Justification for the Criminalization of Parents: The Passing of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act

Introduction: Racial disparities within the child welfare system are widely known. However, little is known about the role that coded language played in criminalizing parents along racialized, gendered, and class-based lines which influenced the passing of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) of 1974, and played a role in the current overrepresentation of Black women, children, and families within the system. This study seeks to analyze the historical context and language in historical policy documents which led up to the passing of CAPTA. This study examines the different historical periods preceding the passage of CAPTA and how punitive aspects of social welfare policy later influenced the overrepresentation of Black women, children, and families within the child welfare system.

Methods: Using intersectionality (Collins & Bilge, 2016; Crenshaw, 1989) and critical discourse analysis (Mullet, 2018) as guiding frameworks, language within six historical policy documents before the passing of CAPTA is analyzed to understand how the criminalization of parents played a major role in the passing of CAPTA. Opening statements, hearings, and deliberation involving witness testimonials, research studies, news articles, and other submitted documents were examined to identify coded language which sought to criminalize parents. Data from historical, legal and empirical social science sources were utilized for the policy analysis.

Results: Four themes were identified within historical policy documents which aided in the passing of CAPTA, but also the criminalization of parents: 1) egregious examples of child abuse which do not take into account the high rates of neglect among children involved in child maltreatment cases, 2) the racialized dimensions of parental criminality which sought to disparage differential parenting practices, 3) gendered dimensions of parental criminality which focused on the lack of “good mothering” in cases of child abuse, and 4) class-based dimensions of parental criminality where parents in poverty are seen as inherently unable to provide sufficient care to children.

Discussion: It is important to understand how the first federal child protective services policy in the United States used coded language to criminalize parents along racialized, gendered, and class-based notions of bad parenting. Though neglect is by far the largest proportion of child maltreatment cases, egregious examples of child abuse were often used to justify the passing of CAPTA. Rather than focusing on supporting families, a punitive approach was taken in implementing services which focused on punishing parents who were deemed to be unfit to parent. Implications for the later overrepresentation of Black women, children, and families within the child welfare system is also addressed.