Article

Shattered Bonds: The Color of Child Welfare

Authors:
To read the full-text of this research, you can request a copy directly from the author.

Abstract

Shattered Bonds is a stirring account of a worsening American social crisis--the disproportionate representation of black children in the U.S. foster care system and its effects on black communities and the country as a whole. Tying the origins and impact of this disparity to racial injustice, Dorothy Roberts contends that child-welfare policy reflects a political choice to address startling rates of black child poverty by punishing parents instead of tackling poverty's societal roots. Using conversations with mothers battling the Chicago child-welfare system for custody of their children, along with national data, Roberts levels a powerful indictment of racial disparities in foster care and tells a moving story of the women and children who earn our respect in their fight to keep their families intact.

No full-text available

Request Full-text Paper PDF

To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the author.

... State-sponsored family separation is an enduring mechanism of racialized social control (Briggs 2020;Roberts 2002;Vasquez-Tokos and Yamin 2021). This article centers on one such example: the forced removal of American Indian children from their communities. ...
... These arguments assume the incompetence and immorality of Indian families and institutions. In a further example of erasure, they also glorify settler families and the settler state, despite their histories of abusive and racist child welfare practices (Roberts 2002;. ...
... Family separation has played a central role in the development of the modern American state and economy and in the construction and consolidation of the U.S. racial order (Briggs 2020;Roberts 2002). In the early years of the Republic, the separation of enslaved Black children from their families facilitated white political and economic domination (Roberts 2002;. ...
Article
Full-text available
Bringing critical race theory and settler colonial theory to bear on legal mobilization scholarship, this article examines the ongoing campaign to strike down the 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA). ICWA sought to end the forced removal of American Indian children from their tribes. If successful, the challenges to ICWA’s constitutionality stand to undermine tribal sovereignty writ large. Drawing on a content analysis of documents from 17 major court cases (2013–2023) and a unique dataset of public-facing documents from the leading ICWA challengers, I interrogate the argumentative architecture of this legal mobilization. I find that the campaign to strike down ICWA is structured around three ideological maneuvers: erasure, settler normativity, and reclassification. These maneuvers scaffold a fourth – colorblindness – and the claim that ICWA is an unconstitutional race-based statute. I show how ICWA adversaries use these ideological maneuvers to legitimate white possession of Indigenous children and delegitimize tribal sovereignty. While existing work tends to treat colorblind racism and settler colonialism as analytically distinct, these findings shed light on the linkages between the two. They also marshal empirical analysis to illustrate how the embeddedness of settler colonialism and racism in the law enables broad claims to and defense of whiteness as property.
... Nationally, social service and mental health workers were responsible for over 16% of reports made in 2019 (USDHHS, 2021). Social workers represent one of the most common professions with mandatory reporting obligations (CWIG, 2019a), placing communities with closer proximity to social services at greater contact with mandatory reporters (Roberts, 2002). Very little is known about how social workers are trained to think about, understand, or practice mandatory reporting. ...
... While the child welfare system is not a branch of the criminal legal system, it has and continues to frequently operate in collaboration with penal systems through CPS (Dettlaff et al., 2020;Jacobs et al., 2021). Of particular interest to this project is that child welfare systems disproportionately target and disrupt Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) communities (Bailey et al., 2021;Dettlaff et al., 2020;Fong, 2020;Roberts, 2002Roberts, , 2020. ...
... For example, Roberts (2020) invites us to trouble proposed reforms to transfer power, resources, and authority from police to health and human service workers given the role such professionals already play in regulating and punishing Black and other racialized and oppressed communities. Roberts (2002) and Raz (2020) argue that over time, the family regulation system's (Roberts, 2002) primary function shifted from social service to punitive investigation. Consequently, this research is more broadly concerned with the ways mandatory reporting automatically places social work(ers) and child welfare in relationship with law enforcement and criminal legal systems, deepening the relationship to carcerality while foreclosing alternative approaches to child abuse prevention and intervention (Bergen & Abji, 2019). ...
... Sociological studies on child protection systems have alerted to the coercive character of the system that results in children being unfairly taken away from their families due to structural factors (housing, unemployment, lack of basic services, etc.) (Edwards, 2016;Fong, 2020). Various studies have shown that child welfare policies target racially disadvantaged and impoverished families, making them more likely to lose their children to institutional care and/or be deprived of their parental rights (Briggs, 2021;Mack, 2021;Polikoff & Spinak, 2021;Roberts, 2002Roberts, , 2022. For this reason, Roberts has referred to this system as the 'family-policing system,' because she believes it better describes its purpose and effects, namely the policing of families. ...
... Following his analysis, the materials described in the report -the motacú roof, the mud walls and the earthen floor -are associated with 'backwardness', 'lack of progress', and 'Indianness' (Orlove, 1998, p. 217). One might wonder whether a description of the materials of the house would be given if the family lived in a middle-or upper-class home (Roberts, 2002). Van Vleet's (2009) study on informal adoption practices in Bolivia also shows that Bolivians in rural and indigenous communities are reluctant to state intervention due to the long history of oppression by these authorities. ...
... This oppressive logic also seems to operate in Isabela's case, emphasising her alleged lack of commitment while ignoring her work situation. Furthermore, Roberts (2002Roberts ( , 2022 describes how many disenfranchised Black parents are unfamiliar with the administrative and bureaucratic landscape of child protection. Isabela is a working-class Quechua woman unfamiliar with the institutional bureaucracies and rules and is therefore not aware of the possible consequences. ...
