Out of care: The community support of juvenile offenders

Out of Care: The Community Support of Juvenile Offenders

Politics & Social Sciences

Thorpe, D. H.

Social Sciences

Unwin Hyman

G. Allen & Unwin for the Centre of Youth, Crime and Community, University of Lancaster

The label of child abuse covers a wide variety of symptoms, behaviours and contexts. Child abuse cases are the products of complex processes of identification, confirmation and disposal rather than being self evident in the child's presenting condition. For those involved in child abuse work who are in desperate need of the research tools to help them make sense of this situation, David Thorpe's book will be invaluable. It describes a project which was used in the design of a computerized child protection information system. Based on the quantitative and qualitative analysis of 325 substantiated and 'at risk' child protection cases reported to a state child welfare agency, it focuses on the outcomes of child protection interventions as described in case file text. Chapters in the book deal with both gender and ethnicity issues in child protection and show how gender and racial discrimination can lead to the overrepresentation of these significant social groups. The methodologies which David Thorpe outlines and discusses here are replicable elsewhere. Perhaps most crucially the book will enable managers and practitioners to take greater control of their work and have greater confidence in what they do and the decisions they make.

Evaluating Child Protection

Open Univ Pr

The late 1970s saw the emergence of a heated debate on the treatment of juvenile delinquents. The argument was usually presented as being between the exponents of 'law and order' and punishment on the one hand, and the 'soft' advocates of social work and treatment on the other. Originally published in 1980, Out of Care: The Community Support of Juvenile Offenders took issue with both sides and argued that it was the juvenile justice system itself which was at fault. Much of the debate about the merits or otherwise of the 1969 Children and Young Persons Act had been conducted in an informational vacuum. For the authors, the most important point is that while this self-interested and politically disingenuous debate had been continuing more and more supposedly delinquent children had been locked up, quite contrary to the intentions of the Act.The book, however, goes further than a mere critique of the existing system at the time. It also offers very direct and practical advice on what can be done - advice aimed at the police and magistrates, and especially at social workers and probation officers, both agency managers and field level practitioners. It describes practical ways of collecting information to modify local policies and suggests innovative and imaginative ways of working face to face with juvenile offenders. The book is unusual in that it combines this practical usefulness with a detailed analysis of certain key themes in contemporary criminological theory.All the authors had backgrounds in social work or probation practice, as well as recent experience of research into intermediate treatment and the workings of the juvenile justice system at the time. They were therefore able to offer a unique combination of perspectives, drawing on social policy, theories of delinquency, justice and the state, field research and social work practice.

Out of Care: The Community Support of Juvenile Offenders (Routledge Revivals)

Smith, D.

Green, C. J.

Paley, J. H.

Teen & Young Adult

Routledge

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