Every year, hundreds of children in the United States are victims of international parental kidnapping- a child's wrongful removal from the United States, or wrongful retention in another country, by a parent or other family member. Parents and other family members left behind may be overwhelmed by feelings of loss, anguish, despair, and anger-as well as confusion and uncertainty about what can be done in response. In December 1999, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention invited a small group of left-behind and searching parents to participate in a planning and development meeting. Each one had experienced firsthand the heartbreak of having a child abducted to another country or wrongfully retained abroad. Some of them had recovered their children, while others had not. They willingly shared their knowledge of international parental kidnapping-gained at tremendous personal cost- to help other parents of abducted children understand what can be done to: Prevent an international parental kidnapping; Stop a kidnapping in progress; Locate a kidnapped or wrongfully retained child in another country; Bring an abductor to justice; Recover a kidnapped or wrongfully retained child from another country; Reestablish access to a child in another country. This guide imparts the group's practical wisdom and the hope that other parents will not have to experience the confusion and discouragement these parents did when it was not clear what to do or whom to turn to when their children were kidnapped. The group offered its suggestions for preventing international kidnapping and gave detailed advice to maximize the chance that children who are kidnapped or wrongfully retained will be returned to this country. The guide provides descriptions and realistic assessments of the civil and criminal remedies available in international parental kidnapping cases. It explains applicable laws and identifies both the public and private resources that may be called on when an international abduction occurs or is threatened. It gives practical advice on overcoming frequently encountered obstacles so that parents can get the help they need. The guide prepares parents for the legal and emotional difficulties they may experience and shares coping and general legal strategies to help them achieve their individual goals, whether they involve recovering a child or reestablishing meaningful access to a child in another country. Despite the difficulties that may lie ahead and the disappointment some parents may experience, it is important not to become discouraged. Stay hopeful. Many things can be done to prevent or to resolve an international parental kidnapping. This guide will help you organize your response.

Since its inception, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Juvenile Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) has initiated and supported a broad range of research, demonstration, evaluation, and training and technical assistance initiatives to prevent and reduce gang crime. A central focus of these anti-gang efforts is to support community endeavors to provide youth with a safe environment in which to grow up. As part of that comprehensive initiative, OJJDP launched the Gang Reduction Program in 2003. The multimillion-dollar initiative was designed to reduce gang crime in targeted neighborhoods by incorporating research-based interventions to address individual, family, and community factors that contribute to juvenile delinquency and gang activity. The program leveraged local, State, and Federal resources in support of community partnerships that implement progressive practices in prevention, intervention, suppression, and reentry. Best Practices To Address Community Gang Problems: OJJDP's Comprehensive Gang Model provides communities considering implementing the comprehensive gang model with critical information to guide their efforts. The Report describes the research that produced the model; outlines best practices obtained from practitioners with years of experience in planning, implementing, and overseeing variations of the model in their communities; and presents essential findings from evaluations of several programs that demonstrate the success of the model in a variety of environments. OJJDP commends the progress made in the demonstration sites, and we wish them continued success. We remain committed to assisting other communities in assessing their gang problems and developing a complement of anti-gang strategies and activities to address this complex challenge. This Report provides guidance for communities that are considering how best to address a youth gang problem that already exists or threatens to become a reality. The guidance is based on the implementation of the Comprehensive Gang Model (Model) developed through the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), and tested in OJJDP's Gang Reduction Program. The Report describes the research that produced the Model, notes essential findings from evaluations of several programs demonstrating the Model in a variety of environments, and outlines "best practices" obtained from practitioners with years of experience in planning, implementing, and overseeing variations of the Model in their communities. The Model and best practices contain critical elements that distinguish it from typical program approaches to gangs. The Model's key distinguishing feature is a strategic planning process that empowers communities to assess their own gang problems and fashion a complement of anti-gang strategies and program activities. Community leaders considering this Model will be able to call on the OJJDP Strategic Planning Tool at no cost (http: //www.iir.com/nygc/tool/default.htm). OJJDP's Socioeconomic Mapping and Resource Topography (SMART) system is another online resource available through the OJJDP Web site (go to http: //www.ojp.usdoj.gov/ojjdp, and select "Tools"). The main section of the Report presents best practices for the Comprehensive Gang Model and highlights results of a survey and a meeting of practitioners regarding their experiences in implementing the Model. This section contains specific practices that work best in a step-by-step planning and implementation process for communities using the Comprehensive Gang Model framework and tools.

