Making an Issue of Child Abuse by Barbara J. Nelson

Author:Barbara J. Nelson [Nelson, Barbara J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Public Policy, Sociology, Marriage & Family, Child Abuse, Family & Relationships, Social Services & Welfare, Social Science, Political Science, Abuse, General
ISBN: 9780226220017
Google: CTBOCgAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 2981359
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 1984-08-01T00:00:00+00:00

6. Congress

As soon as they learned of the problem of child abuse, officials in the Children’s Bureau and the state legislators placed the issue on their agendas. Special circumstances helped to compress the agenda-setting process in both these arenas. Issue recognition blended almost immediately into issue adoption in the Children’s Bureau, largely because the problem was thought of as a specification of the Bureau’s general child welfare role, rather than a new or competing role. Similarly, state legislatures moved rapidly from recognition to adoption because the problem was brought to their attention in tandem with a specific, limited solution: reporting laws.

The fact that recognition and adoption occurred virtually simultaneously in these two instances does not mean, however, that all agenda setting is so compressed. For example, ten years elapsed between the time Congress first denounced child abuse and the passage of national legislation. Interestingly, the problem of child abuse was first brought to the attention of Congress in 1964 when Representative Abraham J. Multer (D., N.Y.) introduced H.R. 9652, which would have required mandatory reporting of physical abuse in the District of Columbia. Another version of the bill was passed in 1966.

It is easy to understand why the issue did not move beyond the D.C. Committee. Service on the District of Columbia Committee is considered to be time spent in the Caucasus—nothing which promotes a member’s career happens there.1 Moreover, it was not at all clear just what Congress as a whole could or ought to do about the problem of child abuse and neglect. In terms of issue recognition, members of Congress usually follow the practice of old-time country doctors: they don’t diagnose what they can’t cure. In fact, even prescribing a cure does not assure issue adoption. For instance, in 1969, five years after the first D.C. child abuse reporting law was introduced, a number of bills calling for uniform national reporting procedures and extensive social services were introduced by Representative Mario Biaggi (D., N.Y.). No hearings were held on any of these bills and none was reported out of committee. It was not until 1973, when Senator Walter F. Mondale (D., Minn.) became interested in the problem of child abuse, that issue recognition progressed to issue adoption. Mondale—the liberal advocate of social programs—sponsored the bill, which after modifications became the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) of 1974.

Less than a decade later, Senator Jeremiah Denton (R., Ala.)—a conservative member of the Moral Majority and the chair of the Subcommittee on Aging, Family, and Human Service—almost allowed the problem of child abuse to lapse from specific congressional responsibility. Saved by last-minute horse trading, federal child abuse legislation was barely reauthorized by the Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 1981. Its future in an era of social service cutbacks and research consolidation seemed precarious at best. But in the summer of 1983 the legislation appeared to be safe again. Congress had before it two bills which would extend the legislation for four years, and knowledgeable observers felt the reauthorization was virtually assured.

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