Thesis
Full-text available
Research on transnational adoption has paid insufficient attention to the perspectives of actors in countries of origin. This dissertation aims to examine transnational adoption from Bolivia by centralising the perspectives of families of origin, local child welfare and adoption professionals, and Bolivian adoptees. By focusing on their accounts, we gain insight into the prevailing ideologies and social mechanisms that structure the Bolivian child protection and adoption system. Particular attention is paid to the conditions and contexts in which child relinquishment, child removal and searches for relatives take place. This ethnographic study, based on an activist anthropological approach, was conducted mainly in Bolivia and draws on participant observation and in-depth interviews with more than 70 participants. The empirical findings suggest that impoverished and marginalised families who deviate from parenting ideals are more likely to become entangled in the net of the child protection system. In such cases, social investigations may be conducted on these families, which may result in their children being taken away if they do not meet the conditions set by child welfare professionals. However, these professionals are often hampered in their work by a lack of financial and material resources, which limits the conduct of research on family reunification and leads to more child removals. The study also questions the closed nature of the adoption system, which allows loopholes for irregular practices in the system despite the various safeguards and protocols put in place. In addition, the findings also point to the resistance expressed by families of origin and Bolivian adoptees in their search for restoration. The families of origin often long for information about their children, which may lead them to try to obtain information about their children or look for them themselves. In turn, Bolivian adoptees develop their own strategies to connect to their origins by seeking belonging and community. Finally, the dissertation proposes dismantling the oppressive logics and mechanisms of transnational adoption and calls for radically re-imagine new ways of caring for children and their families.
... Guardianship may be better aligned with the needs of many Black families in the United States than adoption. Guardianship is aligned with the deeply rooted traditions of Black Americans, in which extended family plays a central role in raising children, including employing informal kinship care arrangements (Roberts, 2001;Simmons-Horton et al., 2022). Guardianship is also aligned with the growing movement towards a kin-first culture in child welfare, valued for preserving the child's culture and family (LaBrenz et al., 2023;Miller, 2017). ...
... Some of the aversion to adoption is historical and cultural. Roberts (2001) describes adoption as an extension of the commodification of family separation rooted in slavery. Some scholars have called for refinement and reform of the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997, arguing that the impact of this legislation is mixed, especially for older and minoritized youth (The Center for the Study of Social Policy, 2009). ...
... Some scholars have called for refinement and reform of the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997, arguing that the impact of this legislation is mixed, especially for older and minoritized youth (The Center for the Study of Social Policy, 2009). Other scholars have called for the repeal of the Act, arguing that adoption "destroys familiar and community bonds" and subjects families to "extreme trauma" (Copeland, 2022;Roberts, 2001). This view of adoption highlights that a focus on the expansion of adoption may not be the best strategy to improve permanency for Black youth. ...
Article
Full-text available
Tensions in prevailing beliefs about permanency among judges, attorneys, and child welfare workers have broad implications for addressing racial inequities in the child welfare system. This mixed-methods study examined the permanency process for children in substitute care in a statewide system in the United States. The study emphasizes reducing disparities in permanency outcomes for Black youth. The study included in-depth interviews with 40 permanency professionals, including child welfare caseworkers and supervisors, child welfare system attorneys, guardians ad litem, and juvenile court judges. These interviews were followed by a statewide survey that drew on the information learned through the interviews. Via survey, 267 permanency professionals provided their perspectives on racial disparities in the permanency process and the impact of these disparities on Black children and families. Drawing from both datasets, tensions in prevailing beliefs and practices surrounding permanency among judges, attorneys, child welfare workers, and casework supervisors were identified. In the survey, Black permanency staff differed significantly from their non-Black peers in their perceptions of racial inequities in foster care and permanency work. It will take concerted efforts and cultural changes among child welfare professionals, service providers, and the court system to address disparities affecting Black children and improve outcomes for all children in foster care.
... This evaluation does not account for the harm caused by MR. While MR is often positioned as, at worst, a neutral practice, MR and subsequent FPS responses perpetuate and directly cause harm to children and families (Burton & Montauban, 2021;Cenat et al., 2021;Courtney & Dworsky, 2006;Courtney et al., 2007;Courtney et al., 2011;Courtney et al., 2018;Doyle, 2007;Fong, 2019;Henry & Lens, 2021;Hill, 2004;Hixenbaugh et al., 2022;HRW, 2022;Mack, 2021;Mandatory Reporting is Not Neutral, n.d.;McTavish et al., 2017;Meiners & Tolliver, 2016;Melton, 2005;Mountz & Capous-Desyllas, 2020;Pecora et al., 2003;Pecora et al., 2005;Raz, 2021;Rise & TakeRoot Justice, 2021;Roberts, 2002;Roberts, 2012;Roberts, 2019;Ryan & Testa, 2005;Sangoi, 2020;Sankaran & Mitchell, 2019;Shah & Feierman, 2021;Shpiegel & Simmel, 2016;Williams, 2020). In their meta-analysis of 42 articles on MR across 9 high-income countries including the United States, McTavish et al. (2017) found that almost threequarters (73%) described accounts of harm associated with MR and subsequent FPS responses. ...
... Finally, supporters of MR claim that it ultimately helps to prevent and/or treat child maltreatment (CAPTA, 1974;USDHHS, 2018). In actuality, MR creates barriers for families to access holistic support free from surveillance and punishment, hindering them from receiving the kinds of services that would truly prevent and treat harm (Fong, 2019;Jordan & Pritchard, 2018;Lippy et al., 2016;Lippy et al., 2020;Mack, 2021;McTavish et al, 2017;Rise & TakeRoot Justice, 2021;Rivaux et al., 2008;Roberts, 2002;Strozier et al., 2005). MR calls often lead to the removal of children from their homes, compounding trauma to families; in cases where families are kept together after they are reported, the FPS provides services that are often ineffective, incongruent with families' needs, and/or harmful to families (Burton & Montauban, 2022;Corvo et al., 2009;Henry et al., 2020;HRW, 2022;Mack, 2021;Rise & TakeRoot Justice, 2021;Sangoi, 2020;Victor et al., 2021). ...
