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Torn Apart: How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families—and How Abolition Can Build a Safer World
An award-winning scholar exposes the foundational racism of the child welfare system and calls for radical change Many believe the child welfare system protects children from abuse. But as Torn Apart uncovers, this system is designed to punish Black families. Drawing on decades of research, legal scholar and sociologist Dorothy Roberts reveals that the child welfare system is better understood as a “family policing system” that collaborates with law enforcement and prisons to oppress Black communities. Child protection investigations ensnare a majority of Black children, putting their families under intense state surveillance and regulation. Black children are disproportionately likely to be torn from their families and placed in foster care, driving many to juvenile detention and imprisonment. The only way to stop the destruction caused by family policing, Torn Apart argues, is to abolish the child welfare system and liberate Black communities.
384 pages, Audiobook
Published April 5, 2022
153 people are currently reading
4061 people want to read
About the author
Dorothy Roberts
28 books466 followersDorothy Roberts is a scholar, professor, author and social justice advocate, and currently the 14th Penn Integrates Knowledge Professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. She has published a range of groundbreaking articles and books analyzing issues of law, race, gender, health, class and social inequality, including Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty (1997), Shattered Bonds: The Color of Child Welfare (2002) and, most recently Fatal Invention: How Science, Politics, and Big Business Re-create Race in the Twenty-First Century (2012).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 82 reviews
May 9, 2022
I LOVE this book!! I work for DCF and would love to require all staff to read it. The author called out Kansas for our current class action /settlement as well as the KU study regarding assistance to families. Let’s stop the family policing and surveillance and figure out what would actually be helpful for families and children and then let’s do that!!
March 16, 2022
In The Vein Of Michelle Alexander's A New Jim Crowe. This is one where ultimately your opinion of it will be largely based on whether you agree with Ms. Roberts' Critical Race Theory based worldview. Honestly, had I known she was a CRT adherent, I personally would not have picked up this book to begin with - as I've avoided several others by known CRT adherents that otherwise sounded interesting. As with other CRT writers, Ms. Roberts begins with a set theory in mind and ignores any other possible explanations of the issues she examines, which is the overall Theory's critical flaw. All of this noted, *within this frame*, Ms. Roberts actually does a pretty solid job of making her case, and the issues she speaks to even within this frame raise many points that need to be in the overall conversation of reform in America. She even gives lip service at times to the fact that many of these issues are more related to poverty and economic status than race, but even within these remarks she ultimately declares that white people always have it so much easier. Within the realm of CRT and social "science", the scholarship here is pretty standard - nothing overly remarkable either way, good or bad. And even objectively, the bibliography clocks in at around 24%, which is fairly standard for most nonfiction tales and is actually quite good for works where the author bases much of their commentary on their own experiences and interviews they directly conducted. So read the book, whether you agree with CRT or not, because there *is* enough here to justify wading through that particular detritus. And if you *do* agree with CRT, you're likely going to be shouting from the rooftops about how amazing this book is. Recommended.
July 16, 2022
I picked this up after listening to an interview with Dorothy Roberts on a podcast. Much like her interview, I am blown away by her ability to synthesize so much research in such a digestible, easy to understand way. I learned so much in this book. Excellent read.
December 29, 2024
Very important coverage about one of the most pressing issues of our time! Torn Apart: How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families—and How Abolition Can Build a Safer World has been tossed around by many friends and people I admire as a “must read” book on the subject of family policing. Torn Apart came back up my TBR after a disappointing experience with The School for Good Mothers, which is speculative fiction about the future of this system. Instead of reading that book, I would definitely just recommend people start here instead. Based on my undergrad experience with an earlier Dorothy Roberts book (Fatal Invention), I was scared that this book would be overly technical and difficult for me to sink into. In contrast, I found Torn Apart to be relatively reader-friendly, especially in the audiobook format. If it doesn’t meet the official definition of public scholarship, I’d say it’s pretty damn close.
Family policing threatens nearly every form of connection we have
Torn Apart’s early chapters focus on how the family policing system tears about neighborhoods, communities, and other social systems. The threat of mandated reporting means that when overpoliced families *do* need help, they can’t turn to “trusted parties” like teachers, healthcare professionals, or social workers. These trusted parties are also in a bind—they can’t turn to CPS for resources to help the families they work with, because CPS only has one “solution”: the threat of child removal. All this has created a parental surveillance state that keeps people from being able to trust each other, and threatens families’ bonds with teachers, nurses, neighbors, friends, and of course, relatives.
As you would imagine, this parental surveillance occurs because the family policing system relies on punishment, and not support. Roberts walks readers through the many ways that family policing is not actually focused on child welfare, but instead is focused on punishing families who cannot ensure their children’s welfare—in large part due to capitalism, racism, patriarchy, and ableism. This book includes many heartbreaking cases that show how the system equates poverty with child neglect, and how many parents have their parental rights severed not for egregious cases of abuse, but instead for their failure to jump through cumbersome administrative hoops.
