The juvenile dependency court often plays an important role in issues of child welfare. Whenever parents are incapable of adequately caring for their own children, the government steps in to provide protective services for those children. The juvenile court is, specifically, "a state mechanism through which compliance with the standards set forth in law is enforced" (Stein, 1981, p. 27). The court is especially concerned with issues of parental abuse or neglect. Under most circumstances, an effort is made at the reunification of troubled families. This type of reunification can often be accomplished through therapy and counseling. If reunification is not possible, however, the dependency court must seek to place children into foster care, adoption, guardianship, or the custody of one parent.
In terms of world history, the advocacy of children's rights is a relatively recent development. In ancient times, children were considered to be the exclusive property of their parents. Parents were allowed to exploit the labor of their children or to sell them if they so desired. In fact, parents even had final say over the life or death of their children (Kadushin, 1980, p. 153). The rights of children as individual beings began to be developed during the colonial period in American history. In the seventeenth century, it was determined that parents were required to provide subsistence and education for their children. At the same time, it was decided that parents failing to meet these essential needs would be subject to legal intervention. The court was given the power to remove children from parental custody and to place them in alternative settings, if necessary. This power stemmed from the idea of parens patriae, in which it is held that "the state is the ultimate parent of every child" (Hawes, 1991, p. 2).
The children's rights movement underwent further development during the nineteenth century. In Massachusetts...