IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/cysrev/v120y2021ics0190740920321344.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Racial disparity in the Ontario child welfare system: Conceptualizing policies and practices that drive involvement for Black families

Author

Listed:
  • Mohamud, Faisa
  • Edwards, Travonne
  • Antwi-Boasiako, Kofi
  • William, Kineesha
  • King, Jason
  • Igor, Elo
  • King, Bryn

Abstract

Racial disparities in child welfare involvement between Black and White children have been well-documented in the United States, but research in this area is relatively underexplored in Canada. Emerging evidence from Canadian studies indicates that Black families are far more likely to be reported for maltreatment concerns, and that these initial disparities persist as families move deeper into the system. Scholars have begun to identify the factors associated with those disparities in Canada, but there is a need for understanding the larger structural and historical context that shapes the opportunities and constraints for Black families living in Ontario. This analysis will situate child welfare in a nexus of anti-Black policy and structure with respect to immigration restrictions, income disparities, residential segregation, and the functioning of linked institutions such as the mental health, education, and legal systems. The cumulative burden of navigating and contending with these larger systemic forces leave Black families vulnerable to a relatively low threshold for reporting maltreatment concerns and risk of harm to Ontario child welfare agencies. This paper documents the alignment between the circumstances created by anti-Black racism at institutional, provincial, and federal levels and the seemingly race-neutral eligibility criteria embedded within Ontario child welfare, which results in disproportionate reporting of Black families.

