Standing in Babylon, Looking Toward Zion

Abstract

The UNLV Conference on Representing Children in Families convened an impressive group of academics, policymakers, practitioners, and participants in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems to consider how to move beyond recommendations made ten years earlier about how lawyers for children should approach their work. This essay examines the interrelationship between idealism and realism in the definition of lawyers’ roles as representatives of children and the importance of idealized visions to the process of reforming dysfunctional systems, using examples of child welfare and juvenile justice system reform.

Keywords: UNLV, child welfare, juvenile, families, youth, expressed wishes, best wishes, holistic, multidisciplinary, multi-systemic, culturally sensitive, community-based, lawyering model, idealism, ethics

JEL Classification: J12, J13, K00, K40