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Exploring inequities in child welfare and child protection services: Explaining the ‘inverse intervention law’

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  • Bywaters, Paul
  • Brady, Geraldine
  • Sparks, Tim
  • Bos, Elizabeth
  • Bunting, Lisa
  • Daniel, Brigid
  • Featherstone, Brid
  • Morris, Kate
  • Scourfield, Jonathan

Abstract

Attempts to record, understand and respond to variations in child welfare and protection reporting, service patterns and outcomes are international, numerous and longstanding. Reframing such variations as an issue of inequity between children and between families opens the way to a new approach to explaining the profound difference in intervention rates between and within countries and administrative districts. Recent accounts of variation have frequently been based on the idea that there is a binary division between bias and risk (or need). Here we propose seeing supply (bias) and demand (risk) factors as two aspects of a single system, both framed, in part, by social structures. A recent finding from a study of intervention rates in England, the ‘inverse intervention law’, is used to illustrate the complex ways in which a range of factors interact to produce intervention rates. In turn, this analysis raises profound moral, policy, practice and research questions about current child welfare and child protection services.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:57:y:2015:i:c:p:98-105
    DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2015.07.017
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. 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.
    2. Tilbury, Clare & Thoburn, June, 2009. "Using racial disproportionality and disparity indicators to measure child welfare outcomes," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(10), pages 1101-1106, October.
    3. Rolock, Nancy, 2011. "New methodology: Measuring racial or ethnic disparities in child welfare," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(9), pages 1531-1537, September.
    4. Ben-Arieh, Asher, 2010. "Localities, social services and child abuse: The role of community characteristics in social services allocation and child abuse reporting," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 536-543, April.
    5. Klein, Sacha & Merritt, Darcey H., 2014. "Neighborhood racial & ethnic diversity as a predictor of child welfare system involvement," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 95-105.
    6. Jonson-Reid, Melissa & Drake, Brett & Kohl, Patricia L., 2009. "Is the overrepresentation of the poor in child welfare caseloads due to bias or need?," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 422-427, March.
    7. 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.
    8. 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.
    9. Bywaters, Paul, 2015. "Cumulative jeopardy? A response to Brown and Ward," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 68-73.
    10. Gilbert, Neil, 2012. "A comparative study of child welfare systems: Abstract orientations and concrete results," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 532-536.
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    Cited by:

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    3. Biehal, Nina & Baldwin, Helen & Cusworth, Linda & Wade, Jim & Allgar, Victoria, 2018. "In-home support or out of home care? Thresholds for intervention with abused and neglected children," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 263-271.
    4. Smith, Brenda D. & Pressley, Tracy D., 2019. "Do surprisingly low child maltreatment rates in rural southern counties reflect lower rates of substantiation?," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    5. Webb, Calum & Bywaters, Paul & Scourfield, Jonathan & McCartan, Claire & Bunting, Lisa & Davidson, Gavin & Morris, Kate, 2020. "Untangling child welfare inequalities and the ‘Inverse Intervention Law’ in England," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    6. Smith, Brenda D. & Li, Qingyi & Wang, Kun & Smith, Angela M., 2021. "A national study of child maltreatment reporting at the county level: Interactions among race/ethnicity, rurality and poverty," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    7. Bywaters, Paul & Scourfield, Jonathan & Webb, Calum & Morris, Kate & Featherstone, Brid & Brady, Geraldine & Jones, Chantel & Sparks, Tim, 2019. "Paradoxical evidence on ethnic inequities in child welfare: Towards a research agenda," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 145-154.
    8. Keddell, Emily & Davie, Gabrielle & Barson, Dave, 2019. "Child protection inequalities in Aotearoa New Zealand: Social gradient and the ‘inverse intervention law’," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 1-1.
    9. Ahn, Haksoon & Xu, Yanfeng & Williams, Kimberly A. & Parks-Bourn, Kimberly & Williams, Syreeta & Conway, Denise, 2022. "Family team decision meeting and child welfare service disparities: The influence of race and poverty," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    10. Keddell, Emily & Hyslop, Ian, 2018. "Role type, risk perceptions and judgements in child welfare: A mixed methods vignette study," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 130-139.

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