The Deshaney Case Analysis

Curry, L. (2007). The DeShaney Case: Child Abuse, Family Rights, and the Dilemma of State Intervention. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas.

Lynne Curry’s book The DeShaney Case: Child Abuse, Family Rights, and the Dilemma of State Intervention provides a detailed timeline of the tragic life of Joshua DeShaney and the abuse that he endured at the hands of his father. Curry also examines the interactions between the DeShaney family and state officials that could have intervened in the abusive situation. This book brings to life our Constitution’s fundamental values and makes us question: Does the Constitution protect children from their violent parents? Cases such as this one make us as a society question the safety of children

Winnebago County. Joshua’s biological mother, Melody DeShaney, filed a federal suit in the U.S. District Court in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, claiming negligence and a violation of Joshua’s constitutional rights. The case asks the question whether the government has the constitutional duty to protect a person from private harm, from a danger not of the government’s own creation. Meaning, did the state have the responsibility to intervene in the private family matters of the DeShaney household, and should they be held responsible for not intervening? Joshua’s injuries were not the fault of the Winnebago County Social Services Department, but surely if someone had spoken up about possible abuse, he may have been saved. The prosecution failed to prove that there was evidence of a “special relationship” that would have required the protection from the state officials, and the case was lost. Chapter five moves up to the Supreme Court with DeShaney v. Winnebago County. The prosecution argued that “when the child is at home, the door is closed to the world and his natural protectors become his predators the child has no other protector. Because of the existing, extensive relationship between the state of Wisconsin and the DeShaney family…the state had already put itself in the position of acting as the child’s protector and, having received “abundant actual knowledge” that Joshua was now in extreme danger in his

legal and constitutional history at Eastern Illinois University. She has other publications pertaining to very similar subject matter. Throughout the book, Curry manages to stay objective on the topic at hand about state intervention in family and children’s rights rather than take the side of an outraged advocate. One could argue that she is perhaps too fair on some of these individuals, especially DeShaney’s own father, Randy DeShaney, and the social worker, Ann Kemmeter, who failed multiple times to protect Joshua from his own father, or to alert anyone else that there was a real danger of this boy staying in the house. Kemmeter even visited the DeShaney residence the day before Joshua was admitted to the hospital, but was told that he had had an accident and was resting. Instead of pressing to see the boy, she helped the other family members prepare for a birthday party. Kemmeter never saw Joshua during this visit, and instead just took the word of the parents that he was sleeping. Randy DeShaney served and extremely light sentence of two years for the abuse he put his son through, and is now a free man. Kemmeter is now retired and is at peace with her role in the situation, believing that no more could have been done on her part. Curry’s telling of the story invokes many different emotions all at once, such as pain and sadness for Joshua having to live the rest of his life in such a handicapped state, along