Suggested Citation

  • Mohamud, Faisa & Edwards, Travonne & Antwi-Boasiako, Kofi & William, Kineesha & King, Jason & Igor, Elo & King, Bryn, 2021. "Racial disparity in the Ontario child welfare system: Conceptualizing policies and practices that drive involvement for Black families," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:120:y:2021:i:c:s0190740920321344
    DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.105711
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190740920321344
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.105711?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Boyd, Reiko, 2014. "African American disproportionality and disparity in child welfare: Toward a comprehensive conceptual framework," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 15-27.
    2. Drake, Brett & Lee, Sang Moo & Jonson-Reid, Melissa, 2009. "Race and child maltreatment reporting: Are Blacks overrepresented?," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 309-316, March.
    3. Bruegel, . "Bruegel annual report 2015," Books, Bruegel, number 14079.
    4. HarvestPlus, 2016. "Reaching millions: 2015 annual report:," Annual reports 2016harvestplus, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    5. Council on Food Agricultural and Resource Economics, C-FARE, 2016. "2015 Annual Report Presentation," C-FARE Reports 260838, Council on Food, Agricultural, and Resource Economics (C-FARE).
    6. Raz, Mical, 2020. "Calling child protectives services is a form of community policing that should be used appropriately: Time to engage mandatory reporters as to the harmful effects of unnecessary reports," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    7. Boatswain-Kyte, Alicia & Esposito, Tonino & Trocmé, Nico & Boatswain-Kyte, Alicia, 2020. "A longitudinal jurisdictional study of Black children reported to child protection services in Quebec, Canada," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    8. Clarke, Jennifer, 2011. "The challenges of child welfare involvement for Afro-Caribbean families in Toronto," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 274-283, February.
    9. Nico Trocmé & Alicia Kyte & Vandna Sinha & Barbara Fallon, 2014. "Urgent Protection versus Chronic Need: Clarifying the Dual Mandate of Child Welfare Services across Canada," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 3(3), pages 1-16, August.
    10. Council on Food Agricultural and Resource Economics, C-FARE, 2016. "2015 Annual Report," C-FARE Reports 260839, Council on Food, Agricultural, and Resource Economics (C-FARE).
    11. Garland, Ann F. & Landsverk, John A. & Lau, Anna S., 2003. "Racial/ethnic disparities in mental health service use among children in foster care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 25(5-6), pages 491-507.
    12. King, Bryn & Fallon, Barbara & Filippelli, Joanne & Black, Tara & O'Connor, Carolyn, 2018. "Troubled teens and challenged caregivers: Characteristics associated with the decision to provide child welfare services to adolescents in Ontario, Canada," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 205-215.
    13. Wulczyn, Fred & Gibbons, Robert & Snowden, Lonnie & Lery, Bridgette, 2013. "Poverty, social disadvantage, and the black/white placement gap," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 65-74.
    14. Harris, Marian S. & Hackett, Wanda, 2008. "Decision points in child welfare: An action research model to address disproportionality," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 199-215, February.
    15. Adjei, Paul Banahene & Minka, Eric, 2018. "Black parents ask for a second look: Parenting under ‘White’ Child Protection rules in Canada," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 511-524.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Antwi-Boasiako, Kofi & Fallon, Barbara & King, Bryn & Trocmé, Nico & Fluke, John, 2021. "Examining decision-making tools and child welfare involvement among Black families in Ontario, Canada," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    2. Shipe, Stacey L. & Uretsky, Mathew C. & LaBrenz, Catherine A. & Shdaimah, Corey S. & Connell, Christian M., 2022. "When families, organizational culture, and policy collide: A mixed method study of alternative response," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    3. Edwards, Travonne & Laylor, Andre & King, Bryn & Parada, Henry, 2023. "When home reminds me of jail: The carceral nature of out-of-home care for Black youth in Ontario’s child welfare system," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    4. King, Bryn & Parada, Henry & Fallon, Barbara & Escobar Olivo, Veronica & Best, Laura M. & Filippelli, Joanne, 2024. "Latin American children in Ontario child welfare: An examination of investigation disparities," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    5. King, Bryn & Black, Tara & Fallon, Barbara & Lung, Yu, 2021. "The role of risk in child welfare decision-making: A prospective cohort examination of families transferred to ongoing child protection services after an investigation," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Antwi-Boasiako, Kofi & Fallon, Barbara & King, Bryn & Trocmé, Nico & Fluke, John, 2021. "Examining decision-making tools and child welfare involvement among Black families in Ontario, Canada," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    2. Woodmass, Kyler & Weisberg, Sanford & Shlomi, Hilla & Rockymore, Maxie & Wells, Susan J., 2017. "Examining the potential for racial disparity in out-of-home placement decisions: A quantitative matched-pair study," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 96-109.
    3. Boyd, Reiko, 2014. "African American disproportionality and disparity in child welfare: Toward a comprehensive conceptual framework," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 15-27.
    4. Bywaters, Paul & Brady, Geraldine & Sparks, Tim & Bos, Elizabeth & Bunting, Lisa & Daniel, Brigid & Featherstone, Brid & Morris, Kate & Scourfield, Jonathan, 2015. "Exploring inequities in child welfare and child protection services: Explaining the ‘inverse intervention law’," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 98-105.
    5. Boatswain-Kyte, Alicia & Esposito, Tonino & Trocmé, Nico & Boatswain-Kyte, Alicia, 2020. "A longitudinal jurisdictional study of Black children reported to child protection services in Quebec, Canada," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    6. Edwards, Travonne & Laylor, Andre & King, Bryn & Parada, Henry, 2023. "When home reminds me of jail: The carceral nature of out-of-home care for Black youth in Ontario’s child welfare system," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    7. Kim, Hyunil & Drake, Brett & Jonson-Reid, Melissa, 2018. "An examination of class-based visibility bias in national child maltreatment reporting," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 165-173.
    8. King, Bryn & Black, Tara & Fallon, Barbara & Lung, Yu, 2021. "The role of risk in child welfare decision-making: A prospective cohort examination of families transferred to ongoing child protection services after an investigation," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    9. Emily Keddell, 2022. "Mechanisms of Inequity: The Impact of Instrumental Biases in the Child Protection System," Societies, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-19, May.
    10. Cénat, Jude Mary & McIntee, Sara-Emilie & Mukunzi, Joana N. & Noorishad, Pari-Gole, 2021. "Overrepresentation of Black children in the child welfare system: A systematic review to understand and better act," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    11. Wulczyn, Fred, 2020. "Race/ethnicity and running away from foster care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    12. Rosenberg, Rachel & Williams, Sarah Catherine & Martinez, Valerie & Ball, Ja'Chelle, 2024. "Mandated reporting policies and the detection of child abuse and neglect," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    13. Mark Kanazawa & Mark T. Kanazawa, 2016. "Local consequences of climate change: State park visitations on the North Shore of Minnesota," Working Papers 2016-03, Carleton College, Department of Economics.
    14. Skrypek, Margaret & Woodmass, Kyler & Rockymore, Maxie & Johnson, Geoff & Wells, Susan J., 2017. "Examining the potential for racial disparity in out-of-home placement decisions: A qualitative matched-pair study," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 127-137.
    15. Wells, Susan J. & Merritt, Lani M. & Briggs, Harold E., 2009. "Bias, racism and evidence-based practice: The case for more focused development of the child welfare evidence base," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(11), pages 1160-1171, November.
    16. Stephens, Tricia & Kuerbis, Alexis & Pisciotta, Caterina & Morgenstern, Jon, 2020. "Underexamined points of vulnerability for black mothers in the child welfare system: The role of number of births, age of first use of substances and criminal justice involvement," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    17. Noorishad, Pari-Gole & Paul Darius, Wina & Czechowski, Konrad & McIntee, Sara-Emilie & Ntunga Mukunzi, Joana & Mary Cénat, Jude, 2023. "Racism as a vehicle for the overrepresentation of Black youth in child protection services in Ontario, Canada: Caseworkers’ and community facilitators’ perspectives," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    18. Chapel, Capucine, 2022. "Impact of official development assistance projects for renewable energy on electrification in sub-Saharan Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    19. Font, Sarah A. & Berger, Lawrence M. & Slack, Kristen S., 2012. "Examining racial disproportionality in child protective services case decisions," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(11), pages 2188-2200.
    20. Robichaud, Marie-Joëlle & Pullen Sansfaçon, Annie & Poirier, Marie-Andrée, 2020. "Decision making at substantiation in cases involving racialized families: Child protection workers’ perceptions of influential factors," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:120:y:2021:i:c:s0190740920321344. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/childyouth .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.