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Children's Human Rights in the USA

Challenges and Opportunities

  • Book
  • © 2023

Overview

Authors:
  1. Yvonne Vissing

    1. Center for Childhood & Youth Studies, Salem State University, Salem, USA

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  • Proves that US children are worse off than children in less developed countries with a children's rights framework
  • Explains why a child-as-rights-holder view is a better fit to understand the changing demography of childhood
  • Shows how changing the framework we use to address children’s needs could improve democracy itself

Part of the book series: Clinical Sociology: Research and Practice (CSRP)

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About this book

This book critically examines why a human rights framework would improve the wellbeing and status of young people. It explores children’s rights to provision, protection, and participation from human rights and clinical sociological perspectives, and from historical to contemporary events. It discusses how different ideologies have shaped the way we view children and their place in society, and how, despite the rhetoric of children's protection, people under 18 years of age experience more poverty, violence, and oppression than other group in society. The book points to the fact that the USA is the only member of the United Nations not to ratify a children’s human rights treaty; and the impact of this decision finds US children less healthy and less safe than children in other developed countries. It shows how a rights-respecting framework could be created to improve the lives of our youngest citizens – and the future of democracy. 

Authored by a renowned clinical sociologist and international human rights scholar, this book is of interest to researchers, students, social workers and policymakers working in the area of children's wellbeing and human rights. 

Keywords

Table of contents (24 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xxv
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Part I

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1
      Download chapter PDF

    2. Introduction

      • Yvonne Vissing
      Pages 3-10

    3. Constructing the House on Which Our Nation Is Built

      • Yvonne Vissing
      Pages 11-16

    4. What Is a Child?

      • Yvonne Vissing
      Pages 17-38

    5. Framing of Children and Their Rights

      • Yvonne Vissing
      Pages 39-59

    6. Understanding the Foundations of Children’s Human Rights

      • Yvonne Vissing
      Pages 61-111

    7. Why Children’s Human Rights Are Important

      • Yvonne Vissing
      Pages 113-145

    8. Children’s Lives Are Different Today: More Reasons for Building a Children’s Human Rights Framework

      • Yvonne Vissing
      Pages 147-178

  3. Part II

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 179-179
      Download chapter PDF

    2. History of Children’s Human Rights in the USA

      • Yvonne Vissing
      Pages 181-212

    3. Framing Child Rights Within Academic Disciplines

      • Yvonne Vissing
      Pages 213-241

    4. Are Children Parental Property?

      • Yvonne Vissing
      Pages 243-269

    5. Are Children a Minority Group?

      • Yvonne Vissing
      Pages 271-285

    6. Stratification and Castification of Children

      • Yvonne Vissing
      Pages 287-311

    7. Rightsology

      • Yvonne Vissing
      Pages 313-328

  4. Part III

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 329-329
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    2. The 3 Ps of Provision, Protection, and Participation

      • Yvonne Vissing
      Pages 331-346

    3. US Systems of Child and Youth Provision Services

      • Yvonne Vissing
      Pages 347-365

    4. Systems of US Child Protection

      • Yvonne Vissing
      Pages 367-397
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Reviews

​“This book stands out as “the” book on the topic of children’s human rights because it is comprehensive, theoretical, and historical while also offering a wealth of empirical data and support. It is a useful reference book because of its comprehensive coverage. Your passion for children’s rights shines through in every chapter. You make an uncontestable case for including and taking seriously that children’s rights are human rights. And the book’s sober assessment—that the last 100 years our societal approach to children is abysmal and must change—is far from pessimistic. It is a wake-up call to action.” (Nazneen Khan - Chair & Associate Professor of Sociology, Randolph-Macon College, Ashland, VA)

“Children are the future of countries, and of our world. Current lack of knowledge and realization of their rights limits the ability of those children who deserve the promise for a better and brighter future. From the definition of the child to the debate of whether children are parental property to the active education of children’s human rights, this book provides a comprehensive perspective for the children’s human rights and addresses the fact that most people lack knowledge about children’s rights to have rights.  This book is the most welcomed one for academics and professionals advocating for the human rights of the children.” (Dr. Pinar Ioannides, Director of Research and Development Division “Hope For Children” CRC Policy Center, Cyprus) 

Authors and Affiliations

  • Center for Childhood & Youth Studies, Salem State University, Salem, USA

    Yvonne Vissing

About the author

​Yvonne Vissing, Ph.D., is a clinical sociologist focusing on pediatrics and community sociology. She is the author of 15 books about children's wellbeing and is the US policy chair for the Hope for Children UN Convention of the Rights of the Child Policy Center. She is a member of the Human Rights Council for the American Association for the Advancement of Science, member of the Steering Committee of the Human Rights Educators USA, former National Institute of Mental Health Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, and 2021 fellow at the University of Connecticut Dodd Human Rights Center Dialogue and Democracy Initiative.  She is a former board member of the National Coalition for the Homeless and the New Hampshire Juvenile Parole Board as well as a former family-child mental health counselor in Kentucky. She received the 2021 Distinguished Career Award in the sociology of children for the American Sociological Association’s section on Children and Youth. 

Vissing is professor and founding director of the Center for Childhood & Youth Studies at Salem State University, USA, where she is also co-founder of its Department of Healthcare Studies. Her research interests include human rights, clinical sociology, mental health, homelessness, community development, instrument development, public health, violence, social movements, sociology of law, mediation, and the use of dialogue to address community problems. She is also a Santa Claus expert who owns a small horse farm in New Hampshire.

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