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Op-Ed: Child protectors - Who are the real abusers?



 
 
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  #1  
Old June 24th 08, 10:52 PM posted to alt.child-support
Dusty
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Default Op-Ed: Child protectors - Who are the real abusers?

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...ld-protectors/

Op-Ed: Child protectors
Who are the real abusers?
Stephen M. Krason
Friday, June 20, 2008

With the dust now settled on the Texas raid on the Fundamentalist Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) ranch, it is necessary to put this
episode into the broader context of the child protective system (CPS) in the
U.S.
First, springing into action after anonymous calls like the one that
triggered the raid is customary for the CPS, in spite of normal legal
standards for informant reliability. The call was apparently from a Colorado
woman who had no connection with the FLDS and had pled guilty to a previous
false report.

Second, the Texas heavy-handedness is typical of the CPS, except on a much
larger scale. Even though state laws normally require an "emergency"
situation before children can be removed, the CPS often does it regardless.

Third, the CPS often acts without proof, as it did here. Parents - all
parents, not just FLDS types, are under suspicion. Somehow, if there is a
report, no matter how baseless, there just had to be abuse or neglect. The
CPS routinely assumes parents are guilty, and it is up to them to prove
their innocence.

Fourth, the case showed that juvenile courts frequently are part of the CPS
enforcement structure, taking their cues from the agencies instead of being
impartial arbiters.

Fifth, it has been observed that parents before the CPS have fewer
due-process rights than murder defendants. In Texas, the children were
seized without even an evidentiary hearing.

Sixth, even when the CPS has found no evidence of abuse, it used its wedge
to keep interfering in the ongoing functioning of families. The "parenting"
classes and regular agency monitoring of the FLDS parents are typical
conditions imposed on innocent parents by the CPS to keep exerting its
control.

Seventh, far from doing what's best for children, the CPS often makes
decisions that are harmful for them. Research has shown that even a mild CPS
interference in a family can have deleterious consequences for the
parent-child relationship. Outright separation, as in the FLDS case, can
cause children psychological and even physical problems, and can heighten
conflict between the parents. By readily putting children into the
tumultuous foster-care system, they expose them to the possibility of true
abuse. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) data has shown the
rate of child maltreatment in foster care to be 75 percent higher than in
the general population.

HHS statistics also show that, consistently, about two-thirds of the
complaints that CPS investigates are unfounded, involving 700,000 innocent
families each year. Many "confirmed" cases involve minor matters that hardly
constitute abuse or neglect or else are poverty situations. This massive CPS
intervention into families has resulted in a misallocation of resources and
inattentiveness to true cases of abuse. As one writer put it, it is a system
that can't distinguish the criminals from the average Joes.

Eighth, if the crime of polygamy was the reason for the Texas raid, one
wonders why the alleged polygamists were not the ones taken into custody.
The CPS routinely seizes the victim instead of the perpetrator.

Ninth, the CPS is an arbitrary system. Not only does it believe it can
intervene in families without evidence of abuse, but sets the standards -
irrespective of the law - of acceptable parental behavior. It forbade FLDS
mothers from keeping their babies to nurse them if they were over 12 months
old; in other cases, parents are investigated for spanking their children or
having home births. This arbitrariness is rooted in the vagueness of the
child-abuse laws and in the complete legal immunity of CPS operatives. So,
don't expect any lawsuits to come out of the Texas raid.

The current CPS, fashioned by the federal Child Abuse Prevention and
Treatment Act of 1974 (better known as the Mondale Act, after its top
congressional advocate, Sen. Walter Mondale, Minnesota Democrat) was a
harbinger of developments in the U.S. criminal justice system: increasing
arbitrariness, excessive power by the enforcers with weakened judicial
oversight and the dissipation of a fault-based standard in the interest of
social control.

The Texas calamity should result in a sweeping legislative investigation of
that state's CPS - and a searching examination and reconsideration of the
value of the entire CPS nationwide. Congress showed itself unwilling to
undertake this when it pushed through only tangential changes to the Mondale
Act in 2003. Perhaps, it is time to assemble a presidential commission made
up of objective, independent, and tough-minded people for the task.

Stephen M. Krason is professor of political science and legal studies at
Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio and president of the Society of
Catholic Social Scientists. He is co-editor of "Parental Rights and
Defending the Family: A Sourcebook," and has written and lectured on the CPS
for more than 20 years.


  #2  
Old June 27th 08, 01:42 PM posted to alt.child-support
DB[_4_]
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Posts: 266
Default Op-Ed: Child protectors - Who are the real abusers?


"Dusty" wrote in

Second, the Texas heavy-handedness is typical of the CPS, except on a much
larger scale. Even though state laws normally require an "emergency"
situation before children can be removed, the CPS often does it
regardless.


Why don't Americans stop kidding themselves and just admit they want a
socialist order where the government controls all of their lives?


 




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