Three point six million referrals are made a year dealing with abusive acts towards children. Social Services that deal with these cases have strict laws and regulations that pertain to taking children away from their parents.

In a case in 1989, four-year-old Joshua DeShaney was given back to his father after countless times of abusive acts. When brought to the Supreme Court, the court sided with the father,saying one can’t hold social services or court’s accountable for protecting a child from their parents. DeShaney mother sued the courts on the Constitutional rights given to everyone in the United States including, “to the right of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” The courts should have sided with the mother on the right that now her child was paralyzed due to child protective services not having the right to keep the child away from his father, even after such abusive acts, because “social services can’t protect a child from its parents.”

When it comes to abuse, whether it’s sexual, mental, emotional, or physical, each affects the children that has been abused and follow them into adulthood. In fact, “14 percent of men in prison and 36 percent of women in prison in the USA were abused as children,” stated the  American of Society Positive Care of Children in a article, “Child Abuse and Criminal Behavior.”

According to the New York Times Magazine’s 2006 article, “ The Case Of Marie and Her Sons,”a mother “Marie” lost her five sons due to drug abuse. She admittied in the article that she understands she was involved in drugs, and understood the reasoning of her boys being taken away. She later went on a shows in the court hearing, multiple documentations of negative drug testing for a year, trying to get her boys back, yet the court system in Connecticut was still trying to terminate her rights as a parent.

She presented the court systems with a reason to take her children away due to drug abuse making it unsafe or unhealthy for the children. The court systems had a right to place the children in foster homes. However, Marie then followed all guidelines given by the court system to correct her mistake and showed proof that she was trying. Yet, the court still decided to terminate her rights.

Her rights as a parent shouldn’t have been terminated considering she not only presented a negative drug test, but also was clean for a year. She possessed a home and clean environment for the children, making it possible for her rights to be reassigned to her. In this legal matter, she should have her rights returned considering that she followed the law and “jumped through the hoops” needed to obtain her parenting rights.

However, when it comes to the DeShaney case of 1989, the mother made an invalid case placing the fault in the court systems by stating that they were taking her son’s unalienable rights away. In fact it was the father who beat him, even though the state’s social services should have provided a better case and took better action to protect the child, the court systems do not take the blame of the severe injuries of the child.

The stronger side of the case lies with the mother due to, the child ending up paralyzed due to social services not taking better courses of action. The courts, when presented the first time with the case, should have went into depth to make sure the child was safe in all circumstances. Child protective services should reconsider their systems to ensure that a child is safe in a home, therefore a child doesn’t end up extremely hurt or dead. The mother had every right to petition the court for her son, considering there should have been better guidelines to protect her child.