Liberal Child Welfare Policy and its Destruction of Black Lives

<p>How can we end the inter-generational cycle of poverty and dysfunction in the US's urban ghettos? </p><p>This ground-breaking and controversial book is the first to provide a child-centered perspective on the subject by combining a wealth of social science information with sophisticated normative analysis to support novel reforms—to child protection law and practice, family law, and zoning— that would quickly end that cycle. </p><p>The rub is that the reforms needed would entail further suffering and loss of liberty for adults in these communities, and liberal advocacy organizations and academics are so adult-centered in their sympathies and thinking that they reflexively oppose any such measures. Liberals have instead promoted one ineffectual parent-focused program after another, in an ideologically-driven quest for the magic pill that can save both adults and children in these communities at the same time. </p><p>This `insider critique’ of liberal child welfare policy reveals a dilemma that liberals have yet to face squarely: there is an ineradicable conflict of interests between many young children and their parents, especially in areas of concentrated poverty, and one must choose sides.</p><p>It is a must read for legal academics, political scientists, urban policy experts, as well as professionals working in social work, law, education, urban planning, legislative offices, and administrative agencies.</p> <p>Acknowledgements; Introduction; <b>PART I. THE CYCLE; Chapter 1: The world black children enter</b> Black America; Inner-city impoverished neighborhoods; Parental dysfunction; Community dysfunction; <b>Chapter 2: How <i>we</i> perpetuate the cycle; </b>Pre-natal harm; The state’s bad parentage decision-making; Attachment failure; Hostile residential environment; Foster care decision-making; Lack of preparation for school; Bad schools; Direct neighborhood effects; <b>PART II. BREAKING THE CYCLE; Chapter 3: Conception and pre-natal life; </b>Prevent people unfit to parent from Conceiving; Prevent pregnant women from harming the fetus; Justifying pregnancy-related coercion; <b>Chapter 4: Sparing children from unfit parents; </b>Steps to appropriate state parentage decision-making for newborns; Justifying better parentage decision-making; <b>Chapter 5: Separating children from bad neighborhoods; </b>Failure of the liberal approach; Family law decisions that can relocate children; No-child residential areas; Justifying separation of children from blight; <b>PART III. LIBERAL SUPPORTS FOR THE CYCLE; Chapter 6: Liberal’s search for the Holy Grail; </b>The magic pill for reducing maltreatment rates; Fighting back against the carceral state by imprisoning babies; <b>Chapter 7: Understanding and overcoming liberal resistance; </b>The liberal mindset; The conservative mindset; Conclusion; Appendix; Index</p>