Understanding and Addressing Racial/Ethnic Disproportionality in the Front End of the Child Welfare System

Abstract

Racial/ethnic disproportionality in the child welfare system is a complicated social problem that is receiving increasing amounts of attention from researchers and practitioners. This review of the literature examines disproportionality in the front-end of the child welfare system and interventions that may address it. While none of the interventions had evidence suggesting that they reduced disproportionality in child welfare front-end processes, some of the interventions may improve child welfare case processes related to disproportionality and outcomes for families of color.

Pregnant Women's Access to Information About Perinatal Marijuana Use: A Qualitative Study

“…Given that the majority of women in this study identified as black, this finding is consistent with prior literature documenting that infants of substance-using black women are far more likely to be reported to child protection agencies relative to infants of substance-using white women (Ellsworth, Stevens, & D'Angio, 2010; Osterling, D'Andrade, & Austin, 2008; Roberts & Nuru-Jeter, 2012). This is troubling given that a threat of involvement of child protection services may lead women to disengage with the health care system (Roberts & Pies, 2011), which is contrary to the intended effects of social welfare programs to intervene and provide services (Mikton & Butchart, 2009).…”

Standardizing Biases: Selection Devices and the Quantification of Race

“…These analyses found that while the introduction of the SDM was more successful in accurately classifying low, moderate, and high-risk cases, it did not reduce racial disproportionality (Osterling et al 2008, Miller 2011. Further, at a national level, racial and ethnic disproportionality at all points in the child welfare system remains a persistent and major cause for concern (Putnam-Hornstein et al 2013, Font 2013, suggesting that the widespread take-up of the SDM has had little impact on overall racial disparities.…”

Keeping the White Family Together: Racial Disparities in the Out-of-Home Placements of Maltreated Children

“…These same characteristics are often viewed as more difficult to remedy through both community and official interventions (Brown, 2008). However, an alternative argument is that racial disparities exist in part because of an underlying bias within the system (Hampton & Newberger, 1985;Hill, 2004;Knott & Donovan, 2010;Miller & Gaston, 2003;Osterling, D'Andrade, & Austin, 2008). This research finds that racial minorities are at no greater risk of maltreatment than are whites, even when disadvantage is taken into account.…”

“…As such, characteristics of poverty or single parenthood may be seen as deviant in the system if, for example, two-parent middle-class households are held as the standard of a well-functioning family (Billingsley & Giovannoni, 1972;Hill, 2004;Miller & Gaston, 2003). This phenomenon is especially evident in less serious reports, where case workers and judges have greater discretion, and are thus more susceptible to the practice of differential response (Osterling et al, 2008;Rivaux et al, 2008). Explanations for this differential response have been attributed to a variety of factors, including: black families' abuse and neglect being seen as less remediable than white families', black families being held to unattainable white middle-class standards, or black families suffering from the devaluation of their culture and family functioning (Billingsley & Giovannoni, 1972;Hill, 2004;Knott & Donovan, 2010).…”