Child Abuse - More to the Story

An article in the New York Times today reported that a mother was being charged with murder in the death of her 7 week old child.  The article can be found here.

Buried in the last paragraph of the article is the fact that the woman was being treated in a hospital for a suicide attempt.  Also mentioned in the article is that her husband is the person actually believed to have murdered the child.  The point here is obviously not to excuse the parents' behavior.  Rather, the hope is to understand that there are often underlying reasons for why people do (or fail to do) certain things.  In this particular case, it may very well be that the mother (and the father) suffer from a serious mental illness.

To the extent that a child abuse or neglect case is brought against a parent, prosecuting agencies and the courts are often overly focused on the result of the neglect or abuse.  However, unlike criminal court, the family court is not, in theory anyway, a place designed to punish parents but to reunify families, to the extent possible.  For the family in today's article, that is obviously not a feasible reality.  But for most non-fatal abuse and nearly all neglects, there is usually a measure of hope.  The extent of that hope depends on several factors.  The most important of these factors is the parent's willingness to identify the underlying cause of the problem and their determination to address that problem forthrightly.  A dedicated team of advocates including social workers, attorneys, therapists, case workers and the like can make a great deal of difference in bringing that goal to a reality.

The Limits of Child Protective Services

An article appeared in the New York Times today which reported on a study done to determine the relative effectiveness of Child Protective Services investigating a home where abuse and/or maltreatment of children is suspected. The article can be read here. The text of the study itself can be seen here. In the study, the evaluators compared several hundred families who had been investigated against families who had not been investigated. Their determination was all too sobering, if not utterly depressing. In essence, the study found that the intervention of Child Protective Services had virtually no beneficial effect on these families.

Does the finding of this study serve to undermine the entire purpose of Child Protective Services? Should we as a society simply give up trying to help families where children are being abused? Obviously, the answer is a resounding no. Moreover, as a practititioner in New York's Family Court for many years, I find the conclusion of this study perplexing, to say the least. To be sure, there are families beyond the help of anyone. Ultimately, these families are headed by parents whose interpersonal lives are riddled with problems across a wide spectrum including poverty, drug abuse, prior histories of abuse themselves (both as perpetrators and victims), mental illness and so on. Sometimes, there is simply too much for any agency to correct. Still, that is not to suggest that the situation is hopeless.

If the reality of a particular family cannot be sufficiently adjusted to permit a child to remain in the home safely, then there are alternatives, specifically, adoption. Removing a child permanently and placing the child with a new family is clearly an option of last resort. But it is a viable option nonetheless. Similarly, long term placement (via adoption or an order of custody) may serve to preserve the safety of the child without necessarily severing the tie to the biological parents for good. I have represented countless parents and children who have gone on to have meaningful and fulfilling relationships with each other long after the legal ties that bind them have been severed.

So while it may not always be possible to rid an entire family of the various afflictions that confront it, it is still very possible to rescue a child from having to endure the full brunt of those afflictions. To the extent that it remains possible to do that, Child Protective Services will always serve a vital role.