Contributor

Randy Burton

Founder of Justice for Children; child abuse expert

In May of 1987, Randy Burton founded Justice for Children, a national nonprofit organization, to provide a safety net for victims of child abuse and neglect when existing agencies fail to help. while the Chief Prosecutor of Family Violence in Houston, he discovered that the legal system rarely considers the needs of the children, and, the agency created to protect children, CPS, has the stated goal of returning children to the home (and, the arms of the abuser.) This policy of “family preservation” has resulted in the continued abuse and, in numerous cases, deaths of these children.

Over the last almost three decades, Justice for Children has enlisted hundreds of volunteers to give a voice to the abused children. Justice for Children has advocated in court in hundreds of cases for abused and forgotten children and proposed and fought for legislation to address the inequalities in the present system for abused children. We have assisted thousands of others, including protective mothers, outside the court system – informing relatives of their rights and how to negotiate through the maze of governmental agencies. As a result, many children’s lives have been saved and futures restored.

Mr. Burton has been interviewed on ABC’s 20/20, Good Morning America , and PrimeTime Live, HBO’s America Undercover series, Donahue, CNN’s Nancy Grace Show, Oprah Winfrey’s O Magazine, The Discovery Channel’s Justice Files, and Fox’s Bill O’Reilly. He has taught at various law enforcement academies and published dozens of articles in newspapers across the country.

He has testified before Congress as well as various state legislatures and helped draft legislation creating the Texas Child Fatality Review Teams and the Adoption & Safe Families Act that was signed into law by President Clinton on November 19, 1997.

He has been an attorney in private practice since leaving the DA’s Office in 1987. All of his child advocacy work is done on a pro bono basis.

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