Shattered Bonds
Shattered Bonds by Dorothy Roberts, published by Civitas Books on December 19, 2001, is a comprehensive examination of the foster care system in the United States, focusing on the challenges faced by poor, predominantly Black families. This 352-page book presents a critical analysis of how the social safety net has failed to support these families in their efforts to maintain a stable home for their children. Through her extensive legal research and original interviews, Roberts sheds light on the systemic issues within the child welfare system, highlighting the racial dynamics that influence state intervention.
In Shattered Bonds, readers will find an in-depth exploration of the racial politics surrounding child welfare, including the disproportionate rates at which children from certain neighborhoods are placed into foster care. The book discusses the barriers that poor and Black families encounter when trying to regain custody of their children, as well as the broader implications of state oversight on racial inequality. Roberts’ work is grounded in a thorough investigation of social conditions affecting African American children, making it a significant contribution to discussions on child welfare and social justice.
Official synopsis Publisher
The story of foster care in the United States is the story of the failure of the social safety net to aid poor, largely black, parents in their attempt to make a home for their children. Shattered Bonds tells this story as no other book has before-from the perspective of a prominent black, female legal theoretician.The current state of the child-welfare system in America is a well-known tragedy. Thousands of children every year are removed from their parents’ homes, often for little reason other than the endemic poverty that afflicts women and children more than any other group in the U.S. Dorothy Roberts, an acclaimed legal scholar and social critic, reveals the racial politics of child welfare in America through extensive legal research and original interviews with Chicago families in the foster care system. She describes the racial imbalance in foster care, the concentration of state intervention in certain neighborhoods, the alarming percentages of children in substitute care, the difficulty that poor and black families have in meeting state’s standards for regaining custody of children placed in foster care, and the relationship between state supervision of families and continuing racial inequality.
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