As you would imagine, this is all incredibly—and intentionally—racist
While most of the examples are set in the present or recent past, Roberts also jumps back further in time to show how family policing has its roots in American practices of slavery, Indigenous child taking, and orphan removal. Each of these past systems help Roberts explain the racialized nature of family policing, which in its current form, disproportionately punishes Black and Indigenous families. Roberts uses Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor’s concept of predatory inclusion to argue that the child welfare system’s overfocus on Black families is in fact a form of predation. After all, if this system were truly about ensuring the wellbeing of children, it would also investigate abuse in white and wealthy families.
Torn Apart drives home this contradiction along with others, such as liberal outrage over family separation at the US-Mexico border. Roberts connects the plights of Central American migrants targeted by ICE and Black Americans targeted by CPS, showing how family policing works in tandem with border policing and other carceral systems. I’m walking away from this book with a sobering, expanded understanding of how family policing collaborates with the prison industrial complex to punish asylum seekers, domestic violence survivors, disabled parents and children, incarcerated parents, extended family caregivers, and nearly every other group you could think of.
Final Thoughts
Like everyone else in the reviews, I’d recommend this to audiences far and wide!! Roberts compiles peer-reviewed journal evidence with many horribly frustrating stories from her real-life work with families impacted by CPS. This book left me with even more questions, and even greater conviction—something I consider to mean time well spent.
If you finish Torn Apart and are looking for additional reading, Roberts’ references are sure to be a helpful place to start. However, if you’re seeking options more suited for personal/political reading than academic research, I might recommend Roxana Asgarian’s We Were Once a Family: A Story of Love, Death, and Child Removal in America. This stunning book provides in-depth coverage of an instance of family annihilation that Roberts briefly mentions in Torn Apart. For fiction options, I really enjoyed Pomegranate by Helen Elaine Lee. This novel addresses many of Roberts’ points in Torn Apart, including how family policing makes it even harder for formerly incarcerated mothers to reunite with their children.
Finally, if you are looking to get more involved with the parent-led movement against family policing, Torn Apart has great suggestions about national organizations you can support, such as the Movement for Family Power. For anyone in Durham, I’ve added more context and leads on our city's family policing crisis in the review for We Were Once a Family. Here, parents have come together to found Operation Stop CPS, a grassroots organization helping to support parents, protect families, and stop child removal in Durham County. Coincidentally, Operation Stop CPS just sent out a newsletter recapping their great work in 2024. As this recap notes, there is also a new organization that was recently started to provide legal aid to people impacted by NC’s family policing crisis: Carolina Parent Defenders.
Family policing threatens nearly every form of connection we have
Torn Apart’s early chapters focus on how the family policing system tears about neighborhoods, communities, and other social systems. The threat of mandated reporting means that when overpoliced families *do* need help, they can’t turn to “trusted parties” like teachers, healthcare professionals, or social workers. These trusted parties are also in a bind—they can’t turn to CPS for resources to help the families they work with, because CPS only has one “solution”: the threat of child removal. All this has created a parental surveillance state that keeps people from being able to trust each other, and threatens families’ bonds with teachers, nurses, neighbors, friends, and of course, relatives.
As you would imagine, this parental surveillance occurs because the family policing system relies on punishment, and not support. Roberts walks readers through the many ways that family policing is not actually focused on child welfare, but instead is focused on punishing families who cannot ensure their children’s welfare—in large part due to capitalism, racism, patriarchy, and ableism. This book includes many heartbreaking cases that show how the system equates poverty with child neglect, and how many parents have their parental rights severed not for egregious cases of abuse, but instead for their failure to jump through cumbersome administrative hoops.
As you would imagine, this is all incredibly—and intentionally—racist
While most of the examples are set in the present or recent past, Roberts also jumps back further in time to show how family policing has its roots in American practices of slavery, Indigenous child taking, and orphan removal. Each of these past systems help Roberts explain the racialized nature of family policing, which in its current form, disproportionately punishes Black and Indigenous families. Roberts uses Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor’s concept of predatory inclusion to argue that the child welfare system’s overfocus on Black families is in fact a form of predation. After all, if this system were truly about ensuring the wellbeing of children, it would also investigate abuse in white and wealthy families.
Torn Apart drives home this contradiction along with others, such as liberal outrage over family separation at the US-Mexico border. Roberts connects the plights of Central American migrants targeted by ICE and Black Americans targeted by CPS, showing how family policing works in tandem with border policing and other carceral systems. I’m walking away from this book with a sobering, expanded understanding of how family policing collaborates with the prison industrial complex to punish asylum seekers, domestic violence survivors, disabled parents and children, incarcerated parents, extended family caregivers, and nearly every other group you could think of.
Final Thoughts
Like everyone else in the reviews, I’d recommend this to audiences far and wide!! Roberts compiles peer-reviewed journal evidence with many horribly frustrating stories from her real-life work with families impacted by CPS. This book left me with even more questions, and even greater conviction—something I consider to mean time well spent.