... Because the FPS receives the majority of funding for these types of programs, prevention and treatment services disconnected from the FPS are limited, and families are primarily connected to them only after a reporter alleges child maltreatment (Burton & Montauban, 2021;Children's Defense Fund et al., 2020;Rise & TakeRoot Justice, 2021;Sangoi, 2020). Noncompliance with prevention and treatment programs provided through the FPS, even if they are not court-mandated, is often treated as unfit parenting and may be used to justify removing children from their homes-or, at the very least, triggers continued FPS surveillance of families, which can last years (Burton & Montauban, 2021;Rise & Takeroot Justice, 2021;Roberts, 2002;Sangoi, 2020;SCPL, 2021). Some caregivers and their advocates refer to these programs as "behavior modification programs" rather than treatment or prevention services, as their goal is often to ensure compliance from caregivers rather than to support them in caring for their children (Burton & Montauban, 2021, p. 656). ...
Article
Full-text available
This paper critically examines mandated reporting laws for child maltreatment within the profession of social work. It analyzes the history and current use of mandated reporting laws in the United States and debunks three assumptions that uphold the practice of mandated reporting: that mandated reporting is accurate in identifying child maltreatment; that mandated reporting is, at worst, a neutral practice; and that mandated reporting ultimately helps to prevent and/or treat harm to children. In the final section, the author presents guidelines for social workers to implement abolitionist reforms to mandated reporting. The author argues that, in tandem with growing calls to abolish the family policing system and reimagine child welfare, social workers should grapple with the implications of mandated reporting laws on families and the profession of social work and seek to reduce the harms of mandated reporting wherever possible.
... Canada and the US have among the highest rates of family separation through child protection systems (CPS) in the world, 1 with an inequitable impact on Indigenous and Black families. [2][3][4][5][6] These inequities reflect historical and ongoing colonization and structural racism that have long subjected Indigenous and Black families to systematic deprivation, surveillance and forced family separation. 3,7,8 Infants comprise the highest proportion of young people removed from their parents by CPS, representing nearly 14% of all children removed in Canada 9 and 20% in the US, 10 while also being least likely to reunify with their parents. ...
... [2][3][4][5][6] These inequities reflect historical and ongoing colonization and structural racism that have long subjected Indigenous and Black families to systematic deprivation, surveillance and forced family separation. 3,7,8 Infants comprise the highest proportion of young people removed from their parents by CPS, representing nearly 14% of all children removed in Canada 9 and 20% in the US, 10 while also being least likely to reunify with their parents. 11,12,13 Reporting to CPS in the prenatal and neonatal period is a common pathway to CPS involvement in infancy and is frequently associated with prenatal or neonatal substance exposure. ...
... llusion with carceral forces as evidenced by the foster care-to-prison pipeline is a well-documented example of the collusion between foster care and criminal jus�ce system involvement; social workers regularly work with police to achieve its goal (Brock-Petroshius et al., 2022;L. A. Jacobs et al., 2004;Murray et al., 2023;Richie & Martensen, 2020;D. Roberts, 2002;Summerset-Williams et al., 2021;Toraif & Mueller, 2023). In the United States, Black families are overexposed to state surveillance by FPS through a dispropor�onate amount of child maltreatment inves�ga�on, such that nearly 53% of all Black children will be exposed to an inves�ga�on by Child "Protec�ve" Services (CPS) compared to about 3 ...
... Mueller, 2023). In the United States, Black families are overexposed to state surveillance by FPS through a dispropor�onate amount of child maltreatment inves�ga�on, such that nearly 53% of all Black children will be exposed to an inves�ga�on by Child "Protec�ve" Services (CPS) compared to about 37% of all children (H. Kim et al., 2017;Krase, 2013;D. Roberts, 2002). The Hart Family Murders of 2018, the 2018 Kenny and Kelly Fry child endangerment case, and the murders of Cassandra Kilpatrick and Ahmad King are reminders of the enduring legacy of the racialized dynamics of coloniality, demonstra�ng how policing recedes once the child is removed from the Black family deemed "problema�c." ...
Thesis
Full-text available
In the complex landscape of Social Work, institutions often marginalize and erase the perspectives of Black women, reflecting settler-colonialism, colonial strategies, and perceptions. This reality necessitates methodologies that challenge and transform existing power structures. This dissertation, titled "Remembering, Relating, and Recording the Legacy of Black Women Social Welfare Providers," explores how white ignorance, white supremacy, and anti-Blackness collude in the Social Work Academy to erase Black women's contributions and reinforce their oppression and how Black women have a legacy of restorative, transformative, and loving care in resistance. The literature reviewed across three papers investigates the historical and contemporary erasure of Black women in social work by exploring topics such as Institutional Social Work, how Black women challenged institutions, the pervasive influence of colonialism, and the impacts of this erasure. I illustrate how the systematic marginalization of Black women's voices has shaped the field and argue that centering Black women can foster a more just and authentic understanding of social work. This study is grounded in Black Feminist Theory and Black Feminist Epistemology, informing the development of Subversive Social Work and Black Feminist Reconstructive Horizon Analysis (BF-RHA). The dissertation unfolds through three interrelated papers. The first sheds light on Black women's role in shaping Subversive Social Work practices. The second delves into a Black-serving, Black woman-led social welfare organization, exploring its motivations, norms, and values. The third offers a methodological intervention by introducing a humanizing analytical framework. Together, these papers remember, relate, and record Black women's legacy of multifaceted contributions to the survival of Black people before the existence of social work and propose an innovative research methodology that centers on their voices, norms, and feelings. This work builds a compelling case for a more accurate understanding of social work that resonates with Black women's lived experiences and epistemologies.
