Publications

BOOKS

Confronting the Racist Legacy of the American Child Welfare System: The Case for Abolition

Cover image of publication by Alan J. Dettlaff, author and abolitionist

Social Work, White Supremacy, and Racial Justice: Reckoning With Our History, Interrogating Our Present, Reimagining Our Future

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upEND PUBLICATIONS

How We endUP offers ideas about how we can, in community, move toward abolition of family policing. The intended audience are those committed to improving the safety and well-being of children and those who recognize the urgency of ending the harms done to Black, Indigenous, and Latinx families by the family policing system.

This document provides a framework for analyzing whether proposed reforms to family policing further entrench the family policing system or move us closer to abolition.

JOURNAL ARTICLES

Interrogating the Carceral State: Re-Envisioning Social Work’s Role in Systems Serving Children and Youth

This paper traces social work’s historical and current relationships with three major child and youth serving carceral systems in the United States—the child welfare system, the juvenile justice system, and school policing.

Reflections on the Ethical Possibilities and Limitations of Abolitionist Praxis in Social Work (OPEN ACCESS)

Since 2020, blatant forms of state violence within the United States have reignited attention in social work, where numerous calls have been made to realign and reconsider our standing ethical values and principles.

The Perils of Child “Protection” for Children of Color: Lessons from History (OPEN ACCESS)

Based upon recent investigation rates, as many as 37% of children born this year in the United States may become the subject of a child welfare system investigation.

Racial Bias, Poverty, and the Notion of Evidence

The overrepresentation of Black children has been observed in the child welfare system for nearly 60 years yet persists as un unresolved problem.

Racial Disproportionality and Disparities in the Child Welfare System: Why Do They Exist and What Can Be Done to Address Them?

Children of color are overrepresented in the child welfare system, and Black children have been most significantly impacted by this racial disproportionality

It Is Not a Broken System, It Is a System that Needs to be Broken: The upEND Movement to Abolish the Child Welfare System (OPEN ACCESS)

The child welfare system disproportionately harms Black children and families through systemic over-surveillance, over-involvement, and the resulting adverse outcomes associated with foster care.

BOOK CHAPTERS

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Introduction to Volume III, Part 2: CWLA Compendium of Policy and Practice

This was intended to be the Introduction to CWLA's Compendium of Policy and Practice, Volume 3, Part 2. This introduction was solicited by the editors of the Volume. However, the CEO and staff of CWLA refused to publish this upon reviewing the content.

The Oppressive History of “Child Welfare” Systems and the Need for Abolition

Given the racist origins of the family policing system and the harm this system perpetuates, for how long can social work continue to support this system, given our purported commitment to social justice?

Social Work and the Movement to Abolish the Child Welfare System

The racist inequities that exist in child welfare systems that result from forced family separation have been known for nearly 60 years, yet this system has been unable to effectively address this problem.