If you finish Torn Apart and are looking for additional reading, Roberts’ references are sure to be a helpful place to start. However, if you’re seeking options more suited for personal/political reading than academic research, I might recommend Roxana Asgarian’s We Were Once a Family: A Story of Love, Death, and Child Removal in America. This stunning book provides in-depth coverage of an instance of family annihilation that Roberts briefly mentions in Torn Apart. For fiction options, I really enjoyed Pomegranate by Helen Elaine Lee. This novel addresses many of Roberts’ points in Torn Apart, including how family policing makes it even harder for formerly incarcerated mothers to reunite with their children.
Finally, if you are looking to get more involved with the parent-led movement against family policing, Torn Apart has great suggestions about national organizations you can support, such as the Movement for Family Power. For anyone in Durham, I’ve added more context and leads on our city's family policing crisis in the review for We Were Once a Family. Here, parents have come together to found Operation Stop CPS, a grassroots organization helping to support parents, protect families, and stop child removal in Durham County. Coincidentally, Operation Stop CPS just sent out a newsletter recapping their great work in 2024. As this recap notes, there is also a new organization that was recently started to provide legal aid to people impacted by NC’s family policing crisis: Carolina Parent Defenders.
June 30, 2022
Pretty ridiculous when you go into something knowing a system is bad, and truley believing it's irredeemable, and it turns out to somehow be worse than you thought it is.
Some pretty egregious stuff here. It's not the isolated, but far too common stories of physical and sexual abuse, it's the complete incoherence of the system and the incentives to break up families, target Black women, and deny resources for any sort of family cohesion.
Ironically, in this "Post Roe" moment, many of the supreme court decisions denying parental rights were BIPARTISAN decisions, showing the solutions to this problem don't lie neatly within the "vote harder/vote blue" framework. Many democrats silently, or sometimes openly, believe the only real solution for Black children is to resocialize them around "successful" white parents/ folks with "social capital", and as long as that view is bipartisan, the only solution will be grassroots community control and redistributing power and resources to communities, not social service bureaucrats. Sadly, even some of the "defund police/fund communities" folks and this text points out, have fallen into the trap of "just fund child protective services and not police". This book is a good rejoiner to that illusion: social workers are ALSO a vector of state violence and control, we need to abolish VIOLENCE, not just policing.
Some pretty egregious stuff here. It's not the isolated, but far too common stories of physical and sexual abuse, it's the complete incoherence of the system and the incentives to break up families, target Black women, and deny resources for any sort of family cohesion.
Ironically, in this "Post Roe" moment, many of the supreme court decisions denying parental rights were BIPARTISAN decisions, showing the solutions to this problem don't lie neatly within the "vote harder/vote blue" framework. Many democrats silently, or sometimes openly, believe the only real solution for Black children is to resocialize them around "successful" white parents/ folks with "social capital", and as long as that view is bipartisan, the only solution will be grassroots community control and redistributing power and resources to communities, not social service bureaucrats. Sadly, even some of the "defund police/fund communities" folks and this text points out, have fallen into the trap of "just fund child protective services and not police". This book is a good rejoiner to that illusion: social workers are ALSO a vector of state violence and control, we need to abolish VIOLENCE, not just policing.
January 7, 2023
a very informative and insightful book. there is so much research put into the book which can sometimes make a book feel intimidating to read, but the author was able to synthesize them all in an easy and understandable way to read.
November 12, 2022
This book not only re-affirmed my belief in the abolition of the family policing system, but further highlighted the importance of intersectionality in understanding abolition and the imagining of a safer world. There were many moments in this book where I felt physically sick at the many and varied ways the state policies, destroys, and profits off of Black, Brown, and Indigenous families. The book lays out excellently exactly why the current systems, built on centuries of systemic oppression and designed to break down and control families, cannot actually keep us safe or create true safety. There is no reforming this—but a better world is possible.
July 17, 2023
A devastatingly clear and well-written account of why the family policing system has got to go. It is utterly heart-wrenching when one realizes that we live in a world that actively propagates this harm when a better world is possible.
July 16, 2022
"We should be on a common mission to bring down all the regime's damaging extensions and to create a common vision for meeting human needs, preventing violence, and caring for children, families, and communities. The unwillingness to confront the child welfare system's racist terror reminds me of a common scene in action/adventure movies. The hero, dangling from a cracking cliff, has to decide whether to let go and grab the hand of someone reaching down from a helicopter. Clinging to the crumbling rock means moving faster toward disaster. Only by releasing the grip on the cliff can the hero be brought to safety. We must stop clinging to a system that is propelling Black children to disaster out of fear of taking a fundamentally different path that would actually keep them safer."
May 16, 2024
yeah this was an excellently crafted argument & made for a very thought provoking read. A MUST read for anyone going into child welfare, childcare, education, or other related fields.
