Abstract

This study consists of an archive research made on 119 judiciary case files regarding children adopted by a particular form of open adoption implemented from 2003 to 2008 at Juvenile Court of Bari. It was aimed to a) verify if the specific features of this adoptive form are observable in evaluated cases; b) describe typical paths that vulnerable children and families go through. Results, even if descriptive, have allowed to obtain a general panoramic of adoptive processes and describe problems and procedures tackled by children and families.