Conceptualizing Justice-Centered Child Welfare

Professors Collaborate on New Publication

Morgan Cooley, PhD, LCSW, associate professor at the Phyllis and Harvey Sandler School of Social Work (SSW); Marianna L. Colvin, PhD, SSW associate professor, college associate dean for research and academic effectiveness, and director of the Child Welfare Institute; and Gabriel Cesar, Ph.D., assistant professor in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice (SCCJ) have published a new study, “Intersections for justice: conceptualizing justice-centered child welfare practice,” in the Journal of Public Child Welfare. Co-written with Vaughn J. Crichlow, Corey B. Best, and Robin Jimenez-Bean, the paper considers how the processes by which current child protection practices are implemented can impinge on the rights of families and children and proposes an initial conceptualization of a justice-centered child welfare practice that integrates a human, constitutional, and socio-legal rights approach for the future.