November 23, 2021
Dorothy Roberts has done extensive research on the Child Welfare System. The fact that Dorothy Roberts has done for even one year let alone decades of work and this system is still in effect, is the most disappointing and saddening part. Another thing on the list of how terribly the alleged great powerful nation has let down, hurt, torn apart, and the list continues Americans. That there are still people in the U.S. that want to act like slavery didn't happen, like they are true Americans erasing the facts that Native People exists, the fact that the government is just as fault for these blinders on people to still exist is the downfall of whatever greatness the United States portrays. Whenever I get the chance since I have read this book, I am recommending it, I am leaving it in comments and spreading awareness because the Child Welfare System alongside other "agencies" need to be completely abolished, and communities and entities like the ones mentioned in Torn Apart need to come together. The idea is that we need to uplift each other, not continue to tear each other and our families apart. The overhaul that needs to take place, the therapy to help the trauma that needs to happen, is too much. This has gone too far and I need more politicians to read this book, especially those who claim to care about the minority vote and I really need to believe that changes can take place. Shame on the states, Shame on the government, Shame on the history that is not changing. But I thank Torn Apart for the work that was taken, for bringing it all together because this book is exceptional although it's a very tough subject to examine.
April 29, 2025
A comprehensive narrative of how the child welfare system disproportionately impacts marginalized families, particularly Black ones, as evidenced by policy, data, and anecdotes to give faces and names to the largescale impact.
Definitely would recommend, esp to those who work with individuals that intersect with the child welfare or within the system itself.
Definitely would recommend, esp to those who work with individuals that intersect with the child welfare or within the system itself.
November 29, 2022
Written with a full heart of love and righteous indignation, Dorothy Roberts makes a powerful case for abolishing family policing. "Although foster care is often defended as the best we can do for damaged children, it actually is the worst we can do to precious children."
December 27, 2022
The title really communicates what this one is about and it really challenged me. I would really recommend this to anyone who works in the social services realm or who is interested in the topic of child welfare in general.
January 28, 2024
When I read family/kinship placements are a social good I let out a breath I feel I've been holding since the summer of 2022.
This book felt like both a warning and a vision for a better future. It's vital.
This book felt like both a warning and a vision for a better future. It's vital.
December 29, 2022
Devastating and I think should be required reading for anyone concerned with children's and families' well-being.
June 13, 2022
Disturbing and compelling. Child welfare system is a misnomer for sure.
April 30, 2024
Very interesting and sobering. Don’t agree with everything she writes and she could’ve made it shorter but appreciate the sources and statistics.
July 18, 2024
A really important topic to weigh into by a highly informed and brilliant scholar.
June 26, 2022
Essential reading
October 15, 2024
damn should i go to law school???
September 19, 2023
As you would expect from Roberts, this is thorough - both in research conducted and presented and in the range of topics covered - angry and incisive. Roberts' thesis is that the US foster fare system is intended not to protect children, but to traumatise and disempower Black families. She draws a clear line from slavery, to post-reconstruction and urban poor laws, to the foster system to argue that the systems have had a continuity of control, incarceration and trauma. Her coverage is often damning - it is hard to wrap your head around a system which allows for parental rights to be severed because of housing conditions beyond parents' control; or which allows state systems to have targets for children eligible for federal money to be taken into care, or one in which having children wander off in a park you are in might mean you lose custody of your children for good.
It is even harder to accept that, in many states, the harm induced by being removed is explicitly excluded from the criteria judges making removal orders can consider. Roberts shows that, while there is a great deal of variation in the systems, these are not isolated examples: Black families continue to be targeted for investigations, despite evidence that should contradict this.
I got interested in the foster care system when I saw some statistics showing how closely tied Australia's prison system is to foster care. Even a cursory dip into reports shows that being in state custody as a child carries scary-high risks/incidents of abuse, poverty, drug use while in care, and homelessness and poverty when "ageing out". This book confirms all of that, and yet the flood of children into care continues. Of course, Roberts acknowledges that children are harmed by their own pare nts or others in their homes - at a lower rate than in foster care, but that matters little to the victims. She contends, however, that foster care is not stopping this, overwhelmed by the wrong focus and a strategy that doesn't work.
My main frustration here was simply how US-focused the book was, which is obviously not the author's fault. The USA has so many insane privatised elements to all its systems, such horrific social welfare in general, that it was hard to know what is generalisable and what is not. Australian foster care is even more racialised than in the US, and has equally strong pipeline to prison and close association with juvenile incarceration, but the specifics vary. I just wish someone would do an analysis in a country with more social welfare, to understand that braoder dynamics.
It is even harder to accept that, in many states, the harm induced by being removed is explicitly excluded from the criteria judges making removal orders can consider. Roberts shows that, while there is a great deal of variation in the systems, these are not isolated examples: Black families continue to be targeted for investigations, despite evidence that should contradict this.
I got interested in the foster care system when I saw some statistics showing how closely tied Australia's prison system is to foster care. Even a cursory dip into reports shows that being in state custody as a child carries scary-high risks/incidents of abuse, poverty, drug use while in care, and homelessness and poverty when "ageing out". This book confirms all of that, and yet the flood of children into care continues. Of course, Roberts acknowledges that children are harmed by their own pare nts or others in their homes - at a lower rate than in foster care, but that matters little to the victims. She contends, however, that foster care is not stopping this, overwhelmed by the wrong focus and a strategy that doesn't work.
