Wasted: The Plight of America's Unwanted Children

In this angry, hard-hitting book, Murphy-- the public guardian of Cook County, Ill.--argues that state agencies and the legal system don't always use good judgment in trying to keep families intact. Although he acknowledges that even marginally conscientious parents are usually better than the institutional care the state can provide, he claims to have seen too many cases of children brutalized by parents who lack skills and concern. In Murphy's view, the system originally designed to protect children now regards irresponsible parents as society's victims and protects them instead, in effect ""preserving families [and] killing children."" While separation from parents can be damaging, the author makes the point that in many cases it is less so than allowing children to remain at risk. He reserves particular scorn for critics of interracial adoption and suggests that ""residential care"" (orphanages) sometimes provides a more stable and nurturing environment than foster care. Murphy's snarling tone occasionally undercuts him, as does as a marked tendency to argue from anecdotal evidence. But unlike many social critics, he lists practical ideas for rehabilitating the system, such as reclassifying abuse and neglect into three separate categories for legal redress, and restructuring child welfare bureaucracies into two agencies, one to provide services and the other to investigate child abuse. These suggestions alone make the book worth reading. (Sept.)