Dorothy Roberts (PSC Research Associate) did a Q&A for Youth Today making the case to abolish the child welfare system in the United States. Roberts' upcoming book, Torn Apart: How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families--and How Abolition Can Build a Safer World, draws on decades of research to reveal that the child welfare system is better understood as a “family policing system” that collaborates with law enforcement and prisons to oppress Black communities. Child protection investigations ensnare a majority of Black children, putting their families under intense state surveillance and regulation. Black children are disproportionately likely to be torn from their families and placed in foster care, driving many to juvenile detention and imprisonment.