Black Crossover Youth in Congregate Settings: Exploring the Perceptions of Professionals on Racial Barriers through a Critical Race Theory Lens

Background and Purpose: Crossover youth broadly describe adolescents who experience child maltreatment and engage in delinquency, with or without formal engagement in the child welfare or juvenile justice systems (Herz & Dierkhising, 2018). In both systems, respectively, Black youth are overrepresented in the United States (Herz et al., 2019). Further, Black youth who enter the foster care system more often experience out-of-home placement in highly structured, institutional congregate settings, where they are subject to poorer outcomes. The persistent racial overrepresentation has typically been attributed to negative individual factors and pathologies. However, with racism embedded in system policies and practices, Black crossover youth challenges must be evaluated from a structural perspective and through an anti-oppressive lens. Few studies have explored the views of child welfare and juvenile justice professionals on the role of race and racism among Black crossover youth. Guided by Critical Race Theory (CRT), this qualitative study explores the perceptions of child welfare and juvenile justice professionals to understand systemic racial bias impacting Black crossover youth in congregate settings.

Methods: Twelve individual interviews were conducted with child welfare and juvenile justice professionals, in three Texas cities. Professionals included four males and eight females. Five participants were in managerial or supervisory roles; four were judges hearing child welfare and/or juvenile justice cases; and three participants were attorneys with active roles in representing crossover youth as attorney ad litem. Seven participants worked in the juvenile justice system; four participants worked in both the child welfare and juvenile justice systems; and one participant worked solely in the child welfare system. Participants’ professional experience ranged between 2-25 years (M = 15.25). Using a phenomenological design, the perceptions of child welfare and juvenile justice professionals on race and anti-Black racism on Black crossover youth in congregate care placements is examined; guided by Critical Race Theory (CRT).

Results: Data analysis revealed key themes aligning with the tenets from Critical Race Theory. Participant responses specifically suggested the following: 1) system failures, negative stereotypes of Black families, influencing racial disproportionality; and 2) the role of structural racism in placement policies and placement decisions. Results from the analysis of participant interviews suggest that child welfare and juvenile justice professionals attribute race disparities of Black crossover youth in congregate settings to individual factors and system failures.

Conclusion and Implications: Findings highlight the importance of providing a structural perspective to explain systemic racism and race disparities toward Black crossover youth, particularly in out-of-home placement decisions to congregate settings. Understanding racial disproportionality in congregate placement decision-making through a CRT framework can influence the dismantling of racially oppressive policies in child welfare and juvenile justice systems.