewide Community Visitor Program for children and young people in foster care, residential services or detention
- resolves and investigates complaints about services to children and young people known to the Department of Communities, and
maintains Queensland’s Child Death Register, and support the Child Death Case Review Committee process
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