Focusing on a class action lawsuit against the Illinois child
welfare system (B. H. v. Johnson), "Pitiful Plaintiffs" examines
the role of the federal courts in the child welfare policymaking
process and the extent to which litigation can achieve the goal of
reforming child welfare systems.
Beginning in the 1970s, children's advocates asked the federal
courts to intervene in the child welfare policymaking process.
Their weapons were, for the most part, class action suits that
sought widespread reform of child welfare systems. This book is
about the tens of thousands of abused and neglected children in the
United States who enlisted the help of the federal courts to compel
state and local governments to fulfill their obligations to them.
Based on a variety of sources, the core of the research consists of
in-depth, open-ended interviews with individuals involved in the
Illinois child welfare system, particularly those engaged in the
litigation process, including attorneys, public officials, members
of children's advocacy groups, and federal court judges. The
interviews were supplemented with information from legal documents,
government reports and publications, national and local news
reports, and scholarly writings. Despite the proliferation of child
welfare lawsuits and the increasingly important role of the federal
judiciary in child welfare policymaking, structural reform
litigation against child welfare systems has received scant
scholarly attention from a political science or public policy
perspective. Mezey's comprehensive study will be of interest to
political scientists and public policy analysts, as well as anyone
involved in social justice and child welfare.
General
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