Construction of Court Petitions in Cases of Alternative Placement of Children at Risk: Meaning-Making Strategies That Social Workers Use to Shape Court Decisions

This study examines court petitions constructed by 19 Israeli social workers in cases involving the placement of 37 maltreated children in alternative care. The petition is seen not as a systemic description of the child made by the social worker, but rather as a construction based on the social workers' understandings and interpretations with the aim of shaping court decisions. As such, the article describes a number of meaning-making strategies that social workers employ to construct petitions: (a) constructing the mother as "the problem,'' (b) constructing the story as one of "no change in sight,'' (c) constructing out-of-home care as the only solution, with no other alternatives, and (d) minimizing the narrator's personal involvement in the case. Implications for child protection officers are presented.