Manufacturing 'Bad Mothers': A Critical Perspective on Child Neglect

Child neglect has been characterized over the past century as a problem of deficient care of children by mothers. A complex and punitive child welfare system has emerged, based on a view that the children of these mothers require legally sanctioned rescue by those better suited to care for them. Karen Swift challenges both the accepted view of child neglect and the present official response to it.

Beginning from a critical theoretical perspective, she argues that our usual perceptions of ne...