Canadian parents facing the removal of children from their home are in for an uphill battle, and it's important that their interests be protected. In Who Takes This Child?, author Allan Dare Pearce discusses the child protection laws, agencies, and processes in Canada. For more than thirty years, he has counseled and represented parents in their battles with the child protection authorities, preparing pleadings, arguing motions, and conducting trials.

In Who Takes This Child?, he shows what happens in typical child protection cases in Canada. Pearce discusses the overarching agency that's assigned to protect children; how the agency gets involved; the process of apprehension and temporary (or interim) care; plans of care; how parents' capacity is assessed; the issues of mental health, disabilities, and the system; parents with addiction and parents who abuse; the trial; and strategies for specific situations.

Through examples and personal accounts, Pearce communicates the importance of understanding the child protection process so parents can keep custody of their children and avoid the foster care system.

The aim of this book is to explore what response the law has or should have to different family practices arising from cultural and religious beliefs. The issue has become increasingly debated as western countries have become more culturally diverse. Although discussion has frequently focused on the role Islamic family law should have in these countries, this book seeks to set that discussion within a wider context that includes consideration both of theoretical issues and also of empirical data about the interaction between specific family practices and state law in a variety of jurisdictions ranging from England and Wales to Bangladesh, Botswana, Spain, Poland, France, Israel, Iran and South Africa. The contributors to the 17 chapters approach the subject matter from a variety of perspectives, illustrating its complex and often sensitive nature. The book does not set out to propose any single definitive strategy that should be adopted, but provides material on which researchers, advocates and policymakers can draw in furthering their understanding of and seeking solutions to the problems raised by this significant social development.

This book provides a comprehensive, cutting-edge look at the problems that impact the way we conduct intervention and treatment for youth in crisis today-an indispensable resource for practitioners, students, researchers, policymakers, and faculty working in the area of juvenile justice. Understanding Juvenile Justice and Delinquency provides a concise overview of the most compelling issues in juvenile delinquency today. It covers not only the range of offenses but also the offenders themselves as well as those impacted by crime and delinquency. All of the chapters contain up-to-date research, laws, and data that accurately frame discussions on youth violence, detention, and treatment; related issues such as gangs and drugs; the consequences for scholars, teachers, and students; and best practices in intervention methods. The book's organization guides readers logically from the broader definitions and parameters of the study of juveniles to the more specific. The volume leads with an explanation of the relationship between victimization and juvenile behavior and sets up boundaries of the arenas of delinquency-from the family to the streets to cyberspace. The book then focuses on more specific populations of offenders and offenses, including recent, emerging issues, offering the most accurate information available and cutting-edge insight into the issues that affect youth in custody and in our communities. Provides insights into juvenile justice from contributors and editors who have extensive experience in teaching, researching, and writing on the subject Represents an ideal teaching text for courses in juvenile justice-a staple topic in all criminology and criminal justice college programs Presents analysis and evaluation of techniques used and programs employed, enabling readers to be better advocates for law and policy impacting youth Includes discussion questions appropriate for classroom settings and lists of additional resources, related websites, and supporting films that guide students in investigating the subject further Supplies updated data and information on policy and law that will serve as a vital resource for students writing papers or scholars teaching in the field of juvenile justice

