Standing in Babylon, Looking Toward Zion
18 Pages Posted: 27 Nov 2012
Date Written: January 1, 2006
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
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation