Child Abuse Archive
Former Juvenile Court Judge Len Edwards, a favorite on the child welfare conference circuit, is upset about a column I wrote here on March 8. The column discussed an article in the City University of New York Law Review that calls …
On November 29th, 2016, WestCoast Children’s Clinic hosted a panel to discuss how racism and misogyny drive child sex trafficking in the United States. As women and their allies across the country voice opposition to policies that explicitly endanger women …
By the Hon. Ramona Gonzalez Board Director, National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges La Cross County Circuit Court, Wisconsin Sally is a seven-year-old girl who just disclosed physical abuse to her teacher. Over the next few days, Sally …
When I was growing up, the rules didn’t make any sense. I didn’t know this was part of the plan. I thought there was something wrong with me. I thought I just hadn’t figured them out yet. I thought the …
If there is one thing I have seen as a common thread to a childhood of trauma, it is the invalidation of everything we believe to be true. Our needs aren’t validated or met. Our emotions are not validated. They …
At the end of 2016, the federal government finally released state-by-state foster care numbers for 2015. Congratulations, Alaska: You’re number one! The National Coalition for Child Protection Reform uses a “Rate of Removal Index” to determine each state’s propensity to place …
Last month I wrote a column called “Why the ‘Foster-Care-at-All-Costs’ Crowd Will Never Surrender Their Horror Stories.” I offered those wedded to a take-the-child-and-run approach to child welfare a deal: a mutual moratorium on the use of horror stories to …
The impacts of my traumatic childhood cannot be measured. They are too vast and far-reaching for me to classify, categorize or otherwise explain. That said, I do try. My controller hasn’t given up on the idea that I can define …
Cowley County, Kan., a place almost exactly in the middle of middle-America, is conservative and working-class. It would seem to have little in common with coastal Marin County, Calif., one of the wealthiest places in America, where the politics are …
