Re: Protective Service for Children history

[2C0 <psylevin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

our book, Levine and levine (1992) Hlping Children. A social History,
Oxford University press, has a chapter on child protection.  In it we
point out that specifically granted police powers to the early private
child protection agencies, and in anya event, elbridge Gerry clearly saw 
child protection as a form of policing.  Moreover an NY Court of Appeals 
decision ehld that child protective agencies were not charities and not
regulated by the NY board of Charities. Our book, Levine and Doueck
(1995) the impact of Mandated Reporting on the therapeutic process
specifically disucsses the originsin the state's police powers, and the
effect of the duality in the way in which CPs workers experioence their
jobs see pp 20-24. Reporting to a specialized unit of child protection
workers rather than the police came about because physicians and others
were reluctant to report to police as a violation of their helping
function.  As a result the reporting channel in federal legislation
changed. 

On Wed, 21 May 1997, Raelene Ruth Freitag wrote:

> The book Professor Hauser refers to is "Heroes of their Own Lives: The 
> Politics and History of Family Violence (1988). The private agencies 
> flourished outside of Boston and New York as well...in fact, by the turn 
> of the century, there were hundreds of societies throughout the country. 
> See Roswell McCrea, "The Humane Movement: A Descriptive Survey. New York: 
> Columbia University Press, 1910. I recently completed a dissertation on 
> the history of the child protective work of the Wisconsin Humane Society 
> from 1879-1920, and would be glad to correspond with any interested 
> persons directly. It is good to see this interest in the historical roots 
> of child protection!
> 
> Raelene Freitag
> 414-277-8993
> freitag@csd.uwm.edu
> snail mail: Child Protection Center
> P.O. Box 1997 MS 746
> Milwaukee, WI 53219
> 
> On Tue, 20 May 1997, Adrienne A Haeuser wrote:
> 
> > Hi Tom!
> > 
> > One reason social workers rather than police have been foremost in 
> > protective services for children is that long before we had the battered 
> > child syndrome identified and subsequent reporting laws, we had private 
> > agencies, particularly the Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to 
> > Children, providing protective services.  These groups flourished in 
> > large urban areas such as Boston and New York because community leaders 
> > supported them and the public believed in "private charity."  There is an 
> > excellent book describing the history of the Boston Society written by 
> > Linda Gordon.  Unfortunately I cannot recall the title but it was 
> > probably published about five years ago -- worth finding for anyone 
> > interested.  In short, part of the answer to the query is simply history 
> > and public attitudes about the role  -- or lack of role -- for government 
> > intervention.  Incidentally, the Gordon book gives some examples of the 
> > Society's workers interacting with the police in given situations.
> > 
> > Hope all is well with you.  I am enjoying retirement!  --  Alex Haeuser
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > Adrienne ("Alex") Ahlgren Haeuser             Voice: (414) 963 9966
> > Professor Emerita		              FAX:   (414) 229 5311
> > School of Social Welfare                      EMail  alexh@csd.uwm.edu
> > University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
> > 
> > 
> 

Murray and/or Addie Levine
e-mail: psylevin@acsu.buffalo.edu
snail mail:  Dept/. Psychology, SUNY Buffalo, Buffalo, NY 14260
voice: 716-645-3650 ext 228
Fax: 716-645-3801