... Despite a dearth of research directly examining Title IV-E's impact on child and family outcomes, there is extensive data on the general experiences of and outcomes for children and families involved in the child welfare system over the 30 years since Title IV-E child welfare agency-university partnerships began. When we look at this data (which is the subject of the next section), a picture emerges of a system of family regulation deeply rooted in racism, classism, and misogyny (Davies et al., 2007;Dettlaff et al., 2020;Roberts, 2009Roberts, , 2020Roberts, , 2022Zhang et al., 2022). While IV-E training programs may help with worker preparation and retention, the oppressive aspects of child welfare are not due to retention issues. ...
... Advocates draw comparisons between child welfare and the U.S. criminal legal system, particularly in the way both systems engage in the institutionalized disruption of the Black family (Clifford & Silver-Greenberg, 2017;Roberts & Sangoi, 2018). The criminal legal system disproportionately engages in the punishment, control, and removal of Black men while the child welfare system punishes and controls Black women via the removal of their children (Alexander, 2020;Roberts, 2009Roberts, , 2012. In this way both systems are used to enforce raced, classed, and gendered power structures (Roberts, 2022). ...
Article
Full-text available
Social work has long been involved in child welfare practice. Though lauded as well-intended and admirable work, the profession's involvement in the child welfare system is fraught with contradictions, ethical tensions, and a legacy of historical trauma and deep mistrust in Black and Native American communities. Challenging this legacy requires an honest look at how schools of social work participate in policies and practices that work to uphold racialized surveillance and forcible family separation. Accordingly, this paper invites readers into a critical conversation regarding social work's collaboration with child welfare systems via Title IV-E training programs. To these ends, we draw on the conceptual framework of abolition as a useful tool for interrogating and disrupting social work's relationship to child welfare.
... People are incarcerated, detained, and deported through the denigration and devaluation of lived family relationships. Family separation, whether that be through deportation enforcement (see de Noronha 2020;Chan 2005), the denial of visitation in prisons (see Jardine 2019; Garneau and Lehalle 2021) or through child welfare systems (see Roberts 2002), is justified according to racialized, heteronormative ideas about gender, sexuality and 'the family'. These normative ideas are mobilized and enforced in profoundly restrictive ways, rendering some family practices and displays more legible, and therefore more 'protectable' than others. ...
Article
Full-text available
Bringing migration governance literature into conversation with carceral studies, this article offers a conceptual framework to account for the interconnectedness between migration governance in the global North and the racial logics of carcerality. It argues that criminalization, incarceration, detention, and deportation, converging as a carceral industrial complex, should be viewed in historically specific contexts as modes of racist exclusion that fulfill racial projects. The article first considers critical race scholarship on nation‐state formation to trace the historical and contemporary manifestations of racial exclusion within immigration legislation. Next, the article traces the carceral nature of migration and border governance, focussing particular attention to its expansion into the orbit of families and communities, to suggest that carceral migration governance crystalizes a set of power relations implicated in the reproduction of global racial ordering. To illustrate this argument, the final section engages the carceral migration racial governance framework through the empirical vantage point of ‘the family’ to advance an understanding of the work that carceral migration does for racial ordering and the production of disposable (family) life to those ends.
... One study that analysed cumulative foster system removals between 2000 and 2011 found that 1 in 17 U.S. children, 1 in 9 Black children, and 1 in 7 Indigenous children will experience foster placement before they turn 18, and data show that many FRS cases involve allegations of parental drug use at some point [130]. These disparities in FRS involvement are not because Black parents are using drugs or mistreating their children at higher rates; rather, it's because Black families, especially poor Black families, more often encounter state systemslike public hospitals and public benefits offices-and mandated reporters within these systems that monitor behaviour and drug use [131]. ...
... Through a robust body of qualitative and narrative research they highlight how the system disrupts parental authority, hinders children's relationship development, fosters distrust among neighbors, and harms maternal mental health. 7,[20][21] There is little evidence that contact with the child welfare system can improve outcomes for children or families. 22 The role of emergency physicians as mandated reporters and providers of frontline care to injured children makes them de facto gatekeepers to this unequal system. ...
Article
Full-text available
Child maltreatment remains a concerning source of morbidity and mortality in the United States, where more than 600,000 children are victims of abuse each year, with well-described, long-term consequences for physical and mental health. However, the US child welfare system is characterized by systemic racism and inequity. Black and Native American children are more likely to be evaluated and reported for suspected abuse despite evidence that race does not independently change their risk of being abused. Once reported to child protective services (CPS), these children are more likely to be removed from their homes and less likely to be reunited with their families than White children. Much of the inequity in this system starts at the front door, where a growing body of research demonstrates that bias regularly infiltrates decision-making in the initial clinical evaluation and management of suspected abuse. Minority children presenting to emergency departments (ED) are more likely to receive diagnostic testing and are more likely to be referred to CPS. In this editorial, we argue for the application of an equity lens to child protection in the ED. We discuss how emergency physicians can balance efforts to protect children from abuse with the imperative to protect children and families from the harms of an inequitable child welfare system. Our discussion concludes with concrete recommendations for emergency clinicians to participate in active bias mitigation and thoughtfully navigate their responsibilities as mandated reporters.
... Black and Indigenous children are uniquely overrepresented in the child welfare system (Ontario Human Rights Commission, n.d.); this pervasive crisis exists 'at all levels of decision making' in the child welfare system (Cénat et al., 2021). The overrepresentation of migrant and racialised families in the child welfare system can be attributed to over-screening and over-reporting [Pottie et al., (2015), p.32, p.59], often rooted in discrimination, racism, and systematic biases (Antwi-Boasiako et al., 2020;Derezotes et al., 2005;Drake et al., 2011;Roberts, 2002, as cited in Houston et al., 2021. No One is Illegal (2015) Vancouver published an article stating that the Canadian government deported 117,531 people between 2006-2014. ...
