Vera Shlakman

Unmarried Parenthood: An Approach to Social Policy

ILLEGITIMACY is probably the most emotionally charged problem to which social welfare programs are addressed. Public discussion of the issue is marked by a cross fire of conflicting values, and emotionalism and parochial attitudes and controls undermine efforts to formulate effective social policy. The provision of the social services that are available to unmarried parents and their children is motivated by many different interests and concerns: recognition of the unmarried mothers need for income and medical care; concern for the protection of the child; a desire to redeem the wayward girl through character reform; a sentimental wish to help conceal the shame of one who may be forgiven one mistake; and a preoccupation with preventing recidivism, a curious word to encounter in circles that often find the label of illegitimacy distasteful. Whatever the particular interests that have promoted social services for unmarried mothers, they have shaped them as special and peculiar services, apart from those provided for married mothers. Whether compassionate or self-protective, the impulse of the community has been to come to grips with the problem of illegitimacy, to reduce or prevent it, and to alleviate the suffering caused by it-but without the communitys having more than a partial understanding of it. The social policy maker must, on the other hand, proceed from a knowledge of its causes and of its dimensions and prevalence in various populations in order to develop an appropriate perspective for social planning. He must seek to locate the problem in its general socioeconomic

Book Review: Poverty amid Affluence: A Report on a Research Project Carried Out at the New School for Social ResearchPoverty Amid Affluence: A Report on a Research Project Carried Out at the New School for Social Research:OrnatiOscar. 208 pp., 1966. The Twentieth Century Fund, New York.

ings on counseling are presented. They are taken from responses to questionnaires that were sent to law schools, clergymen, physicians, practicing lawyers, and legal clients. Law schools seem to be the least adequate among professional schools in training students for interviewing and counseling. Unfortunately, the summary fails to delineate the basic research design. The author states that 20 per cent of 4,000 lawyers responded to the questionnaire, almost 15 per cent of whom were actually personally interviewed. Sampling procedures are not fully discussed for any of the respondents. It would have been beneficial if Freeman had included a copy of his questionnaire and any other pertinent material that would make his conclusions more meaningful. My negative reactions to parts of this book should not overshadow its value as a teaching tool. It is useful for law students and social work students, since it covers the full spectrum of legal counseling. It has the added value of increasing the awareness of both student and professional social workers of the skills of lawyers as counselors and the scope of their practice.