ABSTRACT
This chapter includes 29 case examples, six relating to neglect, which is the most common type of maltreatment among families involved in the child welfare system. Five further case examples represent other maltreatment types: physical and sexual abuse and abandonment. Other problems of families involved in the system—family violence, substance abuse, poor parental supervision, delinquency, homelessness, illness—are treated in 11 case examples. The remaining seven examples feature types of placements used by the child welfare system. They are kinship care, foster care, residential care, reunification, and adoption. Nearly always, an example presents a network of several intertwining problems and circumstances troubling a family, including multigenerational maltreatment and mental illness. One case example in this chapter focuses on an infant's failure-to-thrive (or weight faltering), another on a “shaken baby.”
