This volume explores the growing interest in the way in which 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 chapters 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 anti–social 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...