... The icwa established preference provisions for the removal and placement of Indian children in foster care, adoptive homes, or institutions reflective of the unique values of Native culture (icwa,1978). Although the icwa was established in 1978, its goals have yet to fully mate-rialize, with out-of-home placements of nai youth still occurring more frequently than non-Native (Brown et al., 2001;Children's Bureau, 2008;Donald et al., 2003;nicwa, 2022;Quash-Maha et al., 2010;Roberts, 2002). In 2016, the Bureau of Indian Affairs attempted to establish uniformity by publishing new Guidelines for Implementing icwa (2016). ...
Article
The purpose of this manuscript is to challenge injustices toward Native American In- indigenous (NAI) peoples within counseling professions. Distributive justice requires the systematic representation of NAI contexts, epistemologies, and recognition of Tribal Nation self-determination within counselor education and practice. The tenets of multicultural education frame an argument for distributive justice with the goals to (a) educate counselors on foundational knowledge necessary to work with NAI clients, (b) instill a greater empathy and ethic of care for NAI communities, and (c) motivate counselors to engage in systemic actions which support NAI futurity.
... While we use Bantuization as a heuristic device to articulate spatial manipulation in relation between production and social reproduction, this should not obscure the many ways in which capitalism manipulates social reproduction relations and coerces familial relations beyond production relations through capitalist state's carceral and welfare institutions. For account of such experience across kin networks among African American families within the US see ShawnDa Pittman (2023) and what she calls "grandmothering" and Roberts (2009) and the coercive role of so called "child welfare". 2. For instance, a majority of reported incidents of sexual violence and sexual assault are due to insufficient toilets (Kayser et al., 2021). ...
Article
Feminist social reproduction scholarship has shown how reproductive labor is critical in understanding the evolving dynamics of global capitalism. However, more work is needed to explicate the spatial dimension of this relationship to understand the various modalities through which social reproduction is enrolled in capitalist city-making processes and how these modalities are contested. Drawing on observations from multiple sites ranging from cities in the US to Mexico, we offer three examples to highlight strategies capitalist urban development uses to make care work invisible and marginal: bantustanization, gentrification, and informalization. In light of these spatial strategies that co-opt social reproduction in capitalist accumulation projects, we aspire to rethink the work of care in urban development and the possibilities to decouple it from the drive for profits through cross-sectoral coalition building and solidarity.
... legal system, through the dramatic growth of prisons and police, and later through increased punitive policies and practices in schools, as well as the family regulation (child welfare) and immigration systems (García Hernández, 2013;Nelson & Lind, 2015;Roberts, 2001). There are many intersecting social, economic, and political factors that contributed to the prominence of the punishment paradigm -the dramatic increase in prisons, police and punitive policies and practices across various social systems. ...
... Further, teens in the child welfare system, as well as those in families with lower socioeconomic status and education levels, are more likely to give birth as teenagers (Brittain et al., 2020). This point is especially important, as Black families are considerably overrepresented in the child welfare system, partially due to structural racism, mandatory reporting laws, and an encouragement of over-surveillance of these communities (Roberts, 2001;Roberts, 2022). ...
... There are striking parallels that can be drawn between the child welfare system and the criminal justice system. As Roberts (2002) writes, "the two institutions are remarkably similar... both populated almost exclusively by poor people and by grossly disproportionate numbers of Blacks" (201). 45 Black adolescents are more often referred to secure correctional facilities, while white youths with the same violent behavior and psycho-pathology are more often referred to mental health services as outpatients (McCabe et al., 1999;Stehno, 1982). ...
Preprint
Full-text available
Critical and contemporary analysis of the material conditions of Black children's lives, organized into four areas: incarceration, child welfare, suicide, and trauma. The objective is to examine the scholarship that deals with the conditions Black children face so as to situate it in the contemporary landscape of grassroots organizing and freedom work. The ultimate goal is to usher the needs, conditions, and development of Black children to the forefront of our minds as thinkers, scholars, and workers for all Afrikan/Black people.
... In this research, Roberts illustrates the ways that supervision from the state through the child welfare system particularly impacts Black. Roberts' work reframes the space of the family as one embedded with forms of policing and surveillance by way of state intervention and regulation through an expanded analysis in the texts titled, Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty (Roberts, 1997(Roberts, , 2001. This research draws from Robert's Black abolition feminist analysis and research of the family regulation system and how Black families are perceived socially and by state actors as not "properly" caring for children and young people. ...
Article
Full-text available
Purpose Typically understood in the United States to be a “protective” institution, the family is often a site of isolation and rejection for many transgender (trans), gender nonconforming, and nonbinary (TGNCNB) people. This paper introduces the concept of the “bad parents narrative” to describe the connections between isolation and rejection of TGNCNB people as a form of gender-policing, particularly of TGNCNB young people of color, as a structural arrangement that goes beyond simple “bad parents”. Method Through a methodological framework coined Critical Ethnographic Criminology, which includes people-based methods of interviews, this article includes evidence from interviews with eight TGNCNB people living across the United States to express how their experiences with gender policing from family shows more of a nuanced understanding of policing from family than simply “bad parents”. Results Findings from Black TGNCNB peoples’ experiences with gender-policing from family showed a noticeable understanding of their potential vulnerability to law enforcement and societal violence. Conclusions This article encourages research in the areas of queer family policing to divert from the “bad parents narrative”, because of its racialized suggestions and Black families particular understandings of their proximities to the carceral state. This article encourages more focus on the family as an institutional regime of power, and how that institution is permeated with policing and surveillance logics that are influenced by policing and law enforcement institutions. Ultimately, this paper seeks to contribute to criminological definitions of policing and surveillance, not only related to the experiences of TGNCNB people, but also for gendered and racialized people more broadly.
