Research Paper on:
Social Workers and Violence

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
efforts to improve their lives. However, they also protect those in our society who are too young to aid themselves -- our children. Therefore, particularly when social work impacts the  lives of children, workers can often inadvertently trigger an instinctive response toward violence. In 1998, Lisa Putman of Detroit, Michigan, was bound, gagged, and tossed into a bathtub to die  because she was performing her job as a state social worker (AP, 2002). The 28-year-old Michigan State University graduate was murdered by a Macomb County client and the clients sister  in what Putman thought would be a routine home visit in a child protection case (AP, 2002). Previously, Putman had obtained a court order to have the clients children  removed from the home and placed with grandparents because the clients house was too filthy for the children to safely live there. Putman was revisiting the home two days later  to see if the client had cleaned sufficiently to warrant the childrens return. The client and her sister grabbed Putman and hit her with a hammer. According to court testimony,  Putman cried out, "Why are you doing this to me?...Im just trying to help you" (AP, 2002). Surprisingly, the blows with the hammer did not kill Putman. The sisters bound  and gagged her and pulled a plastic garbage bag over her head before leaving her in a locked bathroom. Putman suffocated. As a result of this tragedy, Michigan changed  state law to allow social workers who are making potentially volatile home visits to do so in pairs or with a police officer (AP, 2002). Furthermore, the Michigan law calls  for state social workers to be trained on how to recognize and avoid potentially dangerous situations. Also, the law in Michigan now indicates stiff penalties for anyone even threatening Family