Orphanages versus Families

In one of my articles I wrote about street children in Russia. However, homeless children are very acute problem in many countries. They do not have families because of the several reasons and the government’s response to it is different. In some cases government tries to find new families for homeless children and encourages people to adopt them. However, most of homeless children are placed in special institutions for the homeless children or children who have serious problems at their home and cannot stay with parents because of different reasons, such as parent’s substance abuse or crime activity.

There are following group of children who can be placed in these institutions (orphanages):

1. minors who does not have parents as they died

2. children whose parents were deprived of parental rights

3. children whose parents waived their parental rights

4. children who grow up in a boarding school far away from their parents so parents cannot participate in their education

 5. children who live with parents but stay neglected.(1)

However, different international and domestic reports state that life in orphanages has a negative influence on children. First, the sickness rate increases in orphanages. Each country has it is own statistics. For example, in Russia minors who lived in the orphanages became sick twice often than children who lived in families in 2011. Also, has increased the number of children with problems in psychological and mental development, with chronic diseases.  Another problem is the average age when children living in orphanages begin to smoke and drink alcohol – 11 years old.(1)

Usually when a country has social problems connected with children it indicates the presence of other problems. For example, a significant number of children who do not have family and parents can be a result of recent war or weak economy. Therefore in many countries usually the system of orphanages is not well-developed and cannot provide good conditions for the children’s lives. It is well-known fact, these negative factors has a negative influence on them in their future.

Among the most serious disadvantages of the governmental orphanages’ system can be mentioned the following:

1.      Inability of most orphanages to hold a large number of children

2.      Break  of established earlier relationships with other children and teachers during the transferring to another institution as they reach the certain age

3.      Insufficient qualification of people who work with children. Sometimes there are too much children in orphanages and mentors do not have time for everybody

4.      Undeveloped educational methods used in orphanages

5.      Lack of interaction with society leads to the difficulties connected with minors’ inability to adapt to new life in their future when they leave the orphanages and begin adult life. (2)

Nowadays more and more countries realize that the system of orphanages is not effective and it is necessary to transfer these children to families. I agree with this idea. However, there are also some limitations of the transferring child to a new family. In this case government cannot control the children’s lives and thereby to protect it. Mass media tell us a lot of stories when children suffer from their new parents.

I also concern about other problems connected with children’s adoption. Usually, country that has a significant number of children living without families cannot solve this problem by its own population. For example, one of the social goals established in Russian social policy is to eliminate the phenomenon of orphanages in 5 years. Thus, the government has begun to encourage population to adopt the orphanages by creating different financial stimulus. As a result, a lot of children were adopted because of the desire to receive money. Many of these children were neglected and government was needed to replace them to the orphanages again.

Another problem is connected with the adoption of children by the foreign citizens. This problem is acute not only for Russia but for other countries too, for example, China. However, in this case the government cannot control the children’s life on another government’s territory.

Overall, there are two main problems in this situation: the government inability to provide qualitative care about children living without family and the government inability to control children’s life if they adopted.

What is better? Is it possible to solve the problem of orphans by governmental regulation or family help?

References:

Orphans as a social problem.(n.d.). (Translated from Russian). Retrieved from: http://kurs.ido.tpu.ru/courses/social_pedagogics/tema7.htm

Korchagina Julia. Problems of orphanes. (n.d.). (Translated from Russian). Retrieved from PsyCenter.ru: http://www.psycenter.ru/deti-sirotyi-osobyie-deti

Juvenile justice

This article I would like to write about juvenile justice and its models. I will start with examination of the international standards in this sphere.

