NCJ Number
117604
Date Published
1987
Length
15 pages
Annotation
This analysis of legal issues related to maltreated handicapped children concludes that the problems that confront them, their families, and service providers may really be the problems that pervade the child protective system and that special legal strictures for handicapped maltreated children may therefore not be necessary or desirable.
Abstract
The approaches that the law takes in protecting children and enhancing the welfare of handicapped children have their origins in concepts of State interests in protecting estates and economic interests. The concept of the State's rights was gradually transformed into the concept of the State's duty to protect children. However, the law recognizes family privacy and generally assumes that its interests are best accomplished through solicitude for parents. A clear commitment to child protective services has occurred only recently, with literature reports of child abuse and, more recently, child sexual abuse. Although definitions of child abuse vary, scholars agree on the need to tighten and clarify the statutory bases for intervention. One issue is whether the State can intervene to prevent handicaps. However, requiring pregnant women to avoid unhealthy environments or behavior produces a collision of the State's interest and the woman's privacy and freedom of movement. Other issues related to maltreated handicapped issues relate to competency to testify, proof of harm, planning of dispositions of cases, and the termination of parental rights.