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Child Welfare Reform: Protecting Children or Policing the Poor
... These findings can be attributed to a number of factors including changes in risk related to the social safety net. For example, in the 1990s Ontario experienced a reduction or restructuring of socio-economic programs such as social assistance, affordable housing, subsidized day care and recreational services (Swift & Parada, 2004;Trocmé, Fallon, MacLaurin, & Copp, 2002). Reduced safety net may increase risk of maltreatment as families may not have resources that could serve as protective factors against risk (Kim & Drake, 2018). ...
... In 2000, Ontario's child welfare legislation was amended and since that time, child welfare organizations have been making decisions on risk of harm using a lower threshold. They no longer need to intervene in families' lives based on imminent risk, but they are able to investigate families on the grounds that a child is likely to be harmed (Ministry of Children, Community & Social Services, 2018;Swift & Parada, 2004;Trocmé, Fallon, MacLaurin, Daciuk et al., 2002). The change may have been driven by inquests in the 1990s into the deaths of children who were receiving services through child welfare organizations, media attention, the fear of liability, and the implementation of structured assessment tools (Swift & Parada, 2004;Trocmé, Fallon, MacLaurin & Copp, 2002). ...
... They no longer need to intervene in families' lives based on imminent risk, but they are able to investigate families on the grounds that a child is likely to be harmed (Ministry of Children, Community & Social Services, 2018;Swift & Parada, 2004;Trocmé, Fallon, MacLaurin, Daciuk et al., 2002). The change may have been driven by inquests in the 1990s into the deaths of children who were receiving services through child welfare organizations, media attention, the fear of liability, and the implementation of structured assessment tools (Swift & Parada, 2004;Trocmé, Fallon, MacLaurin & Copp, 2002). The deaths of a number of children involved with the child welfare system raised serious questions about the ability of the child welfare system to keep Ontario's children safe (Trocmé, Fallon, MacLaurin & Copp, 2002). ...
Background
Black-White disparities in child welfare involvement have been well-documented in the United States, but there is a significant knowledge gap in Ontario about how and when these disparities emerge.
Objective
This paper compares incidence data on Black and White families investigated by Ontario’s child welfare system over a 20-year period.
Methods
Data from the first five cycles of the Ontario Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect (OIS) (1993–2013) were used to examine trends in child maltreatment investigations involving Black and White families. Incidence rates were calculated. T-tests were conducted to assess statistically significant differences between and within cycles. Population and decision-based enumeration approaches were also used to examine child welfare disparities.
Results
The incidence of investigations involving White families almost doubled between 1998 and 2003, but for Black families the incidence increased almost fourfold during the same period. These increases and the difference between Black and White families in 2003 were statistically significant. The results further indicate that Black families experience disparate representation in Ontario’s child welfare system over time for most service dispositions.
Conclusions
Several possible explanations are offered for the study’s outcome, including changes in risk related to social safety net, the threshold for risk of harm, and bias and racist institutional policies and practices. This study invites policy-makers and child welfare authorities to rethink service delivery in addressing the disparate representation of Black families in the child welfare system.
... On the other hand, the topics of costs and restraining orders almost always occur together with at least one other topic. The surge in child protection cases in the late 1990s and early 2000s is likely related to a wave of child protection reforms implemented in several provinces in the late 1990s following the deaths of children connected to the child welfare system [207]. Child protection agencies received an increase in funding, and the threshold for state intervention was lowered in many provinces, such that child protection agencies were less required to demonstrate efforts to achieve a resolution that would keep the child in the family before proceeding to court [207,208]. ...
... The surge in child protection cases in the late 1990s and early 2000s is likely related to a wave of child protection reforms implemented in several provinces in the late 1990s following the deaths of children connected to the child welfare system [207]. Child protection agencies received an increase in funding, and the threshold for state intervention was lowered in many provinces, such that child protection agencies were less required to demonstrate efforts to achieve a resolution that would keep the child in the family before proceeding to court [207,208]. These proceedings are not connected to proceedings for divorce or other legal measures associated with relationship breakdown. ...
... The dynamics of the number of insolvency cases brought under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act gives an empirical picture of the responses of large corporations (and their lawyers) to court and legislative policy developments. The late 1990s surge in child protection cases in family law is also striking and may lend support to criticisms of legislative changes in Canada that lowered the threshold for intervention by child protection agencies [207,208], although this would require more in-depth research to examine and understand in more detail. ...
Humanity's understanding of complex societal phenomena is still in its infancy, and there is much to discover about the organizing principles governing social life on Earth. How do societal structures such as social hierarchies form, and under what conditions do these structures remain stable versus become unstable and collapse? What is the structure of the jurisprudence that regulates modern human societies and how does it evolve in time? In this thesis, I apply quantitative analysis and modeling approaches from physics and network science to investigate these questions.
