Applied Ethics for Child Protection: What Would Aristotle Say?

ABSTRACT

For many years, modern child protection systems have been criticised for their over-reliance on technical rational approaches to practice. It has been suggested that such approaches fail to appreciate the complex nature of child protection work and the importance of good professional judgment which goes beyond strict adherence to the likes of practice manuals and risk assessment tools. Furthermore, these approaches may be hindering rather than improving practice. In this article I say why Aristotle’s virtue ethics offers a good guide for informing good professional judgment in child protection. Namely, it moves practitioners away from being bound to prescribed modes of practice to an ethical frame that values the good character of the practitioner which includes an ability to exercise practical wisdom considered essential for determining good decision making. By drawing from Aristotle’s concept of phronesis (translated as practical wisdom), and focusing on the child protection ‘first home visit’ I identify key elements for good professional judgment in child protection. These elements are: exercising the moral virtues; being guided by the goal of practice; drawing from analytical reasoning, intuition, emotion and experience; finding the golden mean; and engaging in reflective practice.

KEYWORDS:

• Child protection
• home visits
• virtue ethics
• assessment
• professional judgment
• decision making
• reasoning

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 For example, Section 10 of the Children, Youth and Families Act 2005 in Victoria states that ‘For the purposes of this Act the bests interests of the child must always be paramount’.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Karen Broadley

Karen Broadley, MSocSci, BA has more than 20 years’ experience working in child welfare. She has held a number of roles within the child protection system, including high-risk infant specialist, adolescent consultant, programme management and leadership positions. Karen has researched in various areas of child welfare, including a critique of the public health model; intervening to protect children from chronic maltreatment; violence against workers; risk assessment and child protection decision making. Karen is currently completing a PhD at RMIT University in Melbourne.