On ep. 2 and it's a total fucking gut punch. I don't know if I have the stamina to make it all the way through, it's absolutely devastating and infuriating. How far along are you?

And what does this do? Social workers are already massively overworked, and it’s not like there are tons of people competing for positions. It’s a field with very high turnover - a lot of people don’t last very long, because in addition to being grueling, the pay is very low. And unlike police work, social workers typically complete graduate degrees as part of their training. Head on over to socialwork if you want to learn more about what the job is like.

It’s something of an error to compare their success rate against police officers and detectives, regardless - much like social work, the effectiveness of law enforcement is often hamstrung by the system as well. In a lot of areas, police departments are massively understaffed. I’ve waited hours for police to follow up on a car smash and grab, for instance. And while you’re at it, check out the solve rates for murder cases across the country - it’s way, way lower than you think.

I watched this series today and had a totally different takeaway - that our social services can’t keep pace because they’re stretched far too thin,l.