In Part I, I develop simple models of the formation and stability of social hierarchies and compare their results to interaction data from animal societies and proxy data from human societies. The models are based on pairwise interactions between randomly-selected individuals that result in exchanges of societal "status." Following many interactions, a distribution of status forms, the shape of which ranges from egalitarian (many individuals with near average status) to very unequal (many low status individuals and a few high status individuals), depending on the model parameters. An Arrhenius relationship between a characteristic time controlling the evolution of the status distribution and the model parameters quantifies "long-lived" status distributions which appear to be stable in time, but in fact are not.
In Part II, I analyze citation networks of court decisions (judgments) in the areas of family, bankruptcy, and defamation law, using unique datasets covering all levels of the Canadian court hierarchy (trial, appellate, and Supreme Court of Canada). In each network, judgments are "nodes" and judges' citations of past decisions are directed "links" between nodes. Despite the legal differences between the three areas of law, many large-scale network properties are similar. However, one can use refined network tools (clustering methods) to draw out differences in the datasets and interpret them in relation to legal developments (landmark judgments and important legislation) in the specific areas of law. This leads to an in-depth examination of the influence of landmark judgments and statutory changes on the explosion in family litigation that occurred in Canada in the 1990s.
... The first deals with longstanding perceptions by some Aboriginal and racialized communities of being racially discriminated against by child welfare services. The second concerns the occupational experiences of racialized child welfare workers within a system critiqued by many scholars to be racially biased against non-Whites, particularly racialized families that are poor and led by single females (Baskin, 2007;Chand, 2000;Clarke, 2010;Dumbrill, 2003;Roberts, 2002;Strega, 2007;Swift & Parada, 2004;Thobani, 2007;Todd & Burns, 2007;Weaver & Congress, 2009). However, little research has been devoted to the workplace experiences of racialized child welfare workers. ...
... Moreover, concerns have been raised that Aboriginal and non-Whites, particularly families led by single female parents of lower socio-economic status, come to the attention of child welfare authorities more often and receive different services than their counterparts who are White, middle-class, and led by dual parents (Clarke, 2010;Courtney et al., 1998;Hogan & Sui, 1988;Strega, 2009). The concept of mother blame has been presented to ease understanding of the ways in which child welfare services unfairly blame and punish women for structural issues beyond their control, such as poverty, lack of affordable housing, and violence against women (Scourfield, 2003;Strega, 2007;Swift, 1995;Swift & Parada, 2004). Hence, race, gender, and socioeconomic status seem to be factors implicated in the delivery of child welfare services. ...
Drawing on focus group data highlighting the perceptions and experiences of racialized child protection workers in the Greater Toronto Area, this article explores the ways in which race operates in the Ontario child welfare system. Most study participants experienced the agencies in which they worked as White-normed environments characterized by systemic racial discrimination in promotion and advancement as well as ongoing instances of racial microaggression—common, everyday practices that denigrate people of color. Several participants spoke of having to contend with White-normed and middle-class-oriented policies, tools, and practices that often prevented them from meeting the unique needs of racialized service users. The article concludes with participants' recommendations for creating a more equitable child welfare system.
... It is challenging to assess the benefits and harms of child welfare interventions, including out-of-home care, as it is unclear if the differences between groups are reflective of the services or differences in a broad range of baseline factors, including socioeconomic status, caregiver educational status, immigration status, family risks, child welfare worker propensity to place children, and children's safety and well-being at the time of placement [16][17][18][19][20][21]. There has been increasing recognition of the high service demands on CPS and child welfare more broadly in high-income countries [22], as well as ongoing calls to reform child welfare so that it better meets children's and families' needs [23][24][25][26]. While much attention has been paid to the need for primary prevention of child maltreatment [27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37], to date there have been no comprehensive summaries of authors' recommendations for improving child welfare (secondary and tertiary prevention efforts involving child welfare). ...
While there have been ongoing calls to reform child welfare so that it better meets children’s and families’ needs, to date there have been no comprehensive summaries of child welfare reform strategies. For this systematic scoping review, we summarized authors’ recommendations for improving child welfare. We conducted a systematic search (2010 to 2021) and included published reviews that addressed authors’ recommendations for improving child welfare for children, youth, and families coming into contact with child welfare in high-income countries. A total of 4758 records was identified by the systematic search, 685 full-text articles were screened for eligibility, and 433 reviews were found to be eligible for this scoping review. Reviews were theoretically divided, with some review authors recommending reform efforts at the macro level (e.g., addressing poverty) and others recommending reform efforts at the practice level (e.g., implementing evidence-based parenting programs). Reform efforts across socioecological levels were summarized in this scoping review. An important next step is to formulate what policy solutions are likely to lead to the greatest improvement in safety and well-being for children and families involved in child welfare.
