Each entry includes Latin, and common names, description, habitat, range, and origin/age.

First Published in 2017. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an Informa company.

When adoptions fail to happen, the effects can be devastating on children and the families who chose to adopt them What if you were an adopted child and someone tried to remove you from the family you had grown to love? In the last twenty years, changes in laws, judicial decisions, social welfare practices, and the availability of American children for adoption have led to an increase in disrupted adoptions. When Adoptions Go Wrong: Psychological and Legal Issues of Adoption Disruption examines the psychological and forensic aspects of adoption with an emphasis on how negative events can affect children and the families that choose to adopt them—and how you can prevent those events from happening. When Adoptions Go Wrong is a comprehensive resource on the causes of interrupted adoptions, including changing profiles of adoptive parents who have new reasons for wanting to adopt. With the help of detailed case examples, this powerful book explores the impact of disruptions on the children, the legal issues of determining in whose “best interests” decisions are made, and possible methods of reducing the negative affects of those decisions on the children. It also stresses how important it is, for the professionals involved, to be aware of child development in the adoption process. Topics discussed in When Adoptions Go Wrong include: children's rights legal rights of gays to adopt tribal rights (Native Americans) open adoption individual state laws concerning adoption the media's coverage of child custody cases types of adoption the “Baby Jessica” case the Evan Scott case the “Internet Twins” inadequate social services family court and much more When Adoptions Go Wrong also suggests legislative measures to create uniformity in the way states handle adoption issues to help natural and adoptive parents in making difficult decisions. The book is invaluable for psychologists, judges and lawyers, social workers, and prospective adoptive parents.

With the new federal mandate to double, by the year 2002, the number of children in foster care who are to be adopted or placed in permanent legal guardianships, it is essential for adoption agency staff and prospective families to learn which factors contribute to successful and unsuccessful placements. Dr. Ruth McRoy's informative guide, Special Needs Adoptions: Practice Issues outlines what formulates a successful match between adoptable children with special needs and their prospective parents, and how the current placements can be improved. Dr. McRoy recognizes the challenges of building families through adoptions and offers specific training suggestions for special needs adoptive families and agency workers in order to improve adoption outcomes for children. The book is based on a research project designed to identify special needs adoptions practice issues that contributed to intact, disruptive and dissolved adoptions by collecting data from adoption supervisors, post-adoption service providers, and actual case records of adoption placements. Based on the findings, the characteristics of children needing adoptive placement are described, practice issues such as matching children and parents are addressed, and transition planning is discussed. Further, controversial placement issues including foster parent adoptions, single parent adoptions, sibling placement and transracial adoptions are dealt with. Special Needs Adoptions is a rich, resourceful guide for all of the parties involved in a special need adoption: state and private adoption agency staff, post-adoption service providers, child welfare policy makers and researchers. Special Needs Adoptions is also a wonderful resource for adoptive parents or prospective parents considering special needs adoptions.

Based on the author's personal experience as a mother who lost a child through adoption and her experience as a social worker who has worked extensively in the area of post-adoption counselling with adults, this resource graphically describes the disenfranchised grief associated with adoption and suggests ways in which that hidden grief can be acknowledged and confronted.

In fiscal year 2012 there were over 50,000 U.S. adoptions with public agency involvement. While the federal government does not track domestic adoption disruptions and dissolutions it is generally estimated that they represent 10-25% of total adoptions. Disruption is the term used to describe the process when an adoption is not finalized and the child is returned to their prior situation, usually foster care. Dissolution refers to the legal severing of the relationship between the adoptive parents and the child after the adoption has been finalized. In addition to the legislation and agency rules, governments at all levels are looking at post-adoption services to contribute to the prevention of adoption disruption and dissolution.