Thus, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in the article 40 states:

“States Parties recognize the right of every child alleged as, accused of, or recognized as having infringed the penal law to be treated in a manner consistent with the promotion of the child's sense of dignity and worth, which reinforces the child's respect for the human rights and fundamental freedoms of others and which takes into account the child's age and the desirability of promoting the child's reintegration and the child's assuming a constructive role in society.  States Parties shall seek to promote…the establishment of a minimum age below which children shall be presumed not to have the capacity to infringe the penal law…

 A variety of dispositions, such as care, guidance and supervision orders; counselling; probation; foster care; education and vocational training programmes and other alternatives to institutional care shall be available to ensure that children are dealt with in a manner appropriate to their well-being and proportionate both to their circumstances and the offence.”

First of all, according to this article, countries should establish the minimum age for punishment. I think, this standard is not clear. Thus, the minim age for the penalty differs from age 10-12 (Ireland) to 16 (USA).

Second the existing in many countries correctional system is not effective as it based on punishment. According to this article the government should provide rehabilitation programs for the offenders. It is obvious that modern system does not allowed providing rehabilitation process.

In 60-70 years of ХХ century the old model of the juvenile justice existed. The main elements of this model was created  based on the idea  that offense committed by minors is the result of social, psychological and other types of difficulties he has. That is why this model excluded any punishment and provided inly rehabilitation. However, the number of offences committed by minors did not decrease.

The necessity to create a new model became obvious. The new model focused on punishment and excluded the rehabilitation process .The punish system was adopted from the punishment system created for the adults. The results of this approach are well-known. Unfortunately, most of the countries still implement this model. After the punishment most of the minors commit offences again and enter correctional institutions for adults.

 A new model, restorative justice recognizes all limitations of the previous models and focuses on rehabilitative process and offender’s responsibility. Although, it is consider the offender is  a person who has responsibility for his activity in society, it takes into consideration the age of offender.

There are some advanced countries that implemented the elements of the restorative justice. One of them is New Zeeland.

New Zelan has very interesting experience in the sphere of juvenile justice.  In this country the punishment for minors are replaced with new types of the recovery programs – family conferences.  Thus, offender’s family is also involved in this program.  Moreover, the participation is necessary not only for nuclear family but for all close relatives, such as, grandmothers, grandfathers, uncles and so on. The main principle is to involve a member of family who has authority in it and can influence on the minor’s behavior.  This principle is based on the idea that family has the main responsibility for the minor’s activity including all types of offences.   The gamily responsibility is recognized as the main difference between a child and an adult.

First, family listen the police report and after that child’s story and thoughts about the offence. Next step is family’s removing to another room where all relatives together develop the plan of reparation and rehabilitation for the child. The family takes all responsibility for implementing this plan by the minor. It is necessary to mention that family conferences are implemented for all types of offences if the offender admits his guilt. The exception is a murder committed by offender.

Also, one of the created innovations in juvenile justice is that the government tries to avoid offender’s stigmatization. Thus, after the process of rehabilitation and reparation is done based on the created plan, the information about the offender is deleted from the database. I think, this measure one of the most important as it provides for the children, committed offence in the past, equal opportunities as other member of the society have.

It is possible to conclude the main ideas of juvenile justice in this country (what should be everywhere) is the minor’s responsibility for the committed offence, support of his family and society.) Although, I did not find information about the government’s response to the offences committed by the minors who do not have family, I wish this model can be implemented in other countries, in my country, Russia, particularly.

References:

1.      International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. (n.d.) retrieved from Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human rights: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/ccpr.htm#art14

2.      Convention on the Rights of the Child. (n.d.) retrieved from Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human rights: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/crc.htm

3.      Restorative Justice(n.d.) retrieved from Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention: http://www.ojjdp.gov/mpg/progTypesRestorative.aspx

4.      Ludmila Karnozova. To the model of restorative Justice (translated from Russian). (n.d.) retrieved from: http://index.org.ru/nevol/2005-4/karn_n4.htm

The policy of USA-Mexican border reinforcement

                                   

In this article I would like to write about anti-immigration policy. I decided to choose this topic as it has an important influence on children of undocumented immigrants. As the illegal immigrants spend most of the time working or trying to find the job their child are deprived of the parents’ attention. Moreover, as it was demonstrated in the American film called “A better life” directed by Chris Weitz, parents struggle to keep their children away from immigration agents. As a result these children grow up in the atmosphere of hiding and with the feeling that they are offenders. They do not have any possibilities to feel that they are not oppressed by the society. Even if they were born in America and became also citizens, the society would not allow them to forget that they do not belong here. Especially these feelings are painful for the teenagers.  