My main frustration here was simply how US-focused the book was, which is obviously not the author's fault. The USA has so many insane privatised elements to all its systems, such horrific social welfare in general, that it was hard to know what is generalisable and what is not. Australian foster care is even more racialised than in the US, and has equally strong pipeline to prison and close association with juvenile incarceration, but the specifics vary. I just wish someone would do an analysis in a country with more social welfare, to understand that braoder dynamics.
March 25, 2022
I loved reading this book! I found the writing to be very insightful and interesting. I was intrigued by the premise and I enjoyed reading it from start to finish.
February 12, 2023
If you aren't already firmly in the camp of "our current child 'welfare' system isn't working," this would be an eye-opening five-star read for you. If, however, you, like I was, are already familiar with the unique horrors and Kafka-esque nature of the family court system in this country, it does provide a larger historical setting for the current nightmare.
The first time I, as a white person, truly felt systemic racism, was during my family defense clinic in law school at NYU. My client was in Bronx family court. Arriving to the courthouse in the morning--where you didn't get a time certain, but had to be there kind of all day until your case was called--was one long line of brown and black people...and a shorter line for the court employees, which is the only place I saw a white face. It also struck me at the time how many of the people waiting in the loooooooong line did not have sufficient warm clothing for the wait. To this day, I maintain that my client worked harder to be a father than I've ever had to as a parent in my life; he spent every Saturday FOR YEARS making a two-hour train trek out to Long Island to visit with his children...who had been taken away when their mother, to whom he was never married, was deep in a drug addiction and couldn't care for them. He then couldn't get his kids himself because he didn't have three bedrooms, one for him, one for his daughters, and one for his son; even back in 2003, in the Bronx, that was $1600/month, which he could ill-afford on his delivery person's pay. It is one of my proudest achievements that we came up with a way for them to come home, but also showed me how the system is modeled at every level on a racist, classist model - and how it was irreparably damaging those it came into contact with.
It should come as no surprise that ripping children from their parents has extremely lasting, extremely negative effects. Except in the most heinous cases of proven abuse, there is no reason to take kids from their parents. Hard stop. We've got to provide support to the families in situ, which may sometimes mean direct cash payments or in-kind needs, like bedding or food. Economically, it would cheaper in the short-term than foster care and in the long term by better adjusted adults. Morally, it is a total no-brainer.
The first time I, as a white person, truly felt systemic racism, was during my family defense clinic in law school at NYU. My client was in Bronx family court. Arriving to the courthouse in the morning--where you didn't get a time certain, but had to be there kind of all day until your case was called--was one long line of brown and black people...and a shorter line for the court employees, which is the only place I saw a white face. It also struck me at the time how many of the people waiting in the loooooooong line did not have sufficient warm clothing for the wait. To this day, I maintain that my client worked harder to be a father than I've ever had to as a parent in my life; he spent every Saturday FOR YEARS making a two-hour train trek out to Long Island to visit with his children...who had been taken away when their mother, to whom he was never married, was deep in a drug addiction and couldn't care for them. He then couldn't get his kids himself because he didn't have three bedrooms, one for him, one for his daughters, and one for his son; even back in 2003, in the Bronx, that was $1600/month, which he could ill-afford on his delivery person's pay. It is one of my proudest achievements that we came up with a way for them to come home, but also showed me how the system is modeled at every level on a racist, classist model - and how it was irreparably damaging those it came into contact with.
It should come as no surprise that ripping children from their parents has extremely lasting, extremely negative effects. Except in the most heinous cases of proven abuse, there is no reason to take kids from their parents. Hard stop. We've got to provide support to the families in situ, which may sometimes mean direct cash payments or in-kind needs, like bedding or food. Economically, it would cheaper in the short-term than foster care and in the long term by better adjusted adults. Morally, it is a total no-brainer.
April 4, 2024
This book is 90% amazing, which makes it frustrating to ding it that star for its flaw.
I was fairly familiar with the basic arguments of how foster care fails children (ProPublica is a particularly good source for work on this) and Roberts makes a solid, data driven case for why, and for why Black families are disproportionately targeted by the child welfare system (which she prefers to call family policing). It's a known fact that the vast majority of cases brought are for neglect, rather than abuse (she cites 84% for neglect) and that many of these neglect cases are not deliberate but rather the consequences of poverty. Moreover the system of surveillance and policing that operates on Black families, particularly poor Black families, actively seeks out signs of neglect and caseworkers are subjective and vague in their assessments. Children and parents become trapped in a long term relationship that attributes any issues to parental pathology and not to social conditions or poverty.
