Criminalization of Prenatal child abuse Drug/alcohol use, prenatal care
Maternal drug abuse is part of an ongoing array of familial, cultural, and social institutional process within which the child is nested and in which the growing child participates (Claussen, Scott, Mundy, & Kratz, 2004). In the case of child abuse, women have become the main targets in the legal system dealing with prenatal care. There are many factors that affect in fetuses' or children's health during and after pregnancy. With lack of support from the government women are forced to find places to get help for them and their child. As a result of these costs, many prosecutors see pregnant women as child abusers. Their justification is that making prenatal drug exposure a crime would ultimately protect the health and well-being of infants (Zivi, 2000). In the past decade prosecutors have charged more than 200 women with crimes for prenatal drug exposure (Chavkin et al. 1998 cited in Zivi, 2000). Even......
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