Safely surrendered infants in Los Angeles County: A medically vulnerable population.

BACKGROUND: As a means to provide safety for a population at great risk of harm through abandonment, every state in the United States now has laws and practices for the safe relinquishment of newborns and infants. However, there is no national database tracking the population of infants surrendered through such programmes, and few states monitor these numbers. The primary aim of this study was therefore to examine the descriptive characteristics of infants who have been safely surrendered in a large, socio-economically diverse urban area. The secondary aim was to compare them with local population norms to determine whether differences exist and to begin exploring what implications such differences may have for the treatment provided to these infants. METHODS: A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted among safely surrendered infants. RESULTS: Over half of the infants had medical issues, and the majority of the infants were surrendered in communities characterized by low median income. CONCLUSIONS: Preliminary information highlights potential economic, social, and medical risk factors, suggesting that these infants may require increased monitoring and/or specialized care.

Remaking collective knowledge: An analysis of the complex and multiple effects of inquiries into historical institutional child abuse.

This article provides an overview and critical analysis of inquiries into historical institutional child abuse and examines their multiple functions and complex effects. The article takes a broadly international view but focuses primarily on Australia, the UK and Ireland, jurisdictions in which there have been major national inquiries. Drawing on sociological and other social science literature, it begins by considering the forms, functions, and purposes of inquiries. An overview of emergent concerns with institutional abuse in the 1980s and 1990s is then provided, followed by an examination of the response of many governments since that time in establishing inquiries. Key findings and recommendations are considered. The final sections of the article explore the evaluation of inquiries, both during their operation and in their aftermath. Policy change and legislative reform are discussed but the focus is on aspects often underplayed or overlooked, including an inquiry's credibility, its role in processes of knowledge production, and the part it plays in producing social and cultural shifts. In the context of growing numbers of inquiries across Western democracies, including the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, it is argued that grasping the complexity of the inquiry mechanism, with its inherent tensions and its multiple effects, is crucial to evaluating inquiry outcomes.

Toward a more comprehensive analysis of the role of organizational culture in child sexual abuse in institutional contexts.

This article draws on a report prepared for the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (Palmer et al., 2016) to develop a more comprehensive analysis of the role that organizational culture plays in child sexual abuse in institutional contexts, where institutional contexts are taken to be formal organizations that include children among their members (referred to here as "youth-serving organizations"). We begin by integrating five strains of theory and research on organizational culture from organizational sociology and management theory into a unified framework for analysis. We then elaborate the main paths through which organizational culture can influence child sexual abuse in youth-serving organizations. We then use our unified analytic framework and our understanding of the main paths through which organizational culture can influence child sexual abuse in youth-serving organizations to analyze the role that organizational culture plays in the perpetration, detection, and response to child sexual abuse in youth-serving organizations. We selectively illustrate our analysis with case materials compiled by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse and reports of child sexual abuse published in a variety of other sources. We conclude with a brief discussion of the policy implications of our analysis.

Consideraciones psicolegales sobre el abandono voluntario de menores de centros de protección en la modificación del sistema de protección a la infancia y la adolescencia / Psycholegal considerations on minors' voluntary abandonment of protection centers inthe modification of the protection system for childhood and adolescence

La reciente entrada en vigor de las leyes modificadoras del sistema de protección a la infancia y a la adolescencia supone una transformación sustancial de las instituciones y medidas del sistema de protección en España. En el marco tuitivo general que desarrolla la reforma tiene lugar una concreta especificación legal relativa al denominado 'abandono voluntario' por parte de menores de los centros de protección que da lugar a reflexiones sobre su difícil encaje en el principio del Interés Superior del Menor recogido en la nueva normativa si se tienen en cuenta las organizaciones psíquicas y dinámicas de repetición subyacentes a dichas conductas

The recent entry into force of the modifier laws of protection system for childhood and adolescence represents a substantial transformation of the Spanish institutions and measures of protection. In general protective framework that develops the reform takes place a concrete legal specification concerning the so-called 'voluntary abandonment' by children's protection centers which gives rise to reflections on his difficult lace on the principle of the superior interest of the minor collected in the new regulations taking into account the psychic organizations and dynamics of repetition underlying to the above mentioned behaviors

Releasing mother's burdens: child abandonment and retrieval in Madrid, 1890-1935.

