Physical Punishment in Childhood: The Rights of the Child Book

In another life, I probably would have been a lawyer. Full disclosure- I took the LSAT and checked out some law schools but COULD NOT convince myself to take the alll the other law school classes, when my only interest was in juveniles. Flash forward ~10 years later and here we are! I love old classics like Before the Best Interests of the Child. They remind me the things I'm thinking have been thought before, that I'm not crazy, and that I'm not the only one thinking these things! Before the Best Interests discusses the controversial topic of when the courts should intervene in families, and I think it does a great job. There are SO many things to consider- often, we think the courts should basically always intervene if the child seems to be abused or neglected, but there are so many biases that factor into our conceptualizations of "neglect", and the fact is, court intervention often does more harm than good and children who experience maltreatment still attach to, and love (however complex it is) their caregivers. On the other side, though, there's nothing more devastating than intervening too late. It's a tough subject, and this book laid out a fairly convincing foundation for intervention vs. not. If you're at all interested in the subject, I definitely recommend it! It's short (maybe 160 pages) and has a lot of additional text in the Appendices, so if you're curious you can read more.