... This finding is consistent with earlier findings showing that reports of neglect are the most common reason for the removal of children from their homes (U.S. DHHS, 2022a). However, neglect is also the most commonly associated allegation with poverty, and has a deeply subjective definition (e.g., Roberts, 2009). As such, it is important to note that the implications of this finding are substantial for lower income families who may be struggling with resource needs. ...
Article
Background: Research shows general increases in child maltreatment reports in the U.S. However, less is understood about how reporting varies across states and changes over time, from a perspective of referral sources. While recent studies during COVID-19 reported a reduction in maltreatment referrals, predominantly school referrals, little research has examined changes in maltreatment referrals by referral sources before the pandemic and how different referral sources are associated with case outcomes, particularly out-of-home placement. Objectives: This study examined 1) variations across states and changes over time in maltreatment reporting by referral source and 2) the relationship between referral sources type and two case outcomes: substantiated maltreatment and out-of-home placement. Participants and setting: We used 2008-2018 data (N = 24,349,293) from the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System. Methods: We used descriptive trend analysis and pooled, fixed effects binary logistic regression. Results: We found gradual increases in reporting during 2008-2018, with substantial variations across states and referral sources. States rely differently on certain reporter types, while we see the largest increase in education referrals and a small decrease in social services referrals. Regression results showed that education referrals were less likely to result in out-of-home placement; law enforcement referrals were most likely to be substantiated, while social service referrals were most likely to result in out-of-home placement. Conclusion: This study makes unique contributions to literature by expanding our knowledge of referral sources and examining the likelihood of substantiation and out-of-home placement by referral source type. We provide child welfare policy and practice implications.
... For instance, in a study of providers and cannabis counseling during pregnancy, Black patients were 10 times more likely to receive punitive messages than White people (Holland et al., 2016). Due to the nature of family regulation or policing systems, which are terms used instead of "child welfare" to more accurately describe the way these unjust systems operate as tools of oppression (Roberts, 2009), providers are tasked to report patient behavior, which complicates care provision. Poor treatment, or even the expectation of stigma (Stringer & Baker, 2018), especially fears of child removal, prevents care seeking and decreases the likelihood of disclosure of substance use, increasing the risk of drug-related MMM (Morton et al., 2023;Open Society Foundation, 2018). ...
Article
In 2021, there were over 100,000 drug overdose deaths in the United States (US). Death rates have increased faster among women than men, particularly among Black and Indigenous people. Although drug overdose is a leading cause of pregnancy-associated deaths, birthing people are rarely emphasized in discussions of overdose and research and services remain limited. Data show increases in drug use and deaths among women of child-bearing age, with risks continuing in the postpartum period. Harms experienced by birthing people who use drugs occur in the context of broader inequities in maternal morbidity and mortality that lead to disparate reproductive health outcomes. Shared structural antecedents (e.g. intersecting sexism and racism, stigma, and punitive policies) underlie overlapping epidemics of overdose and maternal morbidity and mortality. Here we discuss the unique challenges placed on birthing people who use drugs and make recommendations on how to mitigate harms by improving access to and delivery of quality care and addressing unjust policies and practices. We highlight the need for integrated health services, clearer guidelines rooted in equity, and the need for changes to policy and practice that support rather than punish. To better serve individuals and families impacted by substance use, we need multilevel solutions that advance gender equity and racial justice to reshape and/or dismantle the systems that undergird oppression.
... Black and Indigenous children are uniquely overrepresented in the child welfare system (Ontario Human Rights Commission, n.d.); this pervasive crisis exists 'at all levels of decision making' in the child welfare system (Cénat et al., 2021). The overrepresentation of migrant and racialised families in the child welfare system can be attributed to over-screening and over-reporting [Pottie et al., (2015), p.32, p.59], often rooted in discrimination, racism, and systematic biases (Antwi-Boasiako et al., 2020;Derezotes et al., 2005;Drake et al., 2011;Roberts, 2002, as cited in Houston et al., 2021. No One is Illegal (2015) Vancouver published an article stating that the Canadian government deported 117,531 people between 2006-2014. ...
... African American children currently make up nearly one-half of the foster care population, although they constitute less than one-fifth of the nation's children. The racial disparity in outcomes-African American children, for example, also spend much more time in foster care than other children-creates great pain for families as well as distrust and suspicion of public agencies (Roberts, 2002). Therefore, responsive early interventions that can prevent unnecessary placement have powerful, longrange, and positive consequences. ...
Thesis
Full-text available
There has been growing recognition of the prevalence of domestic violence in our society. Domestic violence is a social vice that is likely to have far reaching consequences to children and to the society. The exposure of children to violence at home affects children's socialization. This study sought to investigate the causes of domestic violence and their effects on the learning of children in ECDE centres in Lugari District. The objectives that the study sought to establish were; causes of domestic violence; establish the effects of the factors of domestic violence on the learning of ECDE children; establish the performance of children who had been victims of domestic violence and suggest possible solutions to domestic violence in communities. The study employed the descriptive survey design. A sample of 15 ECD centres, 15 ECD teachers, 60 ECD children, one Chief and one Church elder was taken through purposive and random sampling techniques. Secondary data was collected from available literature such as books, journals, periodicals among others. The data for this study was collected from primary and secondary sources. Primary data was collected using questionnaires, interview schedules and observation method was also used. Data gathered was analyzed through descriptive statistics and results presented in frequency tables using frequencies and percentages. Majority of the respondents identified poverty within the society as a cause of domestic violence, together with drunkard ness, unfaithful within the family and by drug abuse. Exposure to immorality comprised of the highest rating of the forms causing domestic violence followed by abusive language rated secondly high and the exposure to violent scenes were rated thirdly high. The battery of children and exposure of children to harsh environment were rated the highest and low factors respectively for the existence of domestic violence. Exposure to violent scenes, the use of abusive language and the exposure to immorality were the least forms of domestic violence experienced. All forms of domestic violence have one purpose, to gain and maintain control over the victim.The effects of domestic violence were poor performance rated highest, followed by dropping out of school, reported cases of indiscipline and least being brain damage. The tragic reality is that anytime a mother is abused by her partner, the children are also affected in both overt and subtle ways. The children's performance of school tasks and tests varied significantly during the study with majority of the children performing below average compared to those who perform above average in their learning. The solutions towards domestic violence identified guidance and counselling as a major solution towards domestic violence victims. Majority of them were of the opinion that creating community awareness on the disadvantages of domestic violence was important. The creation of employment opportunities and formation of community based organizations were the least solution identified. The researcher recommends that there is need for the empowerment of children at home and school to enable them make good decisions, interpret school tasks and perform well in school tests. There is no easy solution to the problem of domestic violence as its elimination requires changes in the very nature of society.
