{"id":29849,"date":"2016-07-29T08:31:36","date_gmt":"2016-07-29T12:31:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/?p=29849"},"modified":"2016-07-29T08:31:36","modified_gmt":"2016-07-29T12:31:36","slug":"anonymous-tip-you-will-get-caught-you-will-get-punished","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2016\/07\/anonymous-tip-you-will-get-caught-you-will-get-punished.html","title":{"rendered":"Anonymous Tip: You Will Get Caught. You Will Get Punished."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

A Review Series of Anonymous Tip, by Michael Farris<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Pp. 337-339<\/em><\/p>\n

First\u00a0we get an \u00a0update on Donna\u2019s relationship with Stephen:<\/p>\n

Donna Corliss heard from Stephen Stockton about once a week by phone. She wrote to him two or three times a week. He wrote rarely. The girls in D.C. were interesting, but none had yet captivated his imagination. Donna still loomed somewhere in his affections, if not his loyalty.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

First of all, Stephen, you are a D-bag. But also, life before the internet was weird<\/em>, man. I had a penpal in 2001, when I was in high school, and we used email. But this book was published in 1996. The letters bit still strikes me as odd though\u2014why not just talk more frequently by phone? Anyway, the real takeaway is that things haven\u2019t definitely ended between Stephen and Donna yet, but it\u2019s pretty obvious Stephen is doing the bare minimum to keep things up on his end.<\/p>\n

So next we get three pages of discussion between Donna and Rita. Donna is becoming less concerned about the investigation, because the police haven\u2019t asked to speak with her. She\u2019s worried, though, that Olympia may send a computer team to do a full review of the computers, an internal investigation of sorts.<\/p>\n

Actually, let me pause here to discuss that possibility, because it\u2019s actually an interesting one. The entire point of Gail\u2019s defense\u2014arguing that social workers can\u2019t be sued for things they do once a case has been opened\u2014is that social workers who engage in misconduct are supposed to be punished not by being subject to a civil lawsuit but rather by being subject to an internal review and being fired, and perhaps also legally prosecuted, for failing to uphold their duties. This can and does happen.<\/p>\n

For example, four social workers in California are currently being charged<\/a> for falsifying records and other misconduct in a case involving an eight-year-old boy who was beaten to death by his mother.\u00a0The child and his mother were known to social services, but social workers did not make the visits they were supposed to make and then falsified records after the boy\u2019s death to make it look like they had<\/em> made those visits. The misconduct was turned up in an internal investigation after the boy\u2019s death. The four social workers are being criminally charged for their negligence and for the\u00a0falsification of public records, and face up to ten years in prison each.<\/p>\n

In other words, the courts that set the precedent Peter is finding himself up against didn\u2019t\u00a0rule that social workers can\u2019t be sued in civil court because they want social workers to be able to do whatever the hell they want, but rather because they deemed that the accountability provided by internal review was a better assurance\u00a0than that provided by allowing anyone ever investigated by social services to sue social workers on any pretenses. Now sure, you could end up with a situation where an entire state\u2019s social services administration is corrupt. But even then you do have the legislature to provide accountability, and presumably the feds can be called in to conduct an investigation of their own if need be.<\/p>\n

Olympia coming in and conducting an internal investigation is exactly how this is supposed to work:\u00a0i.e., when allegations of fraud arise, the higher-ups\u00a0come in and\u00a0conduct an internal review. Rita assures Donna, though, that Olympia won\u2019t do that as long as the case is outstanding, because they\u2019d have to turn anything they found over to Peter, who is suing the state. They both agree that after the case is over, Olympia\u00a0will come in and conduct\u00a0an internal investigation, and that they need to be gone by then.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not sure whether a state agency would put an internal review on hold in a situation like this, waiting for the lawsuit to end before conducting an internal investigation\u2014it actually seems like doing the\u00a0investigation might be in their best interests, as it would put everything above board and make it clear they\u2019re not hiding anything\u2014but either way, it\u2019s clear that if Peter doesn\u2019t catch and punish\u00a0Rita and Donna, the state agency will. And that, quite frankly, is how it\u2019s supposed to work.<\/p>\n

This is perhaps the central irony of this book\u2014far from scaring parents about big bad evil social services, it tells a story where the bad guys face justice, not just from the book\u2019s Good Christian Hero, but also from their own agency\u2019s internal process. Donna and Rita are under pressure to find new jobs and move, out of concern about what\u00a0a pending future\u00a0internal investigation will reveal. Blackburn died, but even if he hadn\u2019t, even if his attempt to run had been successful, he\u2019d be a fugitive from the law, never able to get another job in his field. The consequences of committing fraud are clear.\u00a0You will get caught. You will be punished. That seems like a rather comforting message for any conservative parent worried about child protective services overreach.<\/p>\n

Anyway, Rita says she\u2019ll talk to a friend in Sacramento about getting a job for the social services lobbyists in that state, and Donna says she\u2019ll hopefully marry Stephen and move to D.C., which she suspects wouldn\u2019t be seen as suspicious. Rita says that as a legislative analyst she\u2019d try to pass laws that better allow social workers to effectively do their jobs, so that they don\u2019t have to engage in any hijinks to catch child abusers. Donna says she\u2019s not sure whether Stephen still wants her. The scene closes.<\/p>\n

I have a <\/b>Patreon<\/b><\/a>! Please support my writing!<\/b><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is perhaps the central irony of this book—far from scaring parents about big bad evil social services, it tells a story where the bad guys face justice, not just from the book’s Good Christian Hero, but also from their own agency’s internal process. <\/p>\n

Click through to read more!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":845,"featured_media":29850,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[469],"class_list":["post-29849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-anonymous-tip"],"yoast_head":"\nAnonymous Tip: You Will Get Caught. You Will Get Punished.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This is perhaps the central irony of this book---far from scaring parents about big bad evil social services, it tells a story where the bad guys face justice, not just from the book's Good Christian Hero, but also from their own agency's internal process. 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