The Foster Care Sytem
I. Introduction
It is a clear summer night and you are out with your friends at a park enjoying the cool evening breeze. Everyone is having a good time when all of a sudden you hear screaming coming out from the woods. When you go to investigate what the screaming is all about, you witness a woman being held down on the ground by two guys while a third guy is sexually assaulting her. Never witnessing such an atrocious event in your life, you all panic and run away. A week later you come to find out that this woman was not only raped, but murdered as well. Do you think that in your mind and in retrospect, this lady's life could have been saved if possibly you would have done something?
To assist or not to assist, that is the question! We have all come in touch with these scenarios through either the media or simply through first hand experience. Assisting victims in peril can be, to most human beings, a tough decision to carry out. The thought of our own safety can triumph over the thought of making that gallant move to render assistance.
Assume that the New Jersey legislature is considering on passing a bill that will make it illegal to ignore those in peril. As long as you are not posing any danger towards yourself or others, you are therefore obligated to render assistance. If you choose to ignore the situation then you will be liable and shall be sentenced to a term of imprisonment of 5 to 10 years.
II. History
In America, our duty to assist those in peril is not an obligation though there have been cases that have stirred up the public, because of our failure to render assistance. In the mid-sixties, outside of her apartment in Queens, New York, Catherine "Kitty" Genove...
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...is evident in the way we view other countries such as Japan.
Japan has a national cultural identity that places a high value on the group. Every member of society accepts that he may lose his individuality to insure a greater benefit on the population. Moreover, Japan has an honor code which makes each citizen view himself through the eyes of his neighbor. Accordingly, the implementation of a duty to rescue in Japan was possible. Because America does not place any value on the group, legislating a duty to rescue would be unsuccessful.
VIII. CONCLUSION
The implementation of the New Jersey statute obligating a duty to rescue to a bystander is contrary to American social culture. The legal, religious and individualistic traditions of Americans make such a statute unenforceable. The goals of such a statute are admirable but inapplicable through statute.
In Chapter 4, In the Unlikely Event of a Water Landing, the author Lauren Slater starts the chapter off telling the true story of how a young woman, Kitty Genovese, was brutally murdered and raped outside of her apartment complex. What was most shocking in the aftermath is there were a total of 38 witnesses and not a single person did anything to help her. This raised many concerns as to why the witnesses did nothing. When they were being interviewed by the cops, they stated that they just did not want to get involved(p.94), thus “diffusing responsibility”, this is a term used by two psychologists John Darley and Bibb Latane, who were very concerned with and wanted to understand why nothing was done to aid young Kitty Genovese as she was being stabbed and raped.
According to the FBI, more than 75 percent of all murder victims are women, and more than 50 percent of the women are between the ages of 14 and 29 years old. A part of that statistic is Kitty Genovese,a murder victim who is the focus of an editorial, “The Dying Girl that No One Helped,” written by Loudon Wainwright. Kitty was a 28 year old woman who was brutally stabbed to death while on her way home from work. The woman, named Kitty Genovese, lived in a pleasant, welcoming, residential area, in New York. There was at least 38 witnesses that came forward, and they all heard her cries for help, but no one came to her aid. Wainwright effectively demonstrates how society has started turning a “blind-eye” toward problems that can endanger someone's
One remains officially entrapped between the outlooks of instantaneous sentence from state law, or perhaps delayed sentence from a worldwide court that tries to initiate a ruling from a superior ethical law. Incase one’s life or his or her family's life was endangered, incase the person defied orders the he or she recognized to be ethically culpable; there will be no choice but just follow the order. For instance, “Just Following Orders” or in other words "Nuremberg Defense" remained a famous fault of the
Like other law enforcement agencies throughout the United States, New Jersey has a policy that addresses police use of force. The New Jersey Attorney General’s Use of Force Policy was first put into operation in April 1985. The purpose of the policy is to serve as a guide for police officers who are confronted with use of force situations during their duty to preserve the law and protect others. This essay will provide a summary of the policies and practices of New Jersey’s Use of Force Policy. An evaluation of these components will be presented with emphasis on the legal sufficiency of the policies and procedures. Policy strengths and weaknesses will be identified in addition to suggestions for improvement. This essay will conclude with examples and the associated issues of less-than-lethal technologies (“Use of Force,” 2000).
Wheeler, Nicholas J. Saving Strangers - Humanitarian Intervention in International Society. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. Oxford Scholarship Online. Oxford University Press. 7 December 2009
...f such a decision, the government has aright to step in and help the person. This is because at this understanding of the situation, the person is not capable of making a decision that he would likely consent to at after fully understanding the situation. As in the seat belt case, often times, a person does not fully understand that not wearing a seat belt contradicts his true desires and that no possible good or benefit can come from not wearing it. However, when a person is making a rational decision between two things that he values, he is the only person that can decide which is best for him. An important condition to remember in this conclusion is that all of this is assuming that no other individuals are being harmed or put at risk by the actions of these people. Under this condition I have come to the conclusion that there do exist certain circumstances where the government has a right to legal paternalism. These circumstances include times when an individual is unable to make a rational and logical decision for himself either because he does not fully understand the issue or because he is unable to logically assign value to specific possible consequences of a decision.