As many other issues connected with policy or lack of it, this problem was worsened by it. Thus, The United States spent around 20 billion dollars on creating and improving border control in the past decade, but instead of the expected decrease in immigration level it has caused a significant number of deaths (Chomsky, A. 2007).

This strategy forces the immigrants to cross the border in more undeveloped, dangerous for life areas with extreme geographical and climate hazards. As a result, more than four thousand people, including children, lost their lives crossing the border. (Chacon, J.A, & Danis, M., 2006)

Although, there is no accurate data presenting exact numbers of people who cross the US-Mexican border every year; many statistics show that the border reinforcement has not decreased the immigrants’ attempts to cross the border.  This strategy has not achieved the expected results, because it has not been focused on the main people’s reasons to leave their homes, families and to immigrate to the foreign country. The only result of the border reinforcement is the increased number of deaths among immigrants (Chacon, J.A, & Danis, M., 2006).

Despite the evidence that reinforcement of the US-Mexico border is not effective, the current legislative proposals describe new innovations that would intensify the border policy. The Sensenbrenner-King Bill (HR 4437) offers to build five border fences in California and Arizona and to invest in it $2.2 billion. This proposal also recommends creating new, more effective technologies for the apprehending illegal migrants on the border (Chacon, J.A, & Danis, M.,2006).

Although, it is obvious nowadays that the attempts to control illegal immigration do not have any positive results, America keeps reinforcing the border because of the some reasons.

First, the border reinforcement is considered to be the visible attempt to defend the country from illegal immigration. So, this strategy is an easy move for the politicians to demonstrate that the government pays attention to the immigrant issue and makes an effort to solve the problem. Moreover, more than half of the American population has the opinion that the government should spent more money for the reinforcement of the USA-Mexican border. The second reason is that the border control became a national symbol after the tragedy happened on the 11^th September in 2011. The border reinforcement is considered to show that the USA is ready to fight with terrorism all the time even if it does not improve the situation. The third reason is that America needs immigrant labor. Undocumented immigrants are ready for any work with poor labor conditions and low salary. This makes illegal immigrants desirable for American businesses. That is why, there is a significant number of people who are not interested in increasing the number of legal jobs for immigrants (Skinner, D, 2005).

This policy has very negative influence on the youth. More I study about this problem more I think that the government worsen the situation. However, this policy also reflected opinion of many people in Americana. I can’t agree that population cannot influence on the government to change policy. It seems to me that there are much more people who are against this policy than citizens who support it. However, most of them are silent. Meanwhile people who agree with this are very active and propagandize their ideas. What should we do in this case? Maybe to start with ourselves?

References:

1.       Chacon, J.A., Danis, M. (2006). No one is illegal: fighting racism and state violence on the US-Mexico border. Chicago, Illinois: Haymarker Dooks.

2.      Chomsky, A. (2007). They Take Our Jobs! : And 20 Other Myths about Immigration. Boston, MA, USA: Beacon Press.

3.      Skinner, D. (2006). Illegal Immigration Across the U.S.-Mexico Border. Carlisle: Carlisle Barracks.

Little models

I would like to start this article with the Scandalous photoshoot published in the magazine “Vogue Paris” in 2011. On these pictures Tilan Blondo, young model at the age of ten, was represented as a woman with adult sexuality. After this photoshoot English Parliament restricted Child pornography laws. French government also created new measures preventing child pornography which will be implemented soon.  

 Thus, the production of adult clothes with children's sizes will be banned. Moreover, the beauty competitions for children under 16 years old will be prohibited. Finally, models under legal age will be forbidden to participate in advertising. 