The public is raised to think foster care is a good thing that gets kids out of dysfunctional environments, but Roberts' data shows that in fact, it mostly just traumatizes children and results in worse outcomes while making money for
Now we get to abolition. Roberts says she became an abolitionist because after sitting on reform commissions, she concluded it was simply impossible to do. I could have said, even before reading this book, that reform is doomed to failure as long as it focuses solely on how CPS operates. Family policing is also tied to deliberately keeping families in poverty and to punish single Black mothers in particular for having children. We're willing to spend up to $50K a year to keep children in foster care because they're living in a rat-infested apartment, but we won't spend a fraction of that to give them a clean one. Attacking poverty and promoting the safety of children is foundational to any lasting change that benefits children. It is not enough to simply stop child welfare from hounding parents, and the false financial incentives that the system provides are a direct contributor to the problem.
Whenever people reach the conclusion that a flawed or failed social system needs to be abolished, you run into an objection, because there always winds up being some job that the system is or is supposed to be doing: How do you handle it after you've dismantled all the things it's not supposed to do? There's a few answers, which tend to break down like this: reinventing the wheel, claiming the problem will go away or is no longer relevant, or ducking the question. In the case of CPS, the reaction — as Roberts herself acknowledges — of actual child abuse. On one abolish foster care web page, their answer is "Abuse won't exist under our system," which made me hoot. Roberts doesn't stick her head in the sand that far, but she definitely ducks the question, and it's disappointing. She refers vaguely to "new systems" without defining them, and when she outright asks the question, her main response is to explain how hysteria over missed cases mostly just leads to more pointless policing, without helping abused children. That's true enough, but it ducks the question. She also refers to white areas as "CPS free zones" that prove it's unnecessary — but well off white kids still get abused, and some of them are angry that no one intervened. The fact that these families have other means of dealing with many problems isn't helpful when true abuse is involved. Does the problem of abuse mean we shouldn't dismantle 90% of what CPS does? No. But you need to confront the problem. She correctly cites the Hart family murder-suicide as a failure of family policing: were it not for that, the children would never have been adopted and abused. But she also avoids the question of what anyone should have done once they were being abused except to note that people excused it.
I was fairly familiar with the basic arguments of how foster care fails children (ProPublica is a particularly good source for work on this) and Roberts makes a solid, data driven case for why, and for why Black families are disproportionately targeted by the child welfare system (which she prefers to call family policing). It's a known fact that the vast majority of cases brought are for neglect, rather than abuse (she cites 84% for neglect) and that many of these neglect cases are not deliberate but rather the consequences of poverty. Moreover the system of surveillance and policing that operates on Black families, particularly poor Black families, actively seeks out signs of neglect and caseworkers are subjective and vague in their assessments. Children and parents become trapped in a long term relationship that attributes any issues to parental pathology and not to social conditions or poverty.
The public is raised to think foster care is a good thing that gets kids out of dysfunctional environments, but Roberts' data shows that in fact, it mostly just traumatizes children and results in worse outcomes while making money for
Now we get to abolition. Roberts says she became an abolitionist because after sitting on reform commissions, she concluded it was simply impossible to do. I could have said, even before reading this book, that reform is doomed to failure as long as it focuses solely on how CPS operates. Family policing is also tied to deliberately keeping families in poverty and to punish single Black mothers in particular for having children. We're willing to spend up to $50K a year to keep children in foster care because they're living in a rat-infested apartment, but we won't spend a fraction of that to give them a clean one. Attacking poverty and promoting the safety of children is foundational to any lasting change that benefits children. It is not enough to simply stop child welfare from hounding parents, and the false financial incentives that the system provides are a direct contributor to the problem.
Whenever people reach the conclusion that a flawed or failed social system needs to be abolished, you run into an objection, because there always winds up being some job that the system is or is supposed to be doing: How do you handle it after you've dismantled all the things it's not supposed to do? There's a few answers, which tend to break down like this: reinventing the wheel, claiming the problem will go away or is no longer relevant, or ducking the question. In the case of CPS, the reaction — as Roberts herself acknowledges — of actual child abuse. On one abolish foster care web page, their answer is "Abuse won't exist under our system," which made me hoot. Roberts doesn't stick her head in the sand that far, but she definitely ducks the question, and it's disappointing. She refers vaguely to "new systems" without defining them, and when she outright asks the question, her main response is to explain how hysteria over missed cases mostly just leads to more pointless policing, without helping abused children. That's true enough, but it ducks the question. She also refers to white areas as "CPS free zones" that prove it's unnecessary — but well off white kids still get abused, and some of them are angry that no one intervened. The fact that these families have other means of dealing with many problems isn't helpful when true abuse is involved. Does the problem of abuse mean we shouldn't dismantle 90% of what CPS does? No. But you need to confront the problem. She correctly cites the Hart family murder-suicide as a failure of family policing: were it not for that, the children would never have been adopted and abused. But she also avoids the question of what anyone should have done once they were being abused except to note that people excused it.
May 25, 2025
Overall, I am a huge fan of this book and think that anyone working in child welfare should read it. My supervisor recommended Shattered Bonds when I started working in research that interacted with the child welfare system in graduate school and I'm very glad she did. I think Dr. Roberts makes her case much more strongly than other books on the subject, and there is a reason she is a respected expert in this field. That said, there were some points that I think needed further support given how wide-reaching they are. Specifically, I have yet to find an argument calling for child welfare abolition that addresses the subsets of kids in care who realistically cannot stay with family.
