Judging the “Other”: The Intersection of Race, Gender and Class in Family Court

Background and Purpose: Family Court provides a unique setting for understanding the intersection of race, gender and class in the adjudication of child maltreatment cases. Many of the respondents are not only women, but women of color, and women experiencing poverty.  With the exception of caseworkers, who also are often women of color, other court actors, including judges and attorneys, are more likely than not to be women, and to be white. Family Court is also one of the few, if only, courts focusing primarily on the domestic sphere, and with a mission to “rehabilitate” parents, usually mothers. This particular constellation of court actors, and their mission and purpose, provides fertile ground for understanding the ways in which such social categories as race, gender and class interact to create discrimination or disadvantage, and one which is exponentially more marginalizing than when viewed as singular categories.  This study seeks to understand how judges, the most powerful actor in the courtroom, manages the effects of these multiple disadvantages.

 

Methods: The study uses a qualitative research design consisting of observations of child maltreatment proceedings in a family court located in an urban area in the Northeast. Ninety-four child welfare and abuse proceedings were observed over a one year period. The data was analyzed using thematic analysis.

 

Results: The findings suggest that intersectionality worked in ways that exponentially marginalized mothers of color in the courtroom, both through the silencing of their voices and through shaming them for their actions. Individual weaknesses were emphasized over structural obstacles and personal irresponsibility over expressions of maternal care and concern. Gender did not serve as a moderating influence, with mostly female judges reproducing a gendered, classed and racialized view of the neglectful mother. These negative narratives invited harsher and more punitive treatment of parents, and also spilled over and affected interactions among the other non-legal professionals and people of color in the room – the caseworkers.

 

Conclusions and Implications: Understanding the intersectionality of race, gender and class in the courtroom can help court actors minimize its effects. Several Family Courts across the country are already addressing the effects of Disproportionate Minority Representation, with judges using bench cards, a series of “refection questions” that are designed to surface biases. As the study findings suggest, bias operates in multiple and intersecting ways, and includes not only race, but gender and class as well. To improve the adjudication of cases, these missing pieces should be included more explicitly in bench cards, and other judge trainings and monitoring practices, and should be extended to the interactions between other court actors including caseworkers.