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cjamison0151's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
sad
medium-paced
4.0
nuhafariha's review against another edition
5.0
Dorothy Roberts painstakingly and eloquently summarizes how Child Protective Services often functions as an extension of the criminal legal system and disproportionately impacts families of color. She traces the current family policing system back to slavery and notes significant developments along the way. I found this book eye-opening and heartbreaking. Highly recommend!
archytas's review
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
As you would expect from Roberts, this is thorough - both in research conducted and presented and in the range of topics covered - angry and incisive. Roberts' thesis is that the US foster fare system is intended not to protect children, but to traumatise and disempower Black families. She draws a clear line from slavery, to post-reconstruction and urban poor laws, to the foster system to argue that the systems have had a continuity of control, incarceration and trauma. Her coverage is often damning - it is hard to wrap your head around a system which allows for parental rights to be severed because of housing conditions beyond parents' control; or which allows state systems to have targets for children eligible for federal money to be taken into care, or one in which having children wander off in a park you are in might mean you lose custody of your children for good.
It is even harder to accept that, in many states, the harm induced by being removed is explicitly excluded from the criteria judges making removal orders can consider. Roberts shows that, while there is a great deal of variation in the systems, these are not isolated examples: Black families continue to be targeted for investigations, despite evidence that should contradict this.
I got interested in the foster care system when I saw some statistics showing how closely tied Australia's prison system is to foster care. Even a cursory dip into reports shows that being in state custody as a child carries scary-high risks/incidents of abuse, poverty, drug use while in care, and homelessness and poverty when "ageing out". This book confirms all of that, and yet the flood of children into care continues. Of course, Roberts acknowledges that children are harmed by their own pare nts or others in their homes - at a lower rate than in foster care, but that matters little to the victims. She contends, however, that foster care is not stopping this, overwhelmed by the wrong focus and a strategy that doesn't work.
My main frustration here was simply how US-focused the book was, which is obviously not the author's fault. The USA has so many insane privatised elements to all its systems, such horrific social welfare in general, that it was hard to know what is generalisable and what is not. Australian foster care is even more racialised than in the US, and has equally strong pipeline to prison and close association with juvenile incarceration, but the specifics vary. I just wish someone would do an analysis in a country with more social welfare, to understand that braoder dynamics.
It is even harder to accept that, in many states, the harm induced by being removed is explicitly excluded from the criteria judges making removal orders can consider. Roberts shows that, while there is a great deal of variation in the systems, these are not isolated examples: Black families continue to be targeted for investigations, despite evidence that should contradict this.
I got interested in the foster care system when I saw some statistics showing how closely tied Australia's prison system is to foster care. Even a cursory dip into reports shows that being in state custody as a child carries scary-high risks/incidents of abuse, poverty, drug use while in care, and homelessness and poverty when "ageing out". This book confirms all of that, and yet the flood of children into care continues. Of course, Roberts acknowledges that children are harmed by their own pare nts or others in their homes - at a lower rate than in foster care, but that matters little to the victims. She contends, however, that foster care is not stopping this, overwhelmed by the wrong focus and a strategy that doesn't work.
My main frustration here was simply how US-focused the book was, which is obviously not the author's fault. The USA has so many insane privatised elements to all its systems, such horrific social welfare in general, that it was hard to know what is generalisable and what is not. Australian foster care is even more racialised than in the US, and has equally strong pipeline to prison and close association with juvenile incarceration, but the specifics vary. I just wish someone would do an analysis in a country with more social welfare, to understand that braoder dynamics.