Torn apart : how the child welfare system destroys Black families--and how abolition can build a safer world /
Roberts, Dorothy E., 1956-
Torn apart : how the child welfare system destroys Black families--and how abolition can build a safer world / Dorothy Roberts. - First edition. - vii, 375 pages ; 25 cm
Includes bibliographical references (pages 309-360) and index.
Introduction : A benevolent terror -- Destroying Black families -- "They separate children at the Harlem border, too" -- Professional kidnappers -- Rotten at the root -- Strong-armed -- The foster-industrial complex -- Family surveillance -- Carceral entanglements -- Structured to harm -- Criminalizing Black children -- Care in place of terror.
"An award-winning scholar exposes the foundational racism of the child welfare system and calls for radical change. Many believe the child welfare system protects children from abuse. But as Torn Apart uncovers, this system is designed to punish Black families. Drawing on decades of research, legal scholar and sociologist Dorothy Roberts reveals that the child welfare system is better understood as a 'family policing system' that collaborates with law enforcement and prisons to oppress Black communities. Child protection investigations ensnare a majority of Black children, putting their families under intense state surveillance and regulation. Black children are disproportionately likely to be torn from their families and placed in foster care, driving many to juvenile detention and imprisonment. The only way to stop the destruction caused by family policing, Torn Apart argues, is to abolish the child welfare system and liberate Black communities"--
9781541675445 1541675444
2021036512
Child welfare--Government policy--United States.
African American families--Government policy.
African American families--Social conditions.
Racism in social services--United States.
Social work with African American children.
Torn apart : how the child welfare system destroys Black families--and how abolition can build a safer world / Dorothy Roberts. - First edition. - vii, 375 pages ; 25 cm
Includes bibliographical references (pages 309-360) and index.
Introduction : A benevolent terror -- Destroying Black families -- "They separate children at the Harlem border, too" -- Professional kidnappers -- Rotten at the root -- Strong-armed -- The foster-industrial complex -- Family surveillance -- Carceral entanglements -- Structured to harm -- Criminalizing Black children -- Care in place of terror.
"An award-winning scholar exposes the foundational racism of the child welfare system and calls for radical change. Many believe the child welfare system protects children from abuse. But as Torn Apart uncovers, this system is designed to punish Black families. Drawing on decades of research, legal scholar and sociologist Dorothy Roberts reveals that the child welfare system is better understood as a 'family policing system' that collaborates with law enforcement and prisons to oppress Black communities. Child protection investigations ensnare a majority of Black children, putting their families under intense state surveillance and regulation. Black children are disproportionately likely to be torn from their families and placed in foster care, driving many to juvenile detention and imprisonment. The only way to stop the destruction caused by family policing, Torn Apart argues, is to abolish the child welfare system and liberate Black communities"--
9781541675445 1541675444
2021036512
Child welfare--Government policy--United States.
African American families--Government policy.
African American families--Social conditions.
Racism in social services--United States.
Social work with African American children.