Children of the Court: A Profile of Poverty

Abstract

This article discusses the relationship of child neglect and de linquency to poverty. A majority of neglect and delinquency cases can be attributed to economic stress. Yet the magnitude and nature of poverty in America are largely ignored by the social- work professions. Sociologically research has, for the most part, treated poverty as a dependent variable or a secondary influence on family social functioning. What is required, however, is to treat it as an independent variable or determinant factor. The failure to do so has created an educational vacuum on the subject of poverty in most social-work schools and in public agencies serving the poor.