{"id":2392,"date":"2020-10-06T07:46:59","date_gmt":"2020-10-06T12:46:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/?p=2392"},"modified":"2020-10-05T14:50:31","modified_gmt":"2020-10-05T19:50:31","slug":"whats-the-role-of-child-protective-services-new-study-points-to-parallels-with-policing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/2020\/10\/06\/whats-the-role-of-child-protective-services-new-study-points-to-parallels-with-policing\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s the Role of Child Protective Services? New Study Points to Parallels with Policing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Each year, U.S. child protection authorities, tasked with responding to child abuse and neglect, investigate the families of\u00a0<\/em>over three million children<\/em><\/a>, disproportionately poor, Black, and Native American children. A staggering\u00a0<\/em>one in three<\/em><\/a>\u00a0children can expect a CPS investigation at some point during childhood.<\/em>\u00a0In\u00a0<\/em>a new study<\/em><\/a>, sociologist Kelley Fong finds that professionals frequently refer families to Child Protective Services to get them help. But because CPS is a coercive institution,<\/em>\u00a0not a social service one, this often\u00a0<\/em>undermines<\/em><\/a>\u00a0families in marginalized communities.\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Despite its goal of protecting children, Child Protective Services (CPS) has some troubling features in common with policing in the United States. That\u2019s the conclusion of \u201cThe Tool We Have\u201d: Why Child Protective Services Investigates So Many Families and How Even Good Intentions Backfire<\/strong><\/a>, released by the Council on Contemporary Families<\/a>. Kelley Fong, an assistant professor in Georgia Tech\u2019s School of History and Sociology, explains \u201chow, 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.\u201d\u00a0 Dr. Fong notes, \u201cAs with the police, this expansive reliance on authorities with coercive power fosters fear and mistrust\u201d \u2014 even when CPS finds parents are\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0maltreating.<\/p>\n

The data: Interviews with people who refer families to the CPS, CPS investigators, and the moms who were investigated.<\/strong>\u00a0To understand why CPS encounters are so commonplace, especially for marginalized families, Dr. Fong observed CPS investigations in Connecticut and interviewed approximately 100 key participants on these cases: professionals reporting suspected child maltreatment or neglect, frontline investigators, and investigated mothers. Many reporting professionals understand that CPS may not be appropriate but feel it is the only \u201ctool we have.\u201d As a result, referring to CPS \u2014like calling the police \u2014 becomes a kind of catch-all reaction to non-criminal problems, in this case to get support services for families in need:<\/p>\n

Reporting professionals almost always want CPS to provide supportive services<\/strong>, reasoning that CPS has more information about available and appropriate services. But CPS investigators, like reporting professionals, are often unable to address families\u2019 persistent needs, and the fact that they come in with the power to remove children puts marginalized families in a legal but also a psychological vise.<\/p>\n

Embracing CPS reporting as a means of rehabilitating families disproportionately exposes marginalized families to CPS<\/strong>\u2019s\u00a0coercive authority,<\/strong>\u00a0and, paradoxically, that leads to less help and more mistrust.<\/p>\n

Moms: \u201cI was so scared.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong>Fong\u2019s interviews with investigated mothers reveal the heart of the drama that can unfold with CPS.<\/p>\n

CPS investigations foster substantial anxiety among investigated families<\/strong>. In these investigations the threat of removal is ever-present\u2013even if unstated. \u201cI couldn\u2019t speak. The only thing that crossed my mind was that they were going to take them away,\u201d recalled one mother. \u201cI always thought that their job is to come in and take a child from their family,\u201d another reflected. \u201cOh my God. You don\u2019t understand. I was so scared.\u201d<\/p>\n

CPS reports can also lead parents to distance themselves from reporting systems.\u00a0<\/strong>One mother, reported to CPS for using marijuana during pregnancy, hesitated to speak openly with healthcare providers afterwards. After giving birth, she worried she was experiencing postpartum depression. But, she explained, \u201cI don\u2019t tell them any of that because I don\u2019t need them to say, oh, she\u2019s going through postpartum. She\u2019s gonna hurt the baby.\u201d<\/p>\n

Where this leads: \u201cIn asking CPS\u2014like the police, armed with tools of surveillance and coercion\u2014to take on all manner of social problems, we further traumatize and marginalize families,\u201d\u00a0Fong explains. She argues that changes in training and development of support-oriented crisis response teams would be better aligned with many of the family needs that are often handed off to CPS.<\/p>\n

When you see the fist, you panic.<\/strong>\u00a0Stephanie Coontz, CCF\u2019s Director of Research, observes: \u201cFong\u2019s CPS findings parallel what happens when we ask police to respond to problems that social workers should be dealing with. In both cases, people who\u2019ve been trained to coerce and punish bad\u00a0actors<\/em>\u00a0are asked to get needy people out of bad\u00a0situations<\/em>. \u00a0We tell people wearing a gauntleted fist to extend a helping hand. They aren\u2019t trained to do that, and even when they try, many people only see the fist and they panic.\u201d<\/p>\n

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
\n<\/strong>Kelley Fong, Assistant Professor, School of History and Sociology, Georgia Institute of Technology;\u00a0ktfong@gatech.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n

LINKS AND ABOUT:
\n<\/strong>Brief report:\u00a0https:\/\/contemporaryfamilies.org\/cps-brief-report\/<\/a>
\nPress release:\u00a0https:\/\/contemporaryfamilies.org\/cps-release\/<\/a>
\nPreprint of underlying new study:\u00a0https:\/\/scholar.harvard.edu\/files\/kfong\/files\/fong_asr.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

Virginia Rutter is co-editor of\u00a0Families as They Really Are<\/a>. Follow her at @VirginiaRutter.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Each year, U.S. child protection authorities, tasked with responding to child abuse and neglect, investigate the families of\u00a0over three million children, disproportionately poor, Black, and Native American children. A staggering\u00a0one in three\u00a0children can expect a CPS investigation at some point during childhood.\u00a0In\u00a0a new study, sociologist Kelley Fong finds that professionals frequently refer families to Child […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2095,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2095"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2392"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2393,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2392\/revisions\/2393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}