In nineteenth-century Europe, the foundling hospital grew beyond its traditional purpose of mitigating the shame of unwed mothers by also permitting widows, widowers, and poor married couples to abandon their children there temporarily. In the Foundling Hospital of Madrid (FHM), this new short-term abandonment could be completely anonymous due to the implementation of a wheel­a device on the outside wall of the institution that could be turned to place a child inside­which remained open until 1929. The use of survival-analysis techniques to disentangle the determinants of retrieval in a discrete framework reveals important differences in the situations of the women who abandoned their children at the FHM, partly depending on whether they accessed it through the Maternity Hospital after giving birth or they accessed it directly. The evidence suggests that those who abandoned their children through the Maternity Hospital retrieved them only when they had attained a certain degree of economic stability, whereas those who abandoned otherwise did so just as soon as the immediate condition prompting the abandonment had improved.

The role of the Toronto Girls' Home, 1863-1910.

It has been suggested that the role of Ontario children's homes, who had for half a century been helping disadvantaged children, changed significantly and immediately under the 'Children's Protection Act of 1893'. However, the records of the girls admitted to Toronto Girls' Home from 1863 to 1910 suggest that this was not the case, for this home at least. For most of their history, their core clientele was the children of poor respectable parents dealing with a crisis or who could not both work and care for their children. Thus, although prior to 1893 they did also care for a significant number of neglected children, and after 1893 fewer such children were admitted, the Home continued for more than 20 years to help families as they always had, providing a form of family support for which the child protection system was not designed.

Abandoned in Brussels, delivered in Paris: long-distance transports of unwanted children in the eighteenth century.

The study uses examinations and other documents produced in the course of a large-scale investigation undertaken by the central authorities of the Austrian Netherlands in the 1760s on the transportation of about thirty children from Brussels to the Parisian foundling house by a Brussels shoemaker and his wife. It combines the rich archival evidence with sparse indications in the literature to demonstrate that long-distance transports of abandoned children were a common but historiographically neglected by-product of the ambiguities of foundling policies in eighteenth-century Europe and provides insight into the functioning of the associated networks and the motives of parents, doctors, midwives, transporters, and local officials involved.

The business of relief work: a Victorian Quaker in Constantinople and her circle.

This article explores how Victorian notions of charity translated to evangelical mission projects in the Near East. Focusing on Quaker philanthropist Ann Mary Burgess, it traces the trade networks that she established to serve the Armenian community living in the Ottoman Empire. Burgess's vast network of supporters throughout Britain, Europe, and the Near East enabled her to fund relief projects using profits from goods produced by the orphans and widows served by the Friends' Constantinople Mission. The mapping of these networks reveals the evolving relationship between evangelicalism, the humanitarian movement, and the marketplace in imperial Britain.

[Syphilis, brothels, unwanted children and wet nurses. Italy and syphilis infection in the 19th century]. / La sifilide e le case di tolleranza, i bambini esposti e le balie. L' Italia e il contagio luetico nell'ottocento.

In 1861 in Italy a repressive law was passed against prostitution to reduce syphilis transmission. After the constitution of the Kingdom of Italy there began a debate on this law which was harsh on prostitutes and failed to resolve the health problem in question. In 1880, in Italy, studies were promoted under the aegis of a royal commission to understand the social situation of prostitution and the epidemic spread of syphilis. In 1888 Crispi issued new regulations concerning prostitution, prevention and therapy of infectious diseases: three years later a new regulation was established which partly restored the 1861 law. In this paper we present not only the question of prostitution in Italy in relation to syphilis, but also the serious problem of infection transmission to unweaned babies and to wet nurses in orphanages.

Perspectives on newborn abandonment.

OBJECTIVES: The goals of this study were to identify the socioeconomic influences that may lead to newborn abandonment and the attributes common to individuals who abandon their infants, to develop an understanding of the legislative issues affecting the abandonment of newborns by state, and to describe an emergency care program designed to preserve newborn life. METHODS: A retrospective review of case files, publications, and headline news was undertaken to identify commonalties among individuals who abandon their infants. Accurate statistical data about this issue are nonexistent; however, extrapolations can be made from documented cases. Predictors of abandonment assist healthcare workers in identifying and preventing the needless deaths of newborn infants through early education and prevention programs. If these children survive, they often become the challenges of emergency care staff. RESULTS: There are now at least 46 states that have proposed or enacted legislation related to infant abandonment. The laws are designed to promote the safe surrender of newborns to designated child protective agencies, including emergency departments. These legislative controls now regulate safe havens to accept newborns that would otherwise be abandoned. CONCLUSIONS: There is still much to learn about infant abandonment. A national database to compile statistics about the incidence of abandonment is currently not available. Research is necessary to validate the findings collected in retrospective reviews. The choices parents make between the options of abandoning versus surrendering the infant to a safe haven require further study. Preventative programs and education of the public and particularly of the high-risk groups require a greater emphasis on improving child protection procedures. Programs in emergency departments must be developed to expedite care and to support and protect life.