TY - BOOK AU - Swift, Karen J. TI - Manufacturing 'bad mothers' : : a critical perspective on child neglect SN - 0-8020-7435-9 U1 - 362.76 SWI PY - 1995/// CY - Toronto, Ont. PB - University of Toronto Press, KW - CHILD NEGLECT KW - CHILD PROTECTION KW - MOTHERS KW - POVERTY KW - SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE KW - INDIGENOUS PEOPLES KW - FAMILY VIOLENCE KW - CHILD ABUSE KW - CANADA N2 - "Child neglect has been characterized over the past century as a problem of deficient care of children by mothers. A complex and punitive child welfare system has emerged, based on a view that the children of these mothers require legally sanctioned rescue by those better suited to care for them. Karen Swift challenges both the accepted view of child neglect and the present official response to it. Beginning from a critical theoretical perspective, she argues that our usual perceptions of neglect hide and distort important social realities. This distorted perception only serves to reproduce the conditions of poverty, marginalization, and violence in which these families live. The current child welfare system, far from rescuing neglected children, helps instead to ensure the continuation of their problems, and the outcome is especially dramatic and damaging in Aboriginal communities. Swift explores the historical, organizational, and professional dimensions within which child neglect becomes a visible social reality. Also examined are relations of class, race, and gender embedded in our usual understanding of child neglect. " (From the blurb). Record 5048 ER -