Structures of Oppression in the U.S. Child Welfare System: Reflections on Administrative Barriers to Equity

Lisa Merkel-Holguin, Ida Drury, Colleen Gibley-Reed, Adrian Lara, Maleeka Jihad, Krystal Grint and Kendall Marlowe
Additional contact information
Lisa Merkel-Holguin: Kempe Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Child Abuse and Neglect, Department of Pediatrics, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO 80045, USA
Ida Drury: Kempe Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Child Abuse and Neglect, Department of Pediatrics, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO 80045, USA
Colleen Gibley-Reed: Kempe Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Child Abuse and Neglect, Department of Pediatrics, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO 80045, USA
Adrian Lara: Kempe Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Child Abuse and Neglect, Department of Pediatrics, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO 80045, USA
Maleeka Jihad: MJCF-Coalition, Denver, CO 80208, USA
Krystal Grint: Kempe Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Child Abuse and Neglect, Department of Pediatrics, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO 80045, USA
Kendall Marlowe: Kempe Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Child Abuse and Neglect, Department of Pediatrics, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO 80045, USA

Societies, 2022, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-15

Abstract: In the United States, child welfare reform efforts have dominated three decades of landscape. With glimmers of systemic promise and innumerable individual success stories, data suggest insufficient improvements, resulting in calls for transformation and even abolition. In this article, the authors illustrate structures of oppression that bolster the system’s tentacles, in regulating family life, contributing to racial disparities, reinforcing economic hardships, and supporting policies of family separation. Some of the structures take the form of practices, policies, laws or regulations. Individually and collectively, these structures may serve to oppress and harm those that the child welfare system intends to help. In this article, we include mandated reporting, substantiation decisions, central registries, decision-making processes, background checks, ongoing service delivery frameworks, conservative interpretations of confidentiality statutes, and how immigration status interplays with child welfare. Each of these structures could warrant an individual article, delving into the inner workings of how each oppresses families and the professionals who work with them. We also recognize that there are other structures of oppression that this article will not address. We encourage other scholars to not only continue the identification of oppressive structures, but to also work collaboratively, to generate solutions that dismantle these mechanisms that continue to perpetuate harm and unnecessary family separation.

Keywords: child welfare; oppression; equity; child protection; family support; system transformation; abolition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A13 A14 P P0 P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 Z1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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