IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/cysrev/v57y2015icp149-158.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Invisible children? Professional bricolage in child protection

Author

Listed:
  • Alberth, Lars
  • Bühler-Niederberger, Doris

Abstract

In the last decades, child protection has been heavily criticized in many countries as fatal cases have caused public debates and political revisions. A study on the child protection system in Germany is presented. Responding to public criticism of fatal cases, new laws aimed for a stronger involvement of further professions beyond social workers who are traditionally holding the main responsibility. The study enquires in how far these revisions allow for a higher level of attention given to the children's conditions and sufferings. Data was gathered in five communities by interviewing practitioners of the social work profession, pediatric medicine, and midwifery on recent cases. By applying concepts of interpretive sociology of professions, 93 cases were systematically reconstructed. A typology of the different “mandates” of the occupations was developed, referring to the practitioners' interpretation of their main tasks in their case work. Validation of the qualitative analysis was sought by quantifying important characteristics of case trajectories. The results show that a mere addition of professional groups does not lead to a comprehensive consideration of the child's situation. The three professions only take specific aspects of children and according to their ‘mandates’ into account. Furthermore, social workers, having the competence of case coordination, occasionally exclude the knowledge of other professions from further proceedings.

Suggested Citation

  • Alberth, Lars & Bühler-Niederberger, Doris, 2015. "Invisible children? Professional bricolage in child protection," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 149-158.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:57:y:2015:i:c:p:149-158
    DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2015.08.008
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190740915300384
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.childyouth.2015.08.008?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Drake, Brett & Lee, Sang Moo & Jonson-Reid, Melissa, 2009. "Race and child maltreatment reporting: Are Blacks overrepresented?," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 309-316, March.
    2. Gambrill, Eileen & Shlonsky, Aron, 2000. "Risk assessment in context," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(11-12), pages 813-837.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Gabriel, Thomas, 2023. "The child – Object or subject of child care?," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    2. van Assen, Arjen & Knot-Dickscheit, Jana & Grietens, Hans & Post, Wendy, 2021. "Fidelity and flexibility of care activities in child-centered youth care for children growing up in families experiencing complex and multiple problems," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    3. Bühler-Niederberger, Doris & Alberth, Lars, 2023. "Struggling for open awareness – Trajectories of violence against children from a sociological perspective," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bywaters, Paul & Brady, Geraldine & Sparks, Tim & Bos, Elizabeth & Bunting, Lisa & Daniel, Brigid & Featherstone, Brid & Morris, Kate & Scourfield, Jonathan, 2015. "Exploring inequities in child welfare and child protection services: Explaining the ‘inverse intervention law’," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 98-105.
    2. Boatswain-Kyte, Alicia & Esposito, Tonino & Trocmé, Nico & Boatswain-Kyte, Alicia, 2020. "A longitudinal jurisdictional study of Black children reported to child protection services in Quebec, Canada," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    3. Cherry, Robert & Wang, Chun, 2016. "The link between male employment and child maltreatment in the U.S., 2000–2012," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 117-122.
    4. Fred Wulczyn & Xiaomeng Zhou & Jamie McClanahan & Scott Huhr & Kristen Hislop & Forrest Moore & Emily Rhodes, 2023. "Race, Poverty, and Foster Care Placement in the United States: Longitudinal and Cross-Sectional Perspectives," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(16), pages 1-19, August.
    5. Cénat, Jude Mary & McIntee, Sara-Emilie & Mukunzi, Joana N. & Noorishad, Pari-Gole, 2021. "Overrepresentation of Black children in the child welfare system: A systematic review to understand and better act," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    6. Mohamud, Faisa & Edwards, Travonne & Antwi-Boasiako, Kofi & William, Kineesha & King, Jason & Igor, Elo & King, Bryn, 2021. "Racial disparity in the Ontario child welfare system: Conceptualizing policies and practices that drive involvement for Black families," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    7. repec:cup:judgdm:v:9:y:2014:i:2:p:114-128 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Wulczyn, Fred, 2020. "Race/ethnicity and running away from foster care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    9. Sanders, Jane E. & Fallon, Barbara, 2018. "Child welfare involvement and academic difficulties: Characteristics of children, families, and households involved with child welfare and experiencing academic difficulties," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 98-109.
    10. Morrison, Maria & Drake, Brett, 2023. "Foster children in care due to parental incarceration: A national longitudinal study," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    11. Austin, Anna, 2016. "Is prior parental criminal justice involvement associated with child maltreatment? A systematic review," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 146-153.
    12. Rosenberg, Rachel & Williams, Sarah Catherine & Martinez, Valerie & Ball, Ja'Chelle, 2024. "Mandated reporting policies and the detection of child abuse and neglect," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    13. Storhaug, Anita Skårstad, 2023. "The decision-making ecology of child welfare emergency placements," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    14. Warren, Emily J. & Drazen, Yonah N. & Curtis, Marah A., 2017. "Public housing agency preferences for the homeless as a policy lever: Examining county-level housing subsidy receipt and maltreatment rates," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 81-88.
    15. Delfabbro, Paul & Hirte, Craig & Rogers, Nancy & Wilson, Ros, 2010. "The over-representation of young Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people in the South Australian child system: A longitudinal analysis," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(10), pages 1418-1425, October.
    16. Miller, Keva M. & Cahn, Katharine & Orellana, E. Roberto, 2012. "Dynamics that contribute to racial disproportionality and disparity: Perspectives from child welfare professionals, community partners, and families," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(11), pages 2201-2207.
    17. Herring, David J., 2009. "Fathers and child maltreatment: A research agenda based on evolutionary theory and behavioral biology research," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(8), pages 935-945, August.
    18. Skrypek, Margaret & Woodmass, Kyler & Rockymore, Maxie & Johnson, Geoff & Wells, Susan J., 2017. "Examining the potential for racial disparity in out-of-home placement decisions: A qualitative matched-pair study," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 127-137.
    19. Rolock, Nancy, 2011. "New methodology: Measuring racial or ethnic disparities in child welfare," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(9), pages 1531-1537, September.
    20. Schwalbe, Craig, 2004. "Re-visioning risk assessment for human service decision making," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 26(6), pages 561-576, June.
    21. Wulczyn, Fred & Chen, Lijun & Courtney, Mark, 2011. "Family reunification in a social structural context," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 424-430, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:57:y:2015:i:c:p:149-158. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/childyouth .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.