... This will mean that more families will get investigated for things that may not actually be abuse. Child welfare organizations may have become more intrusive or investigated families at lower risk because of the inquests into deaths of children in the 1990s that involved children who came to the attention of child welfare organizations, media criticism of child welfare services and the fear of being held liable should a mistake be made (Goddard et al., 1999;Swift & Parada, 2004;Trocmé, Fallon, MacLaurin, & Copp, 2002). The eligibility spectrum also lowers the investigation threshold because its focal point is not only about maltreatment that has occurred, but also the risk of maltreatment. ...
In examining 20 years of data using the first five cycles of the Ontario Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect (OIS-1993 to OIS-2013), Antwi-Boasiako, King, Fallon, Trocmé, Fluke, et al. (2020) found that the incidence of child welfare investigations in the province doubled for White families between 1998 and 2003; the incidence of child welfare investigations for Black families quadrupled for the same period. This paper continues to examine the overrepresentation of Black families in Ontario by focusing on the implementation of standardized decision-making tools, specifically the Ontario Risk Assessment Model. The results from this study suggest that reports of physical abuse and exposure to intimate partner violence may be key factors for the overrepresentation of Black children in Ontario’s child welfare system over time and they may be potential explanations for the quadrupling of the number of Black children investigated by Ontario’s child welfare system. The rate of physical abuse investigations involving Black families tripled significantly between 1998 and 2003, from a rate of 11.25 per 1,000 Black children in 1998 to 34.68 per 1,000 Black children in 2003. Exposure to intimate partner violence investigations dramatically and significantly increased 29 times for Black families, from 0.57 per 1,000 Black children in 1998 to 16.16 per 1,000 Black children in 2003. The use of the Ontario eligibility spectrum and the lowering of risk threshold have likely contributed to a greater proportion of Black families investigated by the Ontario child welfare system. Key recommendations include the involvement of the Black community in the development of decision-making tools so that the tools can account for both risk and culturally-based protective factors in the Black community. Both public and private sector institutions also have a role to play in addressing the cultural and structural issues that may be the root cause of the challenges Black families face.
... Although it may seem that these acts are grounded in the personal capacity of the individual social worker, professionals require a conducive working environment to help them remain compassionate and thoughtful practitioners. Such a working environment is becoming harder to achieve under a neoliberal regime in which practitioners are occupied with risk assessments and administrative duties that reduce the time and attention they devote to their clients (see, for example, Fargion, 2014;Parada, 2004;Swift & Parada, 2004). ...
The helping relationship between a client and a practitioner is often described as the heart and soul in social work. This research explored the helping relationship between social workers and clients (the clients were mothers) in the context of public social services in Israel. The results presented here are part of a larger ethnographic study that included interviews with 14 social workers, 20 mothers who are clients, and extensive participant observations and textual analysis. Presented in this article are the results pertaining to the essential elements of the helping relationship as perceived by the research participants. Social workers and clients pointed to similar elements that comprise a good helping relationship: love and support; trust and feeling safe; listening and feeling understood; making an effort to help; humanness, compassion, and sensitivity; availability, continuity, and being there when needed; and chemistry. Participants' accounts exemplify the importance and centrality of the helping relationship in social work. The article concludes with a discussion of the study's implications for practice, policy, and research.
... The work by Hegar and Hunzeker (1988) underlines the impact of the bureaucratic characteristics of the child welfare institution, where professionals are expected to implement decisions and guidelines. These institutional standards have an influence on the way caseworkers look at families, whether they will judge certain situations as problematic and the elements they will consider important to collect (de Montigny, 2003;Swift, 1995;Swift & Parada, 2004). The entire decision-making ecology framework provides a better understanding of all those interactions, and more studies using that model are to be encouraged. ...
Objectives: This study examines, from the caseworkers' point of view, which needs of children are the most difficult for parents in neglectful contexts to respond to and which risk factors make this response more difficult. Method: A sample of 55 parents being followed by child protection services for neglect or high risk of neglect accepted to participate in the study. Their caseworker filled out a grid regarding the response provided to the children's needs and the risk factors in the family environment. Results: The results indicate that the children's age is related to the difficulties of responding to their needs. The caseworkers are particularly concerned about guidance and boundaries provided to preschool-age children, but less so about that provided to school-age children. When the children's age is controlled for, parents' mental health problems explains a significant proportion of the variance in parents' response to their children's need for stimulation, emotional warmth, and guidance and boundaries. Caseworkers' worries about drug and alcohol misuse also explain a significant proportion of their concerns about the mothers' ability to ensure their child's safety. Conclusion: Caseworkers are more worried about the parental response offered to preschool children than to
school-age ones. However, a constant and coherent response to growing children is still important for their developmental trajectories. Moreover, mental health and substance abuse explain caseworkers' concerns about mothers' engagement toward their child. These data raise questions about which type of services to offer, because intervening in families where parents deal with personal issues while addressing child neglect is complex.
