Torn Apart: How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families--And How Abolition Can Build a Safer World by Roberts, Dorothy

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.

Author: Dorothy Roberts
Publisher: Basic Books
Published: 04/05/2022
Pages: 384
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.25lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.20w x 1.50d
ISBN: 9781541675445

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 02/14/2022
Kirkus Reviews 03/01/2022
Library Journal 03/01/2022 pg. 150

About the Author
Dorothy Roberts is the George A. Weiss University Professor of Law and Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, where she directs the Penn Program on Race, Science, and Society. The author of four books, including Killing the Black Body, she lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.