There was a time when the phrase "American family" conjured up a single, specific image: a breadwinner dad, a homemaker mom, and their 2.5 kids living comfortable lives in a middle-class suburb. Today, that image has been shattered, due in part to skyrocketing divorce rates, single parenthood, and increased out-of-wedlock births. But whether it is conservatives bewailing the wages of moral decline and women's liberation, or progressives celebrating the result of women's greater freedom and changing sexual mores, most Americans fail to identify the root factor driving the changes: economic inequality that is remaking the American family along class lines. In Marriage Markets, June Carbone and Naomi Cahn examine how macroeconomic forces are transforming our most intimate and important spheres, and how working class and lower income families have paid the highest price. Just like health, education, and seemingly every other advantage in life, a stable two-parent home has become a luxury that only the well-off can afford. The best educated and most prosperous have the most stable families, while working class families have seen the greatest increase in relationship instability. Why is this so? The book provides the answer: greater economic inequality has profoundly changed marriage markets, the way men and women match up when they search for a life partner. It has produced a larger group of high-income men than women; written off the men at the bottom because of chronic unemployment, incarceration, and substance abuse; and left a larger group of women with a smaller group of comparable men in the middle. The failure to see marriage as a market affected by supply and demand has obscured any meaningful analysis of the way that societal changes influence culture. Only policies that redress the balance between men and women through greater access to education, stable employment, and opportunities for social mobility can produce a culture that encourages commitment and investment in family life. A rigorous and enlightening account of why American families have changed so much in recent decades, Marriage Markets cuts through the ideological and moralistic rhetoric that drives our current debate. It offers critically needed solutions for a problem that will haunt America for generations to come.

ATTORNEY DANIE VICTOR HAS BEEN PRACTICING LAW IN THE STATE OF FLORIDA SINCE 1991.

ATTORNEY DANIE VICTOR HAS BEEN PRACTICING LAW IN THE STATE OF FLORIDA SINCE 1991.

Book & CD-ROM. The Home Visiting Program is administered by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) in partnership with the Administration for Children and Families (ACF). Congress created the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program (Home Visiting Program) to support voluntary, evidence-based home visiting services for at-risk pregnant women and parents with young children up to kindergarten entry. The Home Visiting Program builds upon decades of scientific research showing that home visits by a nurse, social worker, early childhood educator, or other trained professional during pregnancy and in the first years of life improve the lives of children and families by preventing child abuse and neglect, supporting positive parenting, improving maternal and child health, and promoting child development and school readiness. Research also shows that evidence-based home visiting can provide a positive return on investment to society through savings in public expenditures on emergency room visits, child protective services, special education, as well as increased tax revenues from parents' earnings. This book examines the first findings from the Home Visiting Program.

The issue of same-sex marriage generates debate on both the federal and state levels. Either legislatively or judicially, same-sex marriage is legal in more than a dozen states. Conversely, many states have statutes and/or constitutional amendments limiting marriage to the union of one man and one woman. These state-level variations raise questions about the validity of such unions outside the contracted jurisdiction and have bearing on the distribution of state and/or federal benefits. As federal agencies grappled with the interplay of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and the distribution of federal marriage-based benefits, questions arose regarding DOMA's constitutionality and the appropriate standard (strict, intermediate, or rational basis) of review to apply to the statute. In United States v. Windsor, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the federal ban on benefits for legally married same-sex couples. However, the Court indicated that it was taking no position on a state's authority to forbid same-sex marriages. Lower courts have interpreted Windsor broadly and have found such bans to violate equal protection and due process principles. This book provides a legal background after United States v. Windsor. The book provides background on, and analysis of, significant legal issues surrounding the same-sex marriage debate. It provides background on the constitutional principles that are often invoked in attempting to invalidate same-sex marriage bans -- namely, equal protection and due process guarantees. It discusses key cases that led to the existing circuit split on the constitutionality of state same-sex marriage bans. Finally, this book explains the central issues in the circuit split and analyses how the Supreme Court might resolve them on appeal.

This book covers the topic of domestic violence and abuse most often suffered by spouses and children under their own roof. We offer you every available tool to help yourself and/or your children and most critically how to recognize whether your family is suffering any type of abuse and what to do to stop it and protect yourself and your children in the future.