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Dreaming of Abolitionist Futures, Reconceptualizing Child Welfare: Keeping Kids Safe in the Age of Abolition

Williams, Emma Peyton
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8989-4543
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=oberlin1592141173476542

Abstract Details

2020, BA, Oberlin College, Comparative American Studies.
Drawing on the wisdom of prison abolitionists past and present, as well as evidence from interviews and analysis of Illinois’ Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) procedural documents, this work argues that Illinois’ DCFS and the child protection system more broadly are an extension of the carceral state. Both the criminal punishment system and the child protection system (henceforth referred to as the family regulation system) use a diffuse network of actors to surveil, regulate, and punish the behavior of queer subjects: impoverished people and people of color. The present-day family regulation system builds on a long history of family regulation that predates the founding of the U.S., as is seen in chattel slavery, the cultural genocide of Native Americans, neoliberal and anti-welfare policy regimes, and continues today at the U.S.-Mexico border and in the formalized family regulation system (child protective services). This work explores how to keep children safe in the age of abolition, focusing on non-carceral responses that center strong, accountable communities and divest from dependence on the state.
KJ Cerankowski (Advisor)
Erica R. Meiners (Committee Member)
Harrod J. Suarez (Committee Member)
116 p.
African American Studies; African Americans; American Studies; Black History; Black Studies; Criminology; Families and Family Life; Gender Studies; Individual and Family Studies; Legal Studies; Minority and Ethnic Groups; Native American Studies; Native Americans; Native Studies; Social Work; Welfare
Child welfare; Family regulation; Carceral; Abolition; Police; Policing; Prison abolition; Abolitionist; Surveillance; Social services; Family services; Parents; Parenting; Social work; Child; Children; Critical carceral studies; Carceral studies

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Williams, E. P. (2020). Dreaming of Abolitionist Futures, Reconceptualizing Child Welfare: Keeping Kids Safe in the Age of Abolition [Undergraduate thesis, Oberlin College]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=oberlin1592141173476542

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Williams, Emma. Dreaming of Abolitionist Futures, Reconceptualizing Child Welfare: Keeping Kids Safe in the Age of Abolition. 2020. Oberlin College, Undergraduate thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=oberlin1592141173476542.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Williams, Emma. "Dreaming of Abolitionist Futures, Reconceptualizing Child Welfare: Keeping Kids Safe in the Age of Abolition." Undergraduate thesis, Oberlin College, 2020. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=oberlin1592141173476542

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

oberlin1592141173476542
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© 2020, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Oberlin College Honors Theses and OhioLINK.