Residential Care of Children fills major gaps in knowledge about residential care of children, and is sure to inform ongoing debates within and between nations about the appropriate use of such institutions. This insight-filled book will be required reading for all child welfare scholars, particularly as international perspectives become increasingly emphasized.

Introduction by the Editors (Mark E. Courtney and Dorota Iwaniec) ; 1. "Residential Care in Ireland" by Robbie Gilligan ; 2. "Residential Care in the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland" (Roger Bullock and Dominic McSherry) ; 3. "Swedish Residential Care in the Landscape of Out-of- Home Care" (Marie Sallnas ) ; 4. "Residential Care for Children in Romania: A model for child protection reform in Central and Eastern Europe" (Ovidiu Gavrilovici) ; 5. "Residential Care for Children 'At Risk' in Israel - Current Situation and Future Challenges" (Talal Dolev, Dalia Ben Rabi, and Tamar Zemach Marom) ; 6. "Residential Care for Children in Botswana" (Tapologo Maundeni) ; 7. "Residential Care in South Africa" (Brian Stout) ; 8. "Residential Care in Korea: Past, Present and Future" (Bong Joo Lee) ; 9. "Residential Programs for Young People in Australia: Their Current Status and Use in Australia" (Frank Ainsworth and Patricia Hansen) ; 10. "Children and Youth in Institutional care in Brazil: Historical Perspectives and Current Overview" (Irene Rizzini and Irma Rizzini) ; 11. "Residential Care in the United States of America: Past, Present and Future" (Mark E. Courtney and Darcy Hughes-Heuring) ; 12. "Looking Backward To See Forward Clearly: A Cross-National Perspective on Residential Care" (Mark E. Courtney, Talal Dolev, and Robbie Gilligan)

"This is an excellent collection of country case studies of residential care of children, largely in the advanced industrialized countries, their commonalities, and disparities. It provides a splendid picture of what has been the dominant form of child welfare and out-of-home care in these countries and a beginning discussion of the factors that shaped these developments."--Sheila B. Kamerman, DSW Compton Foundation Centennial Professor of Social Work and Co-Director, Institute for Child and Family Policy at Columbia University and Co-Director of the Cross-National Studies Research Program "Residential Care of Children provides a very unique contribution to the international literature about out-of-home care for children. Even though residential care for children has been criticized by practitioners, scientists, and policy makers, it remains to be a major service provision for children who are at risk throughout the world. Certainly this volume will stimulate continued scholarship that will provide more answers to the ongoing questions about providing safe and effective care to some of the world's most vulnerable children."--Ronald W. Thompson, Ph.D., Director, Boys Town National Research Institute for Child and Family Studies "Mark Courtney, Dorota Iwaniec, and their collaborators have compiled a significant contribution to the history, science and politics of residential care viewed in cross-national perspective. This impressive collection sheds light on a much discussed, but rarely rigorously studied sector of child, youth, and family services: residential care and treatment for vulnerable children. Those who plan, implement, and evaluate out-of-home care services will find much of practical value here, as well as important contextual and programmatic information on the place and purpose of residential services in varied national settings. Taken together, one hopes these insights will inform a new generation of applied research on this neglected arena of child welfare."--James K. Whittaker, Ph.D., Charles O. Cressey Endowed Professor Emeritus, University of Washington School

"This is an excellent collection of country case studies of residential care of children, largely in the advanced industrialized countries, their commonalities, and disparities. It provides a splendid picture of what has been the dominant form of child welfare and out-of-home care in these countries and a beginning discussion of the factors that shaped these developments."--Sheila B. Kamerman, DSW Compton Foundation Centennial Professor of Social Work and Co-Director, Institute for Child and Family Policy at Columbia University and Co-Director of the Cross-National Studies Research Program "Residential Care of Children provides a very unique contribution to the international literature about out-of-home care for children. Even though residential care for children has been criticized by practitioners, scientists, and policy makers, it remains to be a major service provision for children who are at risk throughout the world. Certainly this volume will stimulate continued scholarship that will provide more answers to the ongoing questions about providing safe and effective care to some of the world's most vulnerable children."--Ronald W. Thompson, Ph.D., Director, Boys Town National Research Institute for Child and Family Studies "Mark Courtney, Dorota Iwaniec, and their collaborators have compiled a significant contribution to the history, science and politics of residential care viewed in cross-national perspective. This impressive collection sheds light on a much discussed, but rarely rigorously studied sector of child, youth, and family services: residential care and treatment for vulnerable children. Those who plan, implement, and evaluate out-of-home care services will find much of practical value here, as well as important contextual and programmatic information on the place and purpose of residential services in varied national settings. Taken together, one hopes these insights will inform a new generation of applied research on this neglected arena of child welfare."--James K. Whittaker, Ph.D., Charles O. Cressey Endowed Professor Emeritus, University of Washington School

Selling point: -features chapters by distinguished contributors from a wide range of countries, from Ireland to Romania to Botswana Selling point: -brings insights about other countries' approaches to the tricky matter of residential care, helping US social workers and policymakers see how things are done elsewhere Selling point: -provides a wealth of readable historical information along with solid facts about each country's child welfare system Selling point: -addresses current international debate about the use of residential care and shows the debate to be too simplistic

Mark E. Courtney, Ph.D., is the Ballmer Chair for Child Well-Being in the School of Social Work at the University of Washington. He is also Executive Director of Partners for Our Children, a child welfare research, development and training center at the university. Dr. Courtney previously served on the faculties of the University of Chicago, where he was Director of the Chapin Hall Center for Children from 2001 to 2006, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research focuses on child welfare services and policy. Dorota Iwaniec, PhD, is Emeritus Professor of Social Work and former Director of the Institute of Child Care Research at Queen's University Belfast. Professor Iwaniec is well known for her extensive work in the areas of emotional abuse and neglect and failure to thrive in children, having authored nearly a hundred scientific and practice papers, many chapters in edited books, and several books on the subject of child care and child protection. Her writing is influenced by continuous practice and empirical evidence.

Selling point: -features chapters by distinguished contributors from a wide range of countries, from Ireland to Romania to Botswana Selling point: -brings insights about other countries' approaches to the tricky matter of residential care, helping US social workers and policymakers see how things are done elsewhere Selling point: -provides a wealth of readable historical information along with solid facts about each country's child welfare system Selling point: -addresses current international debate about the use of residential care and shows the debate to be too simplistic