The answers to all of your questions are inherent in the term “social worker” and the programming involved in being one.
You or I — THINKING people — would have done differently, but that norm doesn’t apply to individuals operating under the influence of a system that attempts to apply a programmatic “if - then - else” analysis to utterly illogical situations. To call that “psychopathy” is too kind.
I’m honestly surprised the first reaction was to phone the boss... Many of the “bad” social workers try to escalate the situation by bringing IN the cops it seems - not avoid escalation by seeking advice from their “boss” back in the office. If the programming you spoke of actually WAS working in these workers they would have called 911 immediately, IMHO.
I’m no fan of “Social Services”, but unfortunately there ARE some cases in which they are needed. The bureaucracy, craziness, and incompetence are duly noted, but not ALL people in the field are completely avowed Marxists/Socialists/Communists. SOME (the good ones) are actually people who CARE about children and do good by the ones who truly need the system.
Those on the borderline where extreme intervention is NOT necessarily needed aren’t helped by the “No Tolerance” laws in this area. However, when cases like this develop I can understand how it is hard to know where to draw the line between the rights of an accused or suspected individual and the unalienable rights of a child to NOT live in a dangerous or abusive situation.
The unintended consequences of such a system are unfortunate, but at the state and local level these ARE matters of criminality and I think the majority of unintended consequences are the result of overworked, understaffed workers and harried investigations and court cases. My experience with the courtroom part of this system was in Chicago - a more screwed up place I think you’d be hard-pressed to find. Most of the kids in the Cook County system are screwed whether left with an abuser or abused by those in the system itself - however, at least in the foster system some have a CHANCE of not being abused again if they truly are in a bad situation in their family.