Book Description

Three years after the release of its original report (1990), the U.S. Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect reports that the child protection emergency has clearly deepened in all parts of the nation. Reports of child abuse and neglect have continued to climb; an inordinate number of children continue to die at the hands of caretakers; and adequate and affordable treatment for child abuse victims and their families remains exceedingly difficult to find. The collapse of the nation's child protection system has also continued. This updated report explores the continuing child welfare crisis and calls upon national leaders to respond in a meaningful way to the critical recommendations set forth during the previous 3 years. Those recommendations include enacting an explicit national child protection policy that is comprehensive, child-centered, family-focused, neighborhood-based, and which emphasizes treatment and prevention of abuse and neglect. This report consists of three sections. Section 1 provides an introduction to the volume which documents the continuing national child protection emergency, discusses the federal role in child protection, and provides an overview of the report. Section 2 describes the activities of the Board during 1991-1992, including a discussion of its response to major public policy issues, its stand on the United Nations' Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the development of a new national child protection strategy. Also included are a discussion of child maltreatment-related fatalities and a reassessment of Board positions on a variety of topics. Section 3 provides copies of document related to Board activities in the following areas: the response of the Board to major public policy issues; development of the 1993 report on a proposed new child protection strategy; and development of the 1994 report on a proposed national policy on child maltreatment related fatalities. Five appendices list: (1) members, staff, committees, and workgroups of the Board; (2) persons appearing before the Board during meetings; (3) texts of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (including all amendments through the end of the 102nd Congress); (4) Report on the Accomplishments of the Initiative on Child Abuse and Neglect of the Secretary of Health and Human Services; and (5) reports by the Interagency Task Force on Child Abuse and Neglect. (DR)