... Further, Black girls often fail to receive equal opportunities for diversion-that is, discretionary prosecutorial strategies that assign disciplinary measures in lieu of formal criminal processing. This disproportionate treatment likewise extends to the foster care system where Black girls are three times more likely to be removed from their homes and placed in state custody than their white peers (Chesney-Lind, and Jones 2010; Roberts 2009). ...
Article
How do race and gender stereotypes affect public support for the punishment of Black girls? Across the USA, Black girls are suspended, expelled, arrested, and detained by educational and criminal justice institutions at disproportionate rates. Despite this, there is little research in political science investigating what drives this phenomenon. This paper uses original survey experimental data to examine how stereotypical public perceptions of Black girls shape support for their punishment and punitive policy more generally. We join previous research in finding race- and gender-based stereotypes intersect to produce a distinctive set of public perceptions rooted in the “adultification” of Black girls. In general, Black girls are seen as acting older than their age, more dangerous to others, and more experienced with sex than their peers. But, in an important extension, we also link these adultification stereotypes to support for harsher punishments for Black girls than for their peers and to support for punitive school policies more generally. Together, these findings point to the importance of understanding the intersectional nature of racialized and gendered public attitudes and help to draw the empirical link between the adultification of Black girls and support for their disproportionate punishment among the American public.
... This has led, for instance, to a research base that minimizes the harmful effects of the removal of children from their families. Family preservation approaches emphasize the responsibility of society to minimize the destructive potential impact of the child welfare system (135). Further, research products that overly focus on the child may inadvertently generate additional stigma toward children whose parents use substances. ...
Article
Full-text available
Substance use disorders are a common and treatable condition among pregnant and parenting people. Social, self, and structural stigma experienced by this group represent a barrier to harm reduction, treatment utilization, and quality of care. We examine features of research dissemination that may generate or uphold stigmatization at every level for pregnant and parenting individuals affected by substance use disorder and their children. We explore stigma reduction practices within the research community that can increase uptake of evidence-based treatment programs and prevent potential harm related to substance use in pregnant and parenting people. The strategies we propose include: (1) address researcher stereotypes, prejudice, and misconceptions about pregnant and parenting people with substance use disorder; (2) engage in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary collaborations that engage with researchers who have lived experience in substance use; (3) use community-based approaches and engage community partners, (4) address stigmatizing language in science communication; (5) provide contextualizing information about the social and environmental factors that influence substance use among pregnant and parenting people; and (6) advocate for stigma-reducing policies in research articles and other scholarly products.
Article
Fetal exposure laws mandate child welfare system referral for infants exposed to substances. Though these laws are relatively common, examinations of the consequences of child welfare system involvement for infants exposed to substances are less frequent. The purpose of this paper was to examine the impact of out-of-home placement at 18 and 36 months for substance-exposed infants. Using the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-being II (NSCAWII)’s sample of infants (<1 year) referred to the child welfare system for substance exposure (Feb 2008 – April 2009), we used propensity score weighting to assess the association between out-of-home placement in infancy with measures of child attachment, behaviors, and social and cognitive development at 18 and 36 months. Our results indicate out-of-home placement for substance-exposed infants may increase risk of negative developmental outcomes compared to keeping infants in their homes, and suggest social workers and practitioners should be cognizant of alternatives to out-of-home placement when evaluating cases of infant substance exposure. Our results also suggest policies that structure decision-making regarding testing and placement may ultimately help improve child outcomes.
Book
This study explores the relationship between crime fiction and adoption. A primary goal of this study is to investigate how the adoption trope reveals current cultural fears and fascination with kinship formations and essentialist notions of belonging, DNA and ancestry searches, and the controversial practice of adoption. Popular fiction, namely crime/detective fiction and the subgenre of adoption crime fiction, reflect scholarly debates within the field of Critical Adoption Studies, including but not limited to the ethics behind the adoption industrial complex and calls for its demise, struggles for reproductive justice, and redefinitions of parenting and kinship formations evidenced by LGBTQ and racialized identities. Another goal of this study is to highlight adoptee and birthparent voices and perspectives, illustrating how genre fiction can help to agitate for more inclusive representation. By intersecting elements of crime into the adoption story, these narratives illuminate the human cost and condition of current adoption practices.
Article
Full-text available
Reproductive rights and reproductive justice paradigms have long been viewed as incompatible, largely because of their divergent orientations to the notion of choice. According to this oppositional framing, reproductive rights approaches have centered the right of (white, middle-class, heterosexual) women to choose not to have children while reproductive justice organizing has focused on gendered, racialized, and classed obstacles to control over whether and how to have and raise children. Amid increasing examination of assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) vis-à-vis human rights principles, I see an opportunity to narrow the perceived gap between the politics of rights and justice. Human rights organizations and scholars are recognizing the stratification of medical infertility rates and ART access, and human rights courts are articulating the right to assisted reproduction as part of a fundamental right to reproductive health. In reframing the opportunity to choose assisted reproduction as a justice issue, I seek to unsettle the traditional bifurcation of these political logics.
