Child Welfare Reform as Anger Management

Abstract

This chapter introduces the critical role played by outrage in child protective services (CPS) decision making. It discusses the rational and emotional components of decision making, which are important to child welfare reform. Among wealthy democracies, the United States has the toughest system for assuring child well-being. The organizational effectiveness and efficiency, financial resources, necessary services, minimization of decision errors, worker quality and training, computerized management, and quality control data systems are the persistent themes that have run through child welfare reforms. Outrage has aroused child welfare reform through the implementation of court orders, injunctions, or consent decrees. Outrage-driven legislation, lawsuits, government task forces, and special panel reports can and have affected the structure and process of CPS organizations. It is noted here that CPS bureaucracy has struggled to attain new stability, guided by modified SOPs and new rules.