Criminology

The livelihood and survival of a family now rests atop a foundation of quicksand.  The family structure has succumbed to criticisms from the community and authoritative agencies certified to pass final judgments.  Children are the pawns in these scenarios.  Their futures and well being have been pushed aside while the personal agendas of signifying agencies take precedent.  Amazingly, all of this occurs in the best interest of the child.
       
Some have questioned if the result would have been the same if Annette B. was living in a group home instead of a foster care setting.  Aside from the issues of the matter changing, the outcome would most likely have been the same.  The Division of Children and Family Services (DCFS) would most likely not have pushed for the termination of the paternal rights of the father as avidly as they did.  In the state of New York, there are time constraints for planning once a child is removed from parental custody.  New York stipulates that within sixty days of removing a child from parental custody, they have a twelve month time limit to incorporate a permanency plan for the child (New York, 2010).  This plan provides for counseling of the child and family, foster care, group home living, and psychological services.  It also addresses the issues of either parental reunification for living or adoption planning.  During this planning period, DCFS would have had more than ample opportunity to make the necessary efforts to contact the father of Annette B. in order to assess his intentions concerning his daughter.  Since a group home provides for more long-term living, DCFS would not have felt the time constraint, and if they had most likely would have ignored it.  There are more children available for adoption from a group home setting than from foster care (Bernstein  Bernstein, 2006), but the same procedures for terminating parental rights must be followed.

The legal determination should be questioned insofar as what result would have occurred if the foster parents did not wish to pursue adoption.  Human beings are naturally designed with
feelings therefore it is only natural to assume that both the child, Annette B., and her foster family most likely bonded.  Foster care was designed to replace orphanages in the late 1800s (Reardon  Noblet, 2009).  Foster care provides a parallel familial setting and serves to replace the missing family dynamic.  If the foster parents of Annette B. did not wish to pursue a legal adoption of her, then the outcome of the case would have been the same but the ruling would have been delayed.
   
When the legal standard is clear and convincing evidence of abandonment by the natural parent, should the family court consider the situation of the child  The answer is yes.  The best interest of the child is the only priority and the situation of the child is secondary.  Family courts have the jurisdiction to determine whether or not a child has been abandoned under its codes (West Publishing, 1904).  Abandonment is not just physical desertion and occurs emotionally when the parent no longer emotionally interacts with the child, avoids pre-planned visitations, or fails to provide a child with the essential needs for survival.  Before any adoption can be entertained, the parental rights to the child must either be voluntarily or legally severed (Beauvais-Godwin  Godwin, 2005).  In the case of Annette B., abandonment was determined via the incarceration of the father and his failure to maintain any written or verbal contact with the child.  In the 1982 case of Santosky v. Kramer, the dissenting judge wrote.

Even when blood relationships are strained, parents retain vital interest in preventing irretrievable destruction of their family life if anything, persons faced with forced dissolution of their parental rights have more critical need for procedural protections than do those resisting state intervention into ongoing family affairs., (102S Ct1388 455 US 745, 1982)

Parents sometimes put aside their own personal needs for the best interest of their own children and surrender their parental rights permanently.
   
The issues of parenting and family law create much discord in the family court system.  Social workers are overburdened with heavy caseloads, but the children that are invariably in the system are unaware of any problems.  Clear and convincing evidence of abandonment need be more stringent in the family court.  Penalties should be imposed on caseworkers who fail to comply with provisions already in place to avoid delays and violations of parental rights.