428为什么善良父母会被指控忽视孩子(New)讲述.doc

外刊赏读（《》2016年月日 本文摘选自《读者文摘》中一篇名为“The Criminalization of Parenthood: Why Are Good Parents Being Charged With Child Neglect?”的文章。几十年以前，父母让孩子在无人照看时玩耍还是很常见的事，今天这种行为很可能会让他们惹上大麻烦。父母因“忽视（neglect）孩子”而受到指控的新闻已经屡见不鲜, 但是许多父母认为那些被指控的“忽视”行为是孩子成长过程所必需的。本文中作者首先指出儿童保护服务I?①Parenting practices common a couple of decades ago are now considered neglectful, even criminal. ②It’s hard to estimate how common this trend is because neglect is classified differently from state to state and because the reasons parents are charged vary widely, but dozens of experts—including lawyers, economists, sociologists, and embattled parents—agree it’s a growing problem. II ①National data on the number of kids taken away from their families by Child Protective Services (CPS) show a troubling increase. ②But more than 41 percent of children removed were not found to have been mistreated. III ①That statistic is even worse when you consider the consequences parents face. ②Being investigated can add your name to a child-abuse registry, which comes up during employment background checks. ③There’s the threat—or reality—of being separated from your children. ④Legal fees. ⑤Criminal charges. ⑥Erika Doring was ultimately acquitted of her child-neglect charge, but only after she spent a quarter of her annual income on legal fees. ⑦Of course, no one wants to stop CPS from intervening where there is legitimate emotional or physical abuse or neglect. ⑧But that’s not these folks. IV ①“Parents feel like they don’t have the option of leaving their ten-year-old home to dash out to the store, because somebody could call the cops and start some legal nightmare,” says David Pimentel, an expert on how the legal system addresses child neglect. ②“They can’t let their kid walk home from school, because what would the neighbors think?” V ①In 2008, the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ National Crime Victimization Survey estimated that the rate of violent crime was 19.3 per 1,000 people over age 12—less than half the rate fro