In bed with the state

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to unsettle dominant discourses about the state and forensic social work though “dehistoricization” through two historical case studies from Canada: the eugenics movement and the Indian Act. This critical and structural analysis will demonstrate how the state historically and contemporarily disproportionately disadvantages disabled and Indigenous peoples independently and intersectionally through social control tactics. Using a conceptual framework from Foucault’s History of the Present approach, I problematize how historical practices manifest in present-day technologies of the state. I also utilized Blackstock’s Touchstones of Hope, a model for reconciliation in children’s services through four phases: Truth Telling, Acknowledging, Restoring, and Relating. After situating myself in the work, I will then articulate the key concepts including forensic social work, the state, intersectionality, and settler colonialism followed by the dominant historical discourses in forensic social work. Next, I dehistoricize the eugenics movement and the Indian Act as case studies to demonstrate how the state used and uses social control tactics of surveillance, categorization, segregation, and containment of disabled and Indigenous peoples. Contemporary forensic social work practices with disabled and Indigenous peoples will demonstrate that the historical practices continue in the present. I conclude with a call for reconciliation and transformative change.