{"id":2390,"date":"2020-11-03T08:17:34","date_gmt":"2020-11-03T14:17:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/?p=2390"},"modified":"2020-11-03T08:18:41","modified_gmt":"2020-11-03T14:18:41","slug":"the-tool-we-have-why-child-protective-services-investigates-so-many-families-and-how-even-good-intentions-backfire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/2020\/11\/03\/the-tool-we-have-why-child-protective-services-investigates-so-many-families-and-how-even-good-intentions-backfire\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThe Tool We Have\u201d: Why Child Protective Services Investigates So Many Families and How Even Good Intentions Backfire"},"content":{"rendered":"

A briefing paper prepared <\/em>for the\u00a0<\/em>Council on Contemporary Families<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

In recent months, conversations around the role of the police have drawn mainstream attention to what contemporary policing<\/a>\u00a0actually<\/a>\u00a0encompasses<\/a>. Responding to violent crime constitutes\u00a0only a small share<\/a>\u00a0of police work; instead, we often call on armed officers to address homelessness, mental illness, addiction, and other social adversities. Even when these encounters do not lead to arrest or physical violence, ubiquitous policing in marginalized communities, especially Black communities, heightens experiences of\u00a0exclusion<\/a>,\u00a0injustice<\/a>,\u00a0and<\/a>\u00a0precarity<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In\u00a0a new study<\/a>, I trace how\u00a0another, parallel institution<\/a>\u00a0comes to loom large in marginalized communities: Child Protective Services (CPS). Each year, U.S. child protection authorities, tasked with responding to child abuse and neglect, investigate the families of\u00a0over three million children<\/a>, disproportionately poor children, Black children, and Native American children. A staggering\u00a0one in three<\/a>\u00a0children can expect a CPS investigation at some point during childhood.<\/p>\n

To understand why CPS encounters are so commonplace, especially for marginalized families, I observed CPS investigations in Connecticut and interviewed approximately 100 key participants on these cases: professionals reporting suspected child maltreatment, frontline investigators, and investigated mothers. My research shows how, with the fraying of the social safety net in recent decades, efforts to help families take the form of summoning an agency that can forcibly separate them. As with the police, this expansive reliance on authorities with coercive power fosters fear and mistrust even when CPS does not find sufficient evidence to confirm maltreatment.<\/p>\n

Contrary to media coverage focused on a few exceptional cases of horrific maltreatment, CPS\u2019s broad reach does not imply millions of malevolent parents are willfully or seriously abusing their children. The situations drawing CPS\u2019s attention typically involve adversities such as domestic violence, substance misuse, homelessness, and mental health needs, often among families experiencing material hardship and systemic racism. As I learned, the educational, medical, law enforcement, and other professionals who initiate two-thirds of CPS reports usually do not think the children they report are in grave danger. And CPS investigators agree. Nationwide, the vast majority of reports (over 80 percent) are deemed unfounded by CPS.<\/p>\n

But nor does widespread CPS reporting represent a deluge of false reports from bureaucrats concerned about liability given legal mandates, or, conversely, eager to see children taken from \u201cbad\u201d parents. Overwhelmingly, teachers, nurses, police officers, and other service professionals say they would have reported their most recent case even if not legally required to do so. But usually, they do not want or expect CPS to remove children from the home. Instead, they call CPS in the hope of resolving\u00a0a key dilemma<\/a>\u00a0they face: They want to help families but have limited time, resources, and roles to do so as they believe necessary. Thus, they turn families over to an agency they hope can intervene with families in ways they cannot. At a women\u2019s services center, a staff member explained that \u201cthis is the tool that we have\u201d to ensure children\u2019s needs are met. These purportedly benevolent intentions expand the reach of CPS, as reporting professionals call on CPS not primarily to identify children in need of foster care, but to rehabilitate families broadly.<\/p>\n