Foster Children, Rights and the Law

Best Interest, Normalcy and the Welfare System
1. Auflage 2025
ISBN: 978-1-032-82979-1
Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 220 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 570 g

This book discusses child wishes, rights and participation in the foster care system. Making decisions in a foster child’s best interest is a widely used, but also widely criticized international legal doctrine. This work discusses the two major legal frameworks, best interest and normalcy, for which foster care decisions are made and how those frameworks might shape how child welfare professionals view and interpret children’s rights and participation. Normalcy, the idea that decisions should promote a “normal” life, is a separate legal doctrine which can be in conflict with best interest determinations. However, the concept of normalcy is also theoretically built into best interest decisions and therefore also plays a role in most child welfare systems. Mixing both empirical legal and child welfare research, the book demonstrates the ways in which risk aversion and fear drive best interest decision-making to the detriment of both practitioners and the children they aim to serve. It argues that a children’s rights framework starting with normalcy is a better tool for promoting child participation and centering the child within the dependency process. The book will be of interest to academics, researchers and policymakers working in the areas of children’s rights law, child welfare and international human rights law.

Zielgruppe

Postgraduate

Autoren/Hrsg.

Trail, Matthew

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Arbeit/Sozialpädagogik
• Rechtswissenschaften Recht, Rechtswissenschaft Allgemein
• Rechtswissenschaften Bürgerliches Recht Familienrecht Sorgerecht, fam. Namensrecht, Abstammung
• Rechtswissenschaften Öffentliches Recht Staats- und Verfassungsrecht
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Altersgruppen Kinder- und Jugendsoziologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. The Child Welfare System and Dependency  2. The Best Interest of Children  3. Normalcy  4. Risk, Normalcy and Best Interest  5. Decision Making  6. Childrens Rights and Participation  7. Best Interest vs Normalcy: How Professionals Respond  8. Normalcy Charter

Über Autor(innen)

Matthew Trail is Research Fellow with the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, Germany, and a former US legal aid child welfare care attorney.