The Book of David by Gelles, Essay Example

When reading The Book of David written by Gelles (1997), one has to admit how seriously dysfunctional the child protection system is. Obviously, the law enforcement systems all over the world serve to protect the community from criminals, but in fact, the major part of the work done by the criminal justice system is the deterrence of people who have already committed crimes, such as physical and sexual abuse, theft, murder, etc. The reality of law enforcement shows that in the majority of cases, the system reacts only after the crime has been committed, and the victim cannot be brought back to life or, in case the victim is alive, nobody can heal his or her psychological and emotional injuries.

The narrative of The Book of David shows that the major flaw of the child protection system existing nowadays is in its inability to protect children whose lives are in danger before the drama occurs. There is no effective prevention and intervention system that would detect the potentially dangerous families and surroundings in which small children unable to protect themselves are urged to live. As Gelles (1997) righteously noted at the beginning of chapter 2, “looking back on the record, one can see that the tragedy of David Edwards actually began before he was born” (p. 23). There were early signals with the abuse of David’s older sister Marie that started when she was only 1.5 months old. Hence, the idea that could come to any CPS official’s mind should have been the danger of this family’s having one more child. In case parents were detected to abuse one small child, there was no guarantee that it would not repeat with their second child. More than that, CPS professionals with expert training should have known that the families with the prior history of child abuse rarely stop and grant decent living conditions to new children appearing in their families. Hence, the story of David clearly shows what dysfunctions are present in the CPS nowadays, and how interventions are unable to protect the fragile lives of small children from the frivolousness of their parents.

Integrated Responses to Prevent Child Fatalities  

CPS in the USA is obviously a strong, comprehensive, and well-functioning system that manages to save and protect hundreds of children from maltreatment and abuse; however, there are still cases in which the CPS authorities fail to provide a timely response, which usually results in a child’s fatality or severe abuse. Though the CPS work may be appreciated and highly evaluated in many aspects, there still remains an issue with reacting to the unsuccessful cases in which CPS have appeared helpless. One of such cases that causes serious critical thinking is the one with Sirita Sotello described by Meinig and Dowd (2005). The authors reviewed the case in detail, and tried to find out the reasons for which the CPS could not save the girl’s life.

After the reviewing the case, one should think about the fact that similarly to David from the book of Gelles (1997), the problems of Sirita started before she was born, since her mother was a drug addict, and her father was reluctant to participate in her destiny. The CPS focus has always been family-centered, and the attempts to reunite Sirita with her mother are understandable; however, there should be a certain limit of trust in the CPS, and a certain amount of sobriety in judging which families are physically, morally, and psychologically ready to have children, and which are not. The first mistake was the repeated endeavors to reunite Sirita with her mother, which established the early history of abuse and neglect in Sirita’s life. The second mistake, as it was noted by Meinig and Dowd (2005), was the failure to conduct psychological and drug testing for all caregivers of Sirita, in this case – her stepmother who ultimately killed the girl. To design integrated responses to child maltreatment, CPS has to establish review boards that will make objective evaluations as to whether parents are ready to have their children and take care for them, and if serious doubts exist, children should never be given to such families. All caregivers should be tested and guided, which can save hundreds of children’s lives.

References

Gelles, R. J. (1997). The Book of David. How preserving families can cost children’s lives. New York, NY: Basic Books.

Meinig, M., & Dowd, P. (2005). Sirita Sotello: Fatality Review. Report of the office of the family and children’s ombudsman, pp. 1-19.