Meanwhile Tilan Blondo is not only one famous child model in fashion business. Usually, fashion is considered as a business with high incomes for adults. However, each year more and more children become involved. There are a lot of children who are known as world-famous models, such as Mary Elle Fanning, Mackenzie Christine Foy, Ira Brown, and others.

There are several reasons why young models are popular in fashion. However, there is a main one. Fashion-industry companies prefer to invest in children due to low prices. Despite law-wage labor, children work hard as adults. They participate in shooting, advertisements, and fashion shows at any time. For all this activity their mothers and fathers who make all decisions receive money. Most children are told they need to be a star, to be famous. However, often it is parents’ desire which they had but could not realize.

They say, there are no graceless children. However, photographers scrupulously select young models for the business as the cost of mistake in fashion business is high. That is why the following characteristics are considered during the selection process: the child should be photogenic, has large expressive eyes, average weight, and clean skin. Also, very important role plays child character. It is necessary for young models to be confident and do not afraid to express themselves in front of the cameras.

Yong models usually can be divided into three groups: infants, children who just start walking, and children under age of 12. Competition in the children's fashion industry is high. It is difficult to stay demanded for a long time. Moreover, children grow up and their appearance changes. That is why career in fashion industry is not long and stable. However, nobody prepare little models that one day fashion industry will not need them.

Psychologists say young models surrounded by the attention in their childhood usually have problem in their adult life. Desire to be famous and feel admiration from funs becomes a drug for children involved in fashion industry. If they leave this business it can lead to serious social problems in their life.  It is difficult to adjust to new life where it is important to be involved on other activity. However, new type of work which does not make them famous they often do not like. This can lead to substance abuse problems in their future.

What do you think about this issue? Should children be involved in fashion industry? If not, how it should be restricted? It seems to me that children can suffer more psychically than physically, except cases where children can be abused. How it is possible to evaluate psychological damage and to prevent it without forbidding participating in fashion industry.

References:

Luxury Magazines (n.d.). retrived from: http://www.luxury-magazine.ru/stil/samaja-junaja-supermodel_4046.html

Children in fashion (n.d.). retrived from: http://www.24tv.by/articles/deti-modeli-rabota-v-mire-vzroslykh.html

Child labor (n.d.). retrieved from finalNews: http://finalnews.ru/tendentsii/detskiy-trud-malenkie-modeli.html

Street children in Russia

Russia is the country which is focused on modernization and innovation in the economic sphere. Russia is a developing country, though it has a problem on the way to realize all the ambitious plans. It is street children.

There is no exact statistics about the homeless children in Russia, so the state departments operate different numbers. There are several reasons for that. Firstly, there is no clear definition for the street children. The statistics mentions different children groups: neglected children, children with no parents, social orphans and so on.  Secondly, it is difficult to estimate the number of the street children as they often hide from people’s eyes. Some official sources say there are 700 thousand of them; others say there are almost a million of the street children in the country. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs they represent 2,17 % of Russian children, while the total number of children in the country is 28 million. Thus, rate is two street children per every hundred children.

Some characteristics of the Russian street children:

•  Most of the Russian street children are social orphans. Usually they have parents but choose not to live with them. The reasons for such a decision can be different: the poverty, the family conflicts, physical and psychological punishment, alcohol or drug abuse, etc.

• Most of the Russian street children decide to leave home because of psychological conflicts they experience there. The research conducted by the Russian Science Academy provides the following information: 68,2 % of the street children have psychological conflicts in the family or in the orphanages. 74,8 % of the street children want to be back to the family or orphanages. 9,2% of the street boys have a desire to serve in the army. 10 % dream to have a normal life, to create their own families and to have a job. There are 29,2 % of boys and 47,7 % of girls among the street children who do not want to be back to their past. 74,7 % of children has the desire to work. Usually, they want to be a driver, a teacher, a doctor, a soldier or a fireman. Most of the children see a good life as a future possibility after they survive during their childhood.