It's a personal subject for me because it was the case for our family - despite living in poverty, more money in our household would not have actually kept me safe from my sister. More money would not keep my nieces safe from my nephew. More money would have certainly kept my nieces and my nephew with my sister to begin with though. Dr. Roberts makes an extremely compelling case that for the majority of kids in care, the system is doing more harm than good, and those children would be better off with their parents. She makes a well-reasoned argument that the child welfare system as it exists today has its roots in family policing and oppression of Black and brown families in the United States. But I think the biggest flaw in this argument and others like it is ignorance of the global construct of child welfare and foster care. These systems exist independently in countries outside of the United States, and they didn't start here. They most certainly look very different than the one we have here in most cases, and I am left wondering if the US child welfare system can, in fact, be remediated through adapting some elements more common in other countries. Because the unfortunate reality is that children cannot always stay with their parents or even their family members (and it isn't just the children who die in their parents care, which she does lightly address). There are children who cause harm to other children in the home, children with exceptional medical needs which are not only costly, but time and effort intensive in a way not every family has to give. I see no other reality in the United States than these children facing even more restrictive forms of institutionalization in the absence of a system that seeks to protect them - even one as profoundly and severely broken as this one.
Make no mistake, I would never advocate sacrificing the wellbeing of the many for the few, but those children most vulnerable (and their siblings) cannot be left out of these arguments. So for that, it gets four stars.
It's a personal subject for me because it was the case for our family - despite living in poverty, more money in our household would not have actually kept me safe from my sister. More money would not keep my nieces safe from my nephew. More money would have certainly kept my nieces and my nephew with my sister to begin with though. Dr. Roberts makes an extremely compelling case that for the majority of kids in care, the system is doing more harm than good, and those children would be better off with their parents. She makes a well-reasoned argument that the child welfare system as it exists today has its roots in family policing and oppression of Black and brown families in the United States. But I think the biggest flaw in this argument and others like it is ignorance of the global construct of child welfare and foster care. These systems exist independently in countries outside of the United States, and they didn't start here. They most certainly look very different than the one we have here in most cases, and I am left wondering if the US child welfare system can, in fact, be remediated through adapting some elements more common in other countries. Because the unfortunate reality is that children cannot always stay with their parents or even their family members (and it isn't just the children who die in their parents care, which she does lightly address). There are children who cause harm to other children in the home, children with exceptional medical needs which are not only costly, but time and effort intensive in a way not every family has to give. I see no other reality in the United States than these children facing even more restrictive forms of institutionalization in the absence of a system that seeks to protect them - even one as profoundly and severely broken as this one.
Make no mistake, I would never advocate sacrificing the wellbeing of the many for the few, but those children most vulnerable (and their siblings) cannot be left out of these arguments. So for that, it gets four stars.
January 18, 2023
I don't agree with the premise: The foster care system should be abolished. CPS polices black communities, tears families apart, and places black children into a foster care system that devastates them. Roberts believes that the foster care system is a "family policing system" that disproportionately tears black children away from their families. CPS is racist.
I still give this book 5 stars. Roberts is a superb writer and every argument is backed by statistics. She brings up some good points:
1) Remember Home Alone (the wealth suburban Chicago white family that forgets their son) or how about the free-range parents in America (always white) who let young kids walk to the park alone or manage the subway system in New York. These families are applauded for teaching indepencdence or in the case of Home Alone laughed away. Imagine if these families were minorities who left a kid alone in a apartment in the innercity...would CPS treat them the same way?
2) Foster kids are disproportionately black or native american.
3) America has history of controlling minority populations by separating parents from children (Native American children taken off to boarding schools and children of slaves sold to other slave owners).
4) Is there a foster care to prison pipeline?
Roberts wants to blow it all up? Not sure she has a good alternative. She fails to recognize all the foster parents, social workers, and attorneys that are working hard for low pay to protect kids. It's a messy system, but it's the best we got. Addiction, abuse, neglect...sadly dictate that kids must be "torn apart" from parents. Give the biological parents a second, third, fourth chance-- reunification is the ultimate goal.
I still give this book 5 stars. Roberts is a superb writer and every argument is backed by statistics. She brings up some good points:
1) Remember Home Alone (the wealth suburban Chicago white family that forgets their son) or how about the free-range parents in America (always white) who let young kids walk to the park alone or manage the subway system in New York. These families are applauded for teaching indepencdence or in the case of Home Alone laughed away. Imagine if these families were minorities who left a kid alone in a apartment in the innercity...would CPS treat them the same way?
2) Foster kids are disproportionately black or native american.
3) America has history of controlling minority populations by separating parents from children (Native American children taken off to boarding schools and children of slaves sold to other slave owners).
4) Is there a foster care to prison pipeline?
