Product Description

Why does an infant die of malnutrition? Why does an eight-year-old hold a knife to his brother's throat? Or a mother push her cherished daughter twenty-three floors to her death? Marc Parent, a city caseworker, searched the streets--and his heart--for the answers, and shares them in this powerful, vivid, beautifully written book.

WITH A NEW AFTERWORD BY THE AUTHOR

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #96298 in Books
• Published on: 1998-01-27
• Released on: 1998-01-27
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

Amazon.com Review
Marc Parent worked for four years as a caseworker for Emergency Children's Services in New York, acting as the final protector of children from abusive parents, as "the one on the front line--the last hope for a kid in trouble." His job was to make house calls and decide if a child needed to be removed at once. He has selected eight cases illustrating the extreme pressures of the work and indicating why it is that the system so often fails in its mission. He recounts unsparingly how three years into his job he made a fatal mistake, failing to recognize the plight of a little boy who later died of starvation. This compelling account is an important documenting of the weaknesses of the child support system.

From Publishers Weekly
In this outstanding work of social commentary, Parent describes the harrowing conditions he worked under and the brutalization he witnessed during the four years he was employed as a caseworker by New York City's Emergency Children's Services. His job was to respond in the night to calls made at those hours regarding children in life-threatening situations. He would then visit their homes and decide whether the children should be removed. Inadequately trained and without sufficient supervision, he and his co-workers were forced to balance dangerous situations against taking often unwilling children from their homes into tenuous foster-care arrangements. Among other horrendous encounters during his tenure, Parent dealt with an eight-year-old with venereal disease and a mother who threw her child out the window. Believing that child abuse can happen in rural as well as urban areas, Parent convincingly argues for public scrutiny of child welfare agencies as well as a societal commitment to protecting children. Author tour.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Parent, an advocate for child protection, has written a poignant account of his four years as a caseworker for New York City's Child Welfare Administration. This book reflects his belief that our society should not abandon powerless children and that small things can make a positive difference in a deprived child's life. Working the graveyard shift and often having to remove abused children from their homes in the middle of the night, Parent learned firsthand of the trauma in these children's lives. Perhaps the most important aspect of his book is his ability to show the children's emotions by placing the reader "inside" their heads. Also valuable is the insight into the weaknesses of the bureaucratic system of child protection, where poorly trained young caseworkers find themselves working in often violent and overwhelming situations. A personal rather than a scholarly work, this will be of interest to concerned lay readers as well as those working with children.
-?Cynthia D. Bertelsen, Virginia Polytechnic Institute Lib., Blacksburg, Va.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Excellent book
I really enjoyed this book. I work for Child Protective Services (investigations) myself and rereading this book recently helped motivate me and remind me why I am in this field. Some cases live in your head forever, and I can relate to some of the feelings and experiences described by the author. Definitely recommended.

Too much to read !!!
It was hard to get into,it was supposed ot be about cases and a caseworker, and the stories are pretty cool but he spent 3 pages talking about mumbo jumbo..stuff that wasn't irrelevant.
The cases weren't as bad as other books I 've read on this subject.
it was ok but i wouldn't read it again
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wild stories, soberly told
When a book has 'children at risk' in the subtitle, you might expect some bloviating op-ed column in book form rife with numerous stats and a preening sense of self-importance in its outrage ("I'm a prophet. Hear me roar!").

But this author primarily tells stories, cases he dealt with as a NYC Emergency Child Services caseworker. By virtue of the sweat and tears of his experience, the author is able to relay wild heartbreaking stories without getting mired in a sentimental or sensational mood.

"...how quickly, with a simple twist of the dial, the deepest calm can turn to chaos--how stealthy the chaos is and what a convincing costume of serenity it wears..." The author shows how the rationale behind seemingly horrific acts can follow some kind of logic underneath. A boy considers killing his baby brother, but not because the boy is demon possessed. Two caseworkers remove a child who is kicking and screaming in front of disgusted onlookers, but are really following the protocols of their job as best as they can under the circumstances.

This book is a real eye opener into some dark corners where children have lived. Still, the author rounds out the book with some sobering, yet heartening things to say. "Where despair and abuse spread back across generations, there are no such things as knockout punches." "The only way to lose this fight is to stop fighting."