Comments on: Child abuse investigations: costs, benefits, and ruined lives

By: Doug

Doug — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 19:01:27 +0000

I seemed to recall that Michigan CPS workers could also place someone an abuse registry. It was then that persons responsibility to go to a judge to have it removed.

By: Danimal

Danimal — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 13:32:11 +0000

Ahh, but you overlook the main goal of child protective service programs: as job programs for (98% democrat) social workers. In that way the programs are a massive success.

By: Dennis

Dennis — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 13:16:23 +0000

My only comment about Child Protective Services, and this has been my comment for some thirty years, is, “Don’t let them take you, alive.”

By: WhiskeyJim

WhiskeyJim — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 08:44:32 +0000

Business consultants love to use pre-intervention baselines to prove they succeeded. Likewise, foreign aid interventions often need to look hard and long to find comparative villages that prove the millions in aid ‘worked.’ Both tend to ignore observer effects and a changing world.

I believe if intervention does not produce readily observable improvements (say, 10-20% ‘improvement’), we are fooling ourselves, especially where ROI calculations can not be made.

In the study you cite, the bar should be very high. Governments must be ultra-sensitive to the idea that they appropriate other people’s funds, affect professional career trajectories, and intervene on others’ lives. All those activities involve large opportunity costs and potentially negative externality. The internal trauma alone of investigations can be expected to leave lasting wounds in any family relationships.