A Market Alternative to Child Adoption and Foster Care.
By The Cato Journal
- Release Date: 2003-01-01
- Genre: Politics & Current Events
Description
Every year almost one million children in the United States are victims of neglect or abuse. At a given time, about 581,000 children are in foster care and more than 125,000 are available for adoption. About 17 percent remain at least five years in foster care, a status that is intended to be temporary (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 2001). The average age of children in foster care is 10 years. Many older children cannot even be placed in foster care; 8 percent are in group homes and 10 percent are in institutions. Unfortunately, a significant number of children who spend large periods of time in foster care, which usually involves many different foster homes, tend to become criminals. A study in Rochester, New York, found that 90 percent of youths who experienced at least five family transitions became delinquent (U.S. Department of Justice 1999). Minorities seem to be over-represented in the foster care population. Black children, for example, comprise 39 percent of the foster care population and 42 percent of those awaiting adoption, while they represent only 12.3 percent of the population.