Chapter
This paper explores the concept of gender as both enabling and constraining within social structures influenced by norms and meanings that shape our actions and identities. It argues that social structures, framed as networks of practices, establish relations which often embody sites of injustice by distributing power and opportunities unfairly. The paper further addresses how structural power and social injustice, particularly regarding gender, emerge through practices and norms deeply embedded in cultural frameworks. Finally, the paper discusses mechanisms of social critique and change, emphasizing the role of collective action in challenging dominant norms and ideologies.
Chapter
Full-text available
This chapter introduces the reader to the section, Race, Racism, and Digital Media . Chapters in this section ask the following questions: How does racism manifest online, and what effects does this have on young people, especially young people of color? Does technology contribute to, or challenge, racist structures or racial power dynamics? What types of technologies shape the ways youth experience and respond to race and racism? Technology is central to our understanding of the realities of race and racism in the twenty-first century. Concurrently, as the chapters in this section demonstrate, race and racism are central to the development of new digital technologies, online cultures, and online interactions. As young people spend increasingly more time online, it is imperative that we understand the risks and rewards that are associated with different online behaviors and contexts.
Article
For decades, policing has been the primary response to intimate partner violence (IPV) in the U.S. despite mixed evidence of its effectiveness and potential harmful consequences of policing for survivors and their families. This is the first study to examine the relationship between IPV policing (i.e., percentage of police-reported IPV incidents resulting in arrest) and family surveillance (i.e., child maltreatment report rates) at the county level. We hypothesized that family surveillance would be a harmful and racialized consequence of IPV policing because of direct coordination between police and family surveillance systems and the increased risk of child welfare intervention associated with parental arrest. Utilizing National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System and FBI National Incident-Based Reporting System data from 160 large U.S. counties (2000–2019), we used Poisson regression and modeled between- and within-county effects with overall and race-specific outcome data. We also conducted an interaction analysis by the percentage of Black residents in the county to assess differences by racialized groups and within different racialized contexts because policing and family surveillance systems disproportionately impact Black families. We found no overall association between the percentage of police-reported IPV incidents that resulted in arrest and child maltreatment report rate at the county level (RR = 1.004, 95% CI: 0.965, 1.044). However, the percentage of police-reported IPV incidents that resulted in arrest was positively associated with the Black child maltreatment report rate in large counties with a below-average percentage of Black residents (RR = 1.013, 95% CI: 1.006, 1.021). This study provides initial evidence that family surveillance is a harmful consequence of IPV policing specifically for Black families living in predominantly white counties. Findings should be considered when evaluating the U.S.’s heavy reliance on policing to respond to IPV.
Article
Full-text available
Inconsistent program engagement is a common barrier in neighborhoods where families face significant structural, economic, and wellbeing challenges. Sulphur Springs is an under-served, low-income, predominantly Black community in Tampa, Florida where funding efforts have catalyzed targeted service responses, yet many agencies continue to report barriers to engaging families in programs. Ethnographic research methods were used to better understand the barriers to engagement in programs at a neighborhood family center. Analysis of in-depth interviews with parents (n = 11) and staff (n = 7) revealed four key areas where participants perceived engagement challenges, including neighborhood conditions, relevance and fit, understanding of Black families’ needs, and program infrastructure. The authors highlight perspectives of parents and staff to give voice to important insights that are typically underrepresented in program development and illustrate the numerous—and often subtle—ways that racial ideologies inform program development and acceptance. This study offers suggestions for improving engagement by reconsidering approaches to programming that better meet the needs of Black families in neighborhoods like Sulphur Springs.
Preprint
Full-text available
Incarceration, Prison Industrial Complex, Black Women's History, Social Justice, Restorative Justice, Discrimination, Criminal Justice Policies License BY-NC-ND. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.14874.25285
Research
Full-text available
Gentrification, Food Deserts, Greenlining, Urban Planning & Poiicy DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.14874.252 2.2.28086.31044 A Systematic Review: Studies on Gentrification and Impact on Food Insecurity for the Poor © 2023 by Laurel Low-Depolo is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Article
Applying tools of linguistic anthropology to ethnographic research conducted in a California child welfare court, this article analyzes how commentary by attorneys and judges about the language practices of parents and other communicative practices normalized the dismissal of the voices of marginalized lay actors throughout their cases. This commentary is an example of what linguistic anthropologists describe as “metapragmatic discourse,” or the use of language to foreground language itself and what language can accomplish in social exchanges. I introduce the concept of “metapragmatic dismissals” to describe how attorneys and judges in the child welfare context positioned parents’ language practices and overall personhood as suspect, often before parents even entered the courtroom. I identify practices of silencing, voicing figures of disbelief, and the use of metapragmatic labels of “lies” and “excuses” as common forms of metapragmatic dismissals that are supported by norms of court procedure, standards of evidence, and institutionalized discretion. This concept provides new insights into legal experiences in child welfare courts and, more generally, offers a valuable analytical framework for scholars who study the intersection of law, language, and power.
Chapter
This chapter provides an overview of a variety of theories of family violence and considers their implications for prevention and treatment. The chapter begins by considering the various ways that “family” can be defined. A range of types of family violence, including intimate partner violence, elder abuse, child abuse, and teen dating violence are defined and statistics orient the reader to the prevalence rates of these forms of family violence. The majority of the chapter is devoted to reviewing theories of family violence from a range of disciplines including feminist theories, criminology theories, Black feminist criminology, and psychological theories, thus providing the reader with a broad range of frameworks with which to understand family violence, and design and evaluate prevention and treatment approaches.KeywordsFamily Violence TheoryFeminist Theories of Family ViolenceCriminology and Family ViolenceBlack Feminist Theory and Family ViolencePsychological Theories of Family ViolenceIntimate TerrorismSituational Couple Violence
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any references for this publication.