Child Homicide

Child Homicide in Germany in Families That Had Been Supported by the Youth Welfare Services: What Can we Learn From These Cases for the Improvement of the Welfare System?

Ulrike Zaehringer, from the Criminological Research Institute of Lower Saxony, made a contribution to the 2012 Annual Conference of the European Society of Criminology, in the category “Crime Prevention,” under the title “Child Homicide in Germany in Families That Had Been Supported by the Youth Welfare Services: What Can we Learn From These Cases for the Improvement of the Welfare System?”. Here is the abstract: During the last years, the youth welfare system in Germany has been critically discussed and a number of different concepts for its improvement were brought up. The discussion took its start from singular unsuccessful child protection cases which had received a lot of public attention, but down to the present day, a broader investigation of such cases and the previously provided welfare work is still missing. This presentation shows results of a qualitative interview study which aimed to identify commonalities between individual cases in order to identify starting points for the improvement of the welfare system. The interviews were conducted with welfare workers who had been in contact with families prior to an intra-familial infanticide and examine 20 cases that occurred in Germany from 1998-2008. The key findings of the study will be presented and suggestions for organizational changes will be made that could help to achieve a better protection of children against intra-familial violence.[rtbs name=”criminology”]

Resources

See Also

Further Reading

• “Child Homicide in Germany in Families That Had Been Supported by the Youth Welfare Services: What Can we Learn From These Cases for the Improvement of the Welfare System?”, by Ulrike Zaehringer (Proceedings)