Child endangerment
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Introduction
Child abuse occurs when someone threatens the security, development and survival of a child. Children have a right to live free from any type of neglect, child abuse offenses from alcohol or drug committed by parents, guardians or even any caregiver. Any reports from a concerned individual such as a neighbor or a teacher on child endangerment demands actions from the protective services and Law enforcement. The social development department assesses on all report and when there is any suspicion that a child is in danger, they will involve police for investigation. In cases such as domestic violence incidences, the police may decide to remove the child when they notice neglect or mistreatment.
In addition when the department has enough reason to suspect the child’s safety is in immediate harm it can remove the child from home even without a court order until documentation is done to show that the offender has undergone counselling, alcohol and/or drug treatment, anger management, family therapy sessions, mental health treatment and parenting classes for a period of no less than six months. Taking into deliberation this impact, there will be both positive and negative feedback, especially to the well-being of the child (Pence& Wilson, 1992).
Is it necessary to remove a child from their home?
This paper identifies the impending ethical or the moral issues which arises to apply this strategy. Taking into deliberation whether this would be positive or negative on those who are involved in this situation, since this pertains to the welfare of the child. Lastly whether the Family Services and the Job Department misapply and misinterprets social learning theories when developing & employing policy. Parent who are aggressive teach their children to be aggressive. Social Learning Theory declares that individuals learn violent behaviours from watching people being rewarded for violent behaviour.
Potential ethical or moral issues
To start with addressing the potential ethical or moral issues arising from implementing this policy should be the first priority. Many people agree to why this kind of policy might not be employed. Children may endure some psychological setbacks when immediately removed from their home as well as family which they have known in their life. Only the people a child knows and trusts could give her comfort to feel cared for. Their requirements here are the key and a normal figure in lives of those guardians and parents for ensuring that they have been receiving a maintaining system which they need and this in turn they may successfully provide the nurturing culture so that child requirements are met, resulting in becoming the creative citizen in future. When these actions does not occur and not implemented, tendency for those children who have been victims of abuse or have witnessed domestic violence or even drug and alcohol abuse in their home, would certainly become classified as the abnormal in that they have been prone to developing the lack of attention by getting poor grades in a school, engaging in the gangs and also bullying. Child and youth advocates argue that eliminating children from their homes reduces the degree that the child is exposed to such violence, hence reducing aggression in the child.
The National Institute of Justice declares that the Update on a “Cycle of Violence” research states that “Being the abused or the neglected, the child increased likelihood about arrests as the juvenile is fifty nine percent, as the adult through twenty eight percent & for the violent crime through thirty percent”. This policy is a means of discrimination since it targets the internal city families known as the Ghetto that is said to have a high rate of children who are being exposed to the violence in a home. This policy violates people’s privacy, since whatever that happens in the home is their business and not anyone else’s. Within fewer instances it has the truth however, what one fails to realize is that once the authorities are called to home, it then becomes a state business. The state is aware about the child’s presence during the incident and believes that child could be endangered since the parents have failed to protect, provide and to serve as a positive role model for the child, then the state through all means has the right to intervene as well as to access through the situation.
Positive and Negative Impact
Moreover, impact falls mainly on the child himself thus it can be either positive or negative, on these involved situation. Family violence reports shows that “Family violence, includes the child physical and the sexual abuse, maltreatment, child neglect and intimate partner violence as well as the elder abuse which takes place in the homes within country on a daily basis are considered criminal in nature. Exposure towards violence has been the devastating impact on both the children and the adults in the households as well as the communities, if they are the direct victims of the abuse or are witnesses to it.
Children who have are exposed to violence at their early age are probably becoming either the perpetrators of the abuse or the victims of violence in the adulthood. Before this report National Crime Victimization Survey states that households in US, in between the year 1993 & 1998, average victims of the intimate partner violence which lived with the children below age of the 12 had were 459,590. Most have been exposing child to some situations that have not been suited for this age. Such a policy may not just protect child however also assists parent while becoming the positive role model. Such a policy may also test will of the parents or the guardians, thus seeing how far they have been willing for going to educate as well as seeking help for themselves that may teach them about how to do right through, rebuilding the relationship with those children. The parents or the guardians might have system to take the children away, may leave child as an emotionally scarred child.
The positive benefits of this policy are reduced juvenile crimes as well as reduced adult crimes happening in our society.
The negative effects of executing this policy are very many. If the society began eliminating children from their homes, and placing the raising burden on the state and it’s foster care programs, because a person at home had a single domestic violence offense, drug charge, or other charges that falls into this classification, the state would run out of places to house these children, and the cost to the taxpayer would be exceptional (Dubowitz, 2000).
This case shows double jeopardy, since there are documents that show charges of a case that had previously undergone punishments and judicial system. In addition taking the children would be adding more punishment to the offender, and this is unethical, immoral and unconstitutional. Placing the children in overcrowded conditions that arises from the execution of this policy would bring more harm than good. Not all juveniles found in foster care are there due to bad parenting. Some of them end up there because the parents can no longer in control.
Application of the Social Learning Theory
Finally, does the Department of a Job & a Family Services misinterpret and misapply social the learning theory if planning & implementing policy? Social learning theory was introduced by the Albert Bandura, which assumes that the people have been born good and they learn to be bad through means of the observational learning, such incidence has been called as imitation or modeling. The theory suggests the combination of the environmental as well as the psychological factors influencing the behavior. There have been 4 component processes which are influenced by behavior of the observer by following exposure for the models that are: the attention; the retention; the motor reproduction and the motivation. Attention, anything which gets us for selectively concentrating on single aspect of environment when ignoring the other things. Along lines has been the retention, which is remembering what anybody has observed, motor reproduction has been ability for reproducing behavior which has been observed. Finally motivation has been the apparatus for the good reasoning to want for adopting behavior.
In the Bandura renowned “Bobo doll” studies, he has demonstrated that the children learn as well as the imitate behaviors which they have observed in the other people. Children in the Bandura’s studies have observed the adult verbally or physically by being abusive to the Bobo doll. If children had been later allowed for playing in the room with Bobo doll, they started to imitate aggressive action which they had observed previously. “General delinquency research has shown that the childhood abuse has been usually linked with the delinquency and that initial onset of the maltreatment can increase variety, the seriousness as well as duration of the problems.” So, no, Department of the Job and the Family Services may not misinterpret and misapply social learning theories while planning and implementing policy.
Conclusion
In conclusion, success rate to implementing that policy has been that the benefits outweigh risks. That policy would enforce the parent or the guardian so as to serves as the positive role model to those children, who are meant to be the productive citizens of future. For those opposing, this is not about them but about the welfare of child in the long run. The dreams for future start with children of nowadays.
References
Pence, D. M., & Wilson, C. (1992). The role of law enforcement in the response to child
. abuse and neglect. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, Administration on Children, Youth and Families, National Centre on Child Abuse and Neglect
Buzawa, E. S., & Buzawa, C. G. (). Responding to domestic violence: the integration of
criminal justice and human services (Fourth ed.). :
Dubowitz, H. (2000). Handbook for child protection practice. Thousand Oaks: Sage
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