... Final for CUP 18.11.16 5 Research, largely from North America, emphasises the link between welfare reform and child protective services involvement (Derr and Taylor, 2004). Swift and Parada (2004) consider child welfare policy as a mechanism for 'policing the poor'. ...
Research linking social and penal policy has grown extensively in recent years. Wacquant (2009) suggests that retrenchment of welfare support and expansion of the penal system work together to bear down on marginalised populations in a ‘carceral–assistential net’. Empirical and theoretical examinations of these regimes are often underpinned by gendered assumptions. This article addresses this limitation by foregrounding the experiences of women; qualitative interviews offer an insight into their experiences at the intersection of welfare and criminal justice policy in austerity Britain. Their reflections make visible the complex, heterogeneous raft of social assistance, institutional neglect and intensive intervention that characterises women's experiences of the ‘carceral–assistential net’. The evidence presented suggests that for marginalised women interventions intensify once behaviour becomes problematic or in times of crisis. While some interventions are valued by those engaged there is little significant impact on their socio-economic position.
... A large increase in children apprehended and taken into government care has occurred since the mid-1990s in Canada, to the degree that relative to other economically advanced nations, Canada has an extremely high proportion of children in state care and in the justice system (Trocme et al. 2005 ). In Ontario alone, a 56 per cent increase occurred in a fi ve-year period, with 11,609 children in care in 1998, rising to 18,126 in 2003(Swift and Parada 2004. The number of children in care across Canada increased from 40,000 in the early 1990s to 76,000 in 2000 (Farris-Manning and Zandstra 2003 ); whereas in New York, which implemented a family preservation policy, the number dropped from 49,365 in 1992 to less than 19,000 in 2002 (Offi ce of the Public Advocate of New York 2002), and the overall number of child abuse complaints declined by 52 per cent. ...
... This in turn might jepordise the therapeutic bond of the social worker-client relationship (Wexler, 2006). Engaged in a reflective process, Elana might be able to see how 'the state', through its welfare policies on families in distress, practices policing and surveillance in ways that often reproduce and perpetuate families' distress (Swift and Parada, 2004). Wexler (2006) points to the growing need for social workers working with vulnerable mothers to examine their own mother-blaming attitudes and to develop feminist, holistic and reflective approaches for intervention. ...
A fundamental dyad in public social services is woman to woman. In Israeli public social services, it is often mother to mother. This multi-faceted encounter is complex and in this theoretical article I wish to deconstruct and situate the social worker–mother encounter in a broader context, a social–cultural–national one. Taking a feminist perspective, I will explore how the personal and private social worker–mother encounter is a political and public one. Analysing western ideologies of the ‘Good Mother’ together with those of the Israeli-Jewish mother, this article aims to develop a theoretical understanding of macro mechanisms that shape the social worker–mother encounter. Being conscious about what influences that encounter might benefit social work clients, practitioners, researchers, and policymakers.
The home is a central place where women's identity as 'mother' is socially constructed and negotiated. Social policy is inexorably implicated in (re)producing these dominant visions of mothers, mothering, home-making and home. Yet, we know very little about how these same social policies are also implicated in women's loss of home. The article begins to address this evidence-gap. It draws on biographical research with homeless women to explore the ways in which key governing frameworks (associated with child protection processes, housing allocation policy and temporary accommodation provision in England) interact with women's status as mother, to shape the spaces they inhabit as home or not-home, materially and emotionally. We present data that illustrates how women's capacity to retain, make or rebuild a family home in times of crisis is significantly hampered by the policies and procedures they encounter in housing and social welfare systems.
The literature on the overrepresentation of Black children in the child welfare system is well established, yet little is known about the experiences of Afro-Caribbean families as service users. This article draws on qualitative data from in-depth interviews with Afro-Caribbean mothers and youths to understand how they perceive and experience the child welfare system. The analyses were informed by the theoretical frameworks of critical race theory and critical race feminism. Findings indicate that Afro-Caribbean service users are caught in a complex institutional web of racism, classism, and sexism, which marginalizes and criminalizes them.
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