Condemnation of child welfare services is growing in the US. Some view everything about child welfare as wrong, counter-productive – even a violation of human rights. According to Jill D. Berrick, this abolitionist viewpoint tries to find simple solutions for a very complex issue, namely, how to keep kids safe and their families healthy and stable within the context of US’ flawed history on poverty and race.
Berrick argues that just as the child welfare field once relied too heavily on family separation, the abolition school of thought would rid the US of its legally mandated obligation to child safety.
The US child welfare system has had decades of attempts toward reform. Berrick argues that the reforms have not gone far enough, nor have they had the widespread or deep effects that many wants to see.
The seminar is part of the RDV series, a collaboration between the Centre for Research on Discretion and Paternalism and the Centre on Law and Social Transformation at the University of Bergen. The RDV-webinar series is an interdisciplinary webinar where national and international researchers are invited to talk about their pioneering research on topics regarding law, democracy, and welfare.
