Luck Anneliese N
Department of Sociology and Population Studies Center, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Child Youth Serv Rev. 2023 Oct;153. doi: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2023.107114. Epub 2023 Jul 27.
The racialized nature of state intervention into family life has increasingly called attention to the impact of parental incarceration and foster care placement on the wellbeing of children across the United States. Yet little is known about how these interventions collectively operate at a macro-level in the lives of children. This study estimates the cumulative childhood risks of experiencing parental imprisonment or foster care placement for White, Black, and Hispanic children across fourteen states. Drawing on policy regime theory, I identify subnational family intervention regimes based on the relative risks of 'right' prison-driven and 'left' welfare-driven intervention, examining how these regimes vary across both states and racial/ethnic subgroups. In documenting variation in family intervention regimes across states and race/ethnicity, this study offers three key findings. First, I find evidence of foster care's unique position within policy regime thought, with most intervention regimes misaligning with the traditional linear understandings of a punitive-protective continuum. Second, where regimes do align with policy regime theory, I document a clear racial divergence in that operation, with White children exclusively facing welfare-driven risks while Black and Hispanic children exclusively facing prison-driven risks of family intervention. Finally, I present evidence that Black children consistently and uniquely face high risks of intervention that go unshared with their resident peers, further underscoring the deeply racialized nature of state intervention in the United States.
国家对家庭生活干预的种族化性质越来越引起人们对父母监禁和寄养安置对美国儿童福祉影响的关注。然而，对于这些干预措施在儿童生活中如何在宏观层面共同发挥作用，人们却知之甚少。本研究估计了14个州白人、黑人及西班牙裔儿童经历父母监禁或寄养安置的累积童年风险。借鉴政策体制理论，我根据“右派”监狱驱动型和“左派”福利驱动型干预的相对风险，确定了州以下层面的家庭干预体制，考察这些体制在不同州和种族/族裔亚群体中的差异。在记录家庭干预体制在州与种族/族裔方面的差异时，本研究得出了三个关键发现。第一，我发现寄养在政策体制思想中具有独特地位的证据，大多数干预体制与惩罚-保护连续体的传统线性理解不一致。第二，在体制与政策体制理论相符的情况下，我记录了这种运作中明显的种族差异，白人儿童仅面临福利驱动型风险，而黑人和西班牙裔儿童仅面临监狱驱动型家庭干预风险。最后，我提供的证据表明，黑人儿童始终且独特地面临着与当地同龄人不同的高干预风险，这进一步凸显了美国国家干预的深刻种族化性质。
