Are child protection workers and judges in alignment with citizens when considering interventions into a family? A cross-country study of four jurisdictions

an article by Jill Berrick (University of California, Berkeley, USA), Jonathan Dickens (East Anglia University, UK), Tarja Pösö (Tampere University, Finland) and Marit Skivenes (University of Bergen, Norway) published in Children and Youth Services Review Volume 108 (January 2020)

Highlights

• Diverging views between professionals, judges and citizens in neglect and state interventions.
• High degree of similarity across countries in citizen’s views about children’s need for services.
• Citizens anticipate poor outcomes for children experiencing neglect.
• Alignment between child protection staff and judges’ perspectives within each country.
• Established systems have impact on professionals and judges considerations.

Abstract

This paper examines whether and how the views of professional decision makers in public agencies and courts in four child protection jurisdictions align with the views of the public.

Democratic states are built on the foundation that state polices are accountable to, and represent, the citizens’ will. The extent to which this is the case in child protection is largely unknown.

This study draws on survey vignette data collected from three samples (citizens, child protection staff and judiciary decision makers) representing society at large, the child welfare agency, and judicial systems in four jurisdictions – England, Finland, Norway, and the U.S. (California). Findings from this study suggest that there is a high degree of similarity across countries in the public’s views about children’s need for services, and the poor outcomes that may result absent a service response.

Views between child protection professionals and the public diverge the most when considering if the child is suffering from neglect and the use of intrusive state interventions. Child protection staff and judges’ perspectives within each country are in general alignment and show the impact of the established systems on considerations.

Our results may have implications for the design of social policy in the area of child protection internationally.

Full text (PDF 9pp)

Labels:
child_protection, state_interventions, judicial_systems, democracy,

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