From her garden, Ms. Eldridge noticed an elderly woman at a railroad crossing, unaware of the nearing train. "All I could think about was the lady's face. She looked lost. She needed help, and she needed help right then," mentioned Ms. Eldridge in Wall Street Journal’s “Are You a Hero or a Bystander” by Sue Shellenbarger published on August 21, 2012. With the help of her determination, she sprinted to the elderly woman and pulled her out of the vehicle just in time. There was no time to contemplate ‘what ifs’ or to reconsider her decision. Even though her life could’ve been taken away along with the elder’s, she made the decision to run towards the tracks nonetheless.
Foster care needs to be reformed, especially when it comes to private agencies. Many people seem to overlook the issues embedded within the foster care system; all it does is take care of children, right? Wrong. Private agencies pervert the system with the nightmares they create. Foster children already feel unwanted and neglected because of the abandonment from their birth parents; private agencies provide them with conditions that further solidify their disbelief of care and love. Money comes first in the eyes of these agencies, followed by the need of control. This “control” can easily become abuse. It would only be sensible for a higher authority to intervene and put an end to these profound
(P2) If it is within our power to stop something bad from happening without sacrificing anything morally significant, we ought to do so.
In todays’ society many Americans never think about our foster care system. Foster care is when a child is temporarily placed with another family. This child may have been abused, neglected, or may be a child who is dependent and can survive on their own but needs a place to stay. Normally the child parents are sick, alcohol or drug abusers, or may even be homeless themselves. We have forgotten about the thousands of children who are without families and living in foster homes. Many do not even know how foster care came about. A few of the earliest documentation of foster care can be found in the Old Testament. The Christian church put children into homes with widowers and then paid them using collection from the church congregation. The system that the church had in place was actually successful, and was continued to be used until English Poor Law eventually regulated family foster care in the U.S.
“I believe the best service to the child is the service closest to the child, and children who are victims of neglect, abuse, or abandonment must not also be victims of bureaucracy. They deserve our devoted attention, not our divided attention.” these are the words of the 27th governor of nevada (Kenny Guin). The world we now resign in is the outcome of the decisions man has made. A system in which were made to help those in need is now the obstacle preventing their success. In the article “American foster care system needs work” the authors state “On any given day, there are nearly 397,000 American children in foster care, according to a report conducted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. That's enough to fill Tiger Stadium
As family structure changes children pay the biggest price. They may lose the luxury of a stable home or school to call their own, when parent are no longer in the picture either. This is an issue that is largely ignored by society and most importantly the government. Without the foster system, children would be left abandoned and forgotten by all. The foster system provides thousands of homes for foster children each year, with parents that can give them what they need. But, foster care in America is inadequate for all American foster children and needs to be improved. Improvements are critical in bettering American foster systems, these improvements include, creating programs, finding more stable homes, and starting mentoring programs for all foster children.
As of 2014, there were over 415,000 children in the foster care system. Foster care is the raising and supervision of children in a private home, group home, or institution, by individuals engaged and paid by a social service agency (Legal Dictionary, 2016). Care givers can be of kin relationship to the child, or may not know the child at all. Group homes are run by a social worker and can house multiple children at a time. These homes are usually regulated by the state and/or government. Children of all ages go through many emotions when their lives revolve in foster care. This paper will discuss the emotions children deal with regarding separation from birth family, the effects of abuse, and the possibility of having to transition out of
... has been victimized in his or her home environment. It can, however, with proper placement, provide a safe and nurturing environment that will encourage self-growth and self-achievement. The ultimate goal of foster care placement is reunification with the family. Plans must be implemented so that this goal can be achieved. The problems leading to foster care placement need to be rectified before a safe return home is possible. Failure to fully assess the situation will reap only negative results and problems may escalate. The welfare of the child must be the primary concern.
Emergency situations can call for an erratic response to someone’s life in which a person is injured or one’s life is in danger. The decision to be a hero or to be saved must be made. Despite the scenario, high emotion may be involved for both the hero and the one being saved. The hero could make the scene worse or cause more injury to the one being save. Furthermore, the hero could be sued for negligence. Issues of being sued could play an impact when a person makes the decision whether to be the hero or remain a bystander. Consequently, the “Good Samaritan Law” benefit those who could be potentially be accused of negligence after giving emergency care. However, lay responders must comply to legal regulations