By CARLY GARCIA

As the world regains normalcy following a global pandemic, intercountry adoption has taken a hit. Intercountry adoption within the United States reached its peak in 2004, with 22,988 children placed with families. Since 2004, the United States has seen a drastic decrease in intercountry adoption rates. In 2020, only 1,622 international adoptions took place in the United States; slightly increasing in 2021, with 1,785 children adopted. There are multiple causes for the decline in adoptions. For example, origin countries, such as Russia and Guatemala, have terminated their international adoption programs with the United States. More recently, the leading cause of this decrease is the COVID-19 pandemic. Many countries, including China, placed adoptions on hold as the coronavirus took over the world. In contrast, other countries such as Colombia and Bulgaria, relaxed their visitation rules to allow international adoptions to continue.

The current intercountry adoption laws and treaties protect children’s rights and prevent illicit adoption practices. The Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption (“Hague Convention”) and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (“UNCRC”) established safeguards to ensure that intercountry adoptions occur in the “best interest of the child.” However, protection for adoptive parents and birth parents is left to the laws of the country in which they reside. For example, in the United States, the federal statute governing intercountry adoption is the Intercountry Adoption Act of 2000 (“IAA”). Unfortunately, despite the multiple treaties and statutes implemented to prevent illicit adoption practices, fraud still occurs

California Western International Law Journal, Vol. 53, No. 2 [2023], Art. 11

By Katherine Covell and R. Brian Howe

This book examines the risk factors surrounding children at risk of experiencing and perpetrating violence, and looks at the positive role that children's rights can play in their protection.The authors propose that violence in childhood is not spontaneous: that children are raised to become violent in poorly functioning families and child-unfriendly environments. They may be exposed to toxic substances in utero, to maltreatment in infancy, to domestic violence or parental criminality as they grow up. Each of these risk factors is empirically linked with the development of antisocial and aggressive behaviour, and each reflects a violation of children's rights to protection from maltreatment. The authors show how respecting children's rights and safeguarding them from exposure to violence can shift the balance between risk and protective factors and, as a result, reduce the incidence and severity of childhood violence.

Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2008. 288p.

By Craig D. Uchida, Marc Swatt and Shellie E. Solomon

One particular at-risk population for exposure to violence is children with incarcerated parents. While empirical evidence is scant, there is reason to suspect that this population is exposed to violence at higher rates than the general population (DeHart and Altschuler 2009; Greene, Haney, & Hurtado 2000). We further suspect that given the confluence of risk factors associated with parental incarceration and exposure to violence, these children are at heightened risk for multiple violent victimizations and exposures to violent incidents over the life course. It is also likely that children with incarcerated parents face heightened risks for negative outcomes associated with exposure to violence due to additional trauma experienced during the process of parental incarceration and the lack of a stable home environment after incarceration that interferes with positive coping. Assessing the degree to which parental incarceration compounds the effects of exposure to violence is critical for formulating comprehensive strategies by both the justice system and social service agencies for addressing the needs of children with incarcerated parents. In order to address this critical gap in our knowledge regarding exposure to violence among children with incarcerated parents, this paper looks at the existing literature for answers and suggests further research that would fill the gaps.

Miami, Justice & Security Strategies, Inc., 2012. 25p.