Broken Three Times: A Story of Child Abuse in America

by Joan Kaufman

Broken Three Times is a story about child abuse in America. It begins with snapshots from a mother's abusive childhood, then fast-forwards to her family's first involvement with Connecticut protective services when her children are eleven and ten. After a brief investigation, the family's case is closed, and despite their many needs, they are not provided links to any ongoing supportive services. Over the next five years we see the children pass through nearly twenty placements, while their mother continually relapses on crack and moves from one violent relationship to the next. Each chapter of the book provides a launching point for discussing state-of-the-art policy, practice, and scientific updates relevant for understanding risk, promoting resilience, and improving the child welfare system. This book will provide readers with some information about innovations and recent improvements in the system, concrete steps to take to enhance practice, ongoing gaps in our knowledge, and
a deepening appreciation of the value of incorporating broad perspectives into this work--from neurobiology to social policy.

Genres: Nonfiction

160 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2016

Reviews

[Andrew]

A decent book with a tragically necessary message. It reveals several problems that the average person is totally unaware of. Unfortunately there was some inaccurate information and the author reveals some of their bias.

[Amy]

This should be mandatory reading for anyone working in or adjacent to the child welfare system. Beautifully, honestly offered narrative with research to further illuminate their story.

[Nicollette Wethington]

Broken Three Times was amazing, yet very informative. Joan Kaufman’s retelling of the family’s story and Sylar and Samya’s experience in the Connecticut child welfare system was eye opening. The family’s story is devastating most of the time and the way it was written makes you think the book is fiction, but it wasn’t and you have to remember that every one of the written experiences was felt by this family. After each chapter, Joan Kaufman included information from research on different policies and why or why not the steps taken by each social worker was correct. R

I was given this book to read for my Social Work Child Welfare class and I believe if you are planning on entering any branch of the social services field or you are already working in the field, you need to read this book. But I would recommend it to anyone and everyone.

[Cassi Giwojna]

wow. heartbreaking but so important to read. anybody considering working in any sort of career where you may be involved with child welfare (social workers, caseworkers, foster parents, psychologists, etc) NEED to read this book.
huge thank you to my professor at UWEC for assigning this.

[Isabella Melville]

I wish there were more pronounced trigger warnings for this book, but it was overall very informative.