• · The street children live in groups. The children who are not involved into any group and who live by themselves represent only 15 % of the Russian street children.  

 

It is necessary to mention here that there is a shift in the phenomenon of youth criminalization, which is becoming more organized. Nowadays 70% of homeless youth crimes are committed by groups. This negative trend leads to the increasing of staying in a prison. Also homeless youth involve young people who have families but spend a lot of time outside home. Another negative tendency here is the increasing participation of youth in grownups criminal activity. One third of youth crime is committed by grownups guidance. Also we face the increasing rate of the homeless children from the Former Soviet Union countries. All the negative tendencies exist in the world perspective but it is more “popular” in Russia, a country with a street crime mafia and rich history.

The phenomenon of the street children is connected to the increasing number of parents who are deprived of their parental rights. However, according to the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs the significant part of homeless minors committing crime, comes from successful families without any financial problems. Their parents are not drug or alcohol abusers and they belong to a “normal” family type.

Most of the parents were grown up in the Soviet Union where financial success was a rarity. Now this generation spends much time and energy to give their children all they lacked themselves. However, while they are busy with the financial success they forget about other children needs. The lack of parental love and their participation in children’s life lead to children aggression and the desire to attract the attention by deviant behavior.

The transition to the capitalist system destroyed the old structure of socialization without creating a new one. As a result the number of free preschool institution, schools for children was reduced while the income level of the most families was not.  Now children have a limited access to public sport, music, draw, dance school and other children entertainment activity and recreation center which used to be a significant part in socialization. The secondary education turned to be optional and be the higher education became commercialized. It also effected in a negative way. Earlier it was obligatory to finish high school. Nowadays young people are required to study only nine years.  The last two years at high school are optional. Moreover, if the studying during these nine years was not successful for the child, he cannot continue the education. Meanwhile the institution of higher education requires to complete 11 years of high school. Quite many young people at their age of 15 do not continue their education nor do not work.

They do not need public education, the street gives them necessary for their  “unique” life: need something – take it no matter how. Unfortunately, this kind of education often leads to the sad future. It is a well-known fact that street children are the main reserve for the juvenile correction. According to the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs 60% of Russian street children became the criminal offenders.

There is a plenty of researches about homeless youth conducted by state and independent organizations (like UNISEF) as it is one of the main social problems in the country. Most of the recommendations are created to solve the problems and they can be divided into three groups: 

1.                  The improving interaction between organizations working with youth in the existing government system; the improving the law system and increasing the financial resources; the creating of special government body subordinated by President Administration and responsible for solving this problem.

2.                  The developing preventive methods.

I decided to tell about the Russian street children as it is the perfect way to illustrate how changing of the systems and values leads to the social problems. Russia transferred from socialism to the system of market relations because people were tired to be controlled by the government and they looked for a freedom to control their lives by themselves. Nowadays Russian people have more opportunities and possibilities than before, but they still expected the government to protect them from vulnerable groups of population. However, when people rely on the government, the obligation to concern children issues exists in every country.

It is often said in literature that street children exist in economically poor countries. However, the Russian example shows that it is not the key factor. According to the Ministry of Health and Social Development of the Russian Federation, the government spends averagely 1,7 thousand dollars on one orphanage per month. Most of the Russian children living with their families do not have such financial resources.  Moreover, there are different special programs.  However, it does not help to improve the situation. The critics say that the problem is that children are not involved to anything but study. It makes them to have a consumer attitude toward the government.  

The Russian history analysis shows that the country had a better success to reduce the number of the street children after the Russian Civil War and World War II. The devastated country with poor financial resources used to solve all these problems. The specialists speak about schools and communities with much attention to the labor education. Education and labor became the principals for the process of decriminalization. Thus children had a clear idea in the mind that they have to work hard, to earn their own money to survive and rely on them.

Do you think the government is able to protect the children without participation of the society? What are the concrete steps for the government?