Children, Family Responsibilities and the State

In this volume the authors and editors explore the growing (particularly state) interest in the way in which it (the state) polices, and ought to police, families failing in their responsibilities. In considering this subject we also reflect on the responsibilities the state has or ought to bear for families. The essays consider some of the swiftly developing government policy in this area and reflect on increasing social science research and growing legal system involvement in the 'problem' of failing families particularly where children are involved. The scope of the work is fairly broad. It ranges from the state's attempts to foster responsible parenting by training parents and by punishing them and their children for their children's antisocial behaviour to its enthusiasm for creating frameworks for better substituted parenting (through fostering and adoption). The authors consider the problems they identify from the perspective of both empirical evidence and the practical and ideological ambitions that government policy is attempting to pursue. The volume brings together commentators from a variety of disciplines in an attempt to offer a fresh critique on these matters. The essays are based on symposium held at the University of Sussex in September 2006.