Want to reduce child neglect? Put more money in the pockets of poor families [centerforhealthjournalism.org]

Is our country looking in the wrong places in our efforts to prevent child neglect? By focusing on individual families accused of maltreatment, are we letting society off the hook?

That is the contention of a new paper by researchers at the University of Connecticut, University of Illinois and Georgia Tech, who say we can reduce child neglect by putting more money in the pockets of poor families.

The authors say our current approach is a version of the "streetlight effect."

"A guy is looking for his keys and looking under the streetlamp and someone says, Why are you looking for your keys under the streetlamp?’ He says, 'Well, that's where the light is,'" said one of the paper's authors, Kerri Raissian, an assistant professor of public policy at the University of Connecticut.

"I think that's what we do a lot with child maltreatment prevention,” she said. “We look where the light is."

[To read the rest of this article by Giles Bruce, click here.]

[Photo: Michael Whyte via Flickr]