Roberts wants to blow it all up? Not sure she has a good alternative. She fails to recognize all the foster parents, social workers, and attorneys that are working hard for low pay to protect kids. It's a messy system, but it's the best we got. Addiction, abuse, neglect...sadly dictate that kids must be "torn apart" from parents. Give the biological parents a second, third, fourth chance-- reunification is the ultimate goal.
November 26, 2024
This goes down for my 2024 book of the year. As a social worker invested in radical child welfare reform, the content of this book is my anthem. I have read all of the source material she cited and have been frustrated by the lack of resources compiling data into one place. I am so excited that Dorothy Roberts did this, because now frankly there's one less project on my plate. If someone wants to understand the reasons why child welfare needs to be essentially burnt down, look no further than Torn Apart.
The only thing I wish was more clearly defined in these pages would be some intermediary steps that existing social workers, attorneys, or others invested in change, could pursue within the existing broken structure while also advocating for long-term solutions. Not to be a Debbie Downer, but we all know that our broken system is not on the forefront of the changes needed. Unfortunately that leaves us desperate to find creativity in the midst of this mess. I can write my legislators all day everyday, I can defend the rights of the children on my case load to the best of my ability, and I can talk to friends and family at every holiday gathering... But I'm not convinced I'll see the needed level of change in my lifetime. As much as that saddens me, that leaves me looking for the ways I can make the most change within the muck. So although I agree with the radicalization of this book, I also wish there had been a little bit more meat that people could chew on now while working towards the longer term goals. I know what that looks like for me right now, but that's going to be different for everyone. And I would also have loved to read Ms. Roberts perspective in case I'm missing something incredible I could be doing as well.
The only thing I wish was more clearly defined in these pages would be some intermediary steps that existing social workers, attorneys, or others invested in change, could pursue within the existing broken structure while also advocating for long-term solutions. Not to be a Debbie Downer, but we all know that our broken system is not on the forefront of the changes needed. Unfortunately that leaves us desperate to find creativity in the midst of this mess. I can write my legislators all day everyday, I can defend the rights of the children on my case load to the best of my ability, and I can talk to friends and family at every holiday gathering... But I'm not convinced I'll see the needed level of change in my lifetime. As much as that saddens me, that leaves me looking for the ways I can make the most change within the muck. So although I agree with the radicalization of this book, I also wish there had been a little bit more meat that people could chew on now while working towards the longer term goals. I know what that looks like for me right now, but that's going to be different for everyone. And I would also have loved to read Ms. Roberts perspective in case I'm missing something incredible I could be doing as well.
May 4, 2024
A 4.5 read that I will enthusiastically round up to 5 stars. This book was an inevitable read as I begin my professional career as a psychologist who works with Black adolescents, young adults, and to be honest anybody at any age who has been touched by the U.S. child welfare system. Roberts' book clearly outlines the basis of family policing systems and provides empirical evidence as well as lived experiences about its many harms. It feels like a watershed book for me as someone who has had a more critical perspective of child-welfare, foster care, and adoption for the last couple years. Reading this was looking about the realities of the death penalty and how disproportionate the trauma impact of this system is from its stated goal. It's sobering to know how fraught our current systems are, as well as hold that alongside the reality that there are many, many children being harmed by forces out of their control.
As with many books like Roberts', I would have appreciated more space dedicated to potential solutions and how these solutions are received by those who have been harmed. I also believe there could have been expanded analysis on how the care-taking role of caseworkers echoes some of benevolent harm of other fields dominated by white women (e.g., nurse, teacher). That being said, I am asking for a lot from a thoroughly researched and thought through book. I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to know more about how our country actually interacts with Black families.
As with many books like Roberts', I would have appreciated more space dedicated to potential solutions and how these solutions are received by those who have been harmed. I also believe there could have been expanded analysis on how the care-taking role of caseworkers echoes some of benevolent harm of other fields dominated by white women (e.g., nurse, teacher). That being said, I am asking for a lot from a thoroughly researched and thought through book. I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to know more about how our country actually interacts with Black families.
May 30, 2022
Important perspective. The “family policing system” as she refers to CPS, has no doubt done a lot of harm to many families unfortunate enough to have been caught in its’ talons, and it is possible (her argument) that this system may do more, maybe even much more, harm than good. Those are valid points. However, rather than fair and balanced, the book read more as a piece of advocacy. While yes, CPS may not be helping victims of abuse in the way it purports, and may do a lot of collateral damage along the way, I do think she should’ve spent more of the book acknowledging that domestic violence and other forms of abuse are still very real phenomena that still need a solution, and simply giving the abusers more money and resources, which seems to be one of her conclusions, is not going to solve that. The ending also came off as somewhat grandiose and utopian, when she included not only CPS but police and carceral abolition as part of her vision for a crime and violence-free future. Lastly, it seems as if the anchoring error a lot of people raging against the system make is that the solution should be *another* system, and *another* redistribution of benefits and entitlements, when perhaps self sufficiency (on both a personal and community level), and less government intrusion or dependency is really the answer.
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