Reforming families: Parents, power, and the child welfare system.

摘要

Child Protective Services (CPS), a large welfare bureaucracy, is charged with protecting children from harm, specifically when their own families' lifestyle or behavior endangers them. CPS investigates allegations of abuse and neglect, removes children when it deems necessary, and provides services to parents in an effort to rehabilitate them so their children may safely return home. A contest of power between parents and the state is fought through struggles to shape meanings and proposed solutions. Parents and the state negotiate power at several critical moments of interaction: when a social worker investigates allegations of abuse and neglect; when a parent enters reunification services and court proceedings in an effort to regain custody of his or her child; and at the moment when the court finally decides whether a parent will regain custody and retain legal rights over the children. The bulk of this dissertation analyzes these "moments" and shows how the state's demand for deference and compliance takes precedence over assessments of parental ability. Because the vast majority of families in the CPS system are poor and are disproportionately families of color, social and structural inequalities shape definitions of good parenting and limit parents' abilities to perform to the satisfaction of the state. However, while parents face structural limitations, they also actively strategize their compliance and resistance with state mandates, even in ways that are sometimes counter-productive to their goals. This dissertation also provides a historical perspective on the CPS system and explores how the state's gendered expectations of the family shape parents' experiences. I conclude with practical solutions to improve agency practice. This dissertation is based on qualitative data I collected through field observations with CPS social workers, in confidential dependency proceedings, and through interviews with parents whose children were removed by CPS. The politically controversial CPS system lies at the most intimate intersection of the state and the individual, and at the juncture of the public and private. As a result, the contestations between the state and parents, as analyzed in this work, are important sites to examine meanings of power and inequality.