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Where Were the 
Social Workers?
A Historical Overview 
of the Social Work 
Profession’s Complicity 
in the Family Policing 
System

JASMINE WALI



122  |  COLUMBIA SOCIAL WORK REVIEW, VOL. XXI 

WHERE WERE THE SOCIAL WORKERS?

ABSTRACT

In recent years, segments of the social work profession have highlighted 
the ways that social workers are complicit with carceral systems, 
including the foster care system. Following the advocacy of impacted 
families and communities, social workers have increasingly called for 
the re-examination of standard social work practices such as mandated 
reporting. This paper seeks to strengthen the historical understanding 
of the social work profession’s complicity in the creation of the modern 
family policing system, commonly known as the child welfare system. 
In particular, this paper explores the impacts of the anti-communist 
movements on social work advocacy and practice during crucial  
periods of racial and economic reckoning, with an emphasis on the 
profession’s complicity with the 1960s-era criminalization of the Black 
family structure.



COLUMBIA SOCIAL WORK REVIEW, VOL. XXI  |   123   

JASMINE WALI

U UKLYZ[HUKPUN�[OL�JVUÅ\LUJL�VM�ZVJPHS�^VYR»Z�Z[HUJLZ�VU�JOPSK�
well-being, racial dynamics, poverty, and crime in the 1960s 
can strengthen the future of social work. The family policing 
system, commonly known as the child welfare system, 

disproportionately impacts Black families. The social work profession 
played an important role in perpetuating anti-Black beliefs about Black 
families that contributed to the construction of the modern family 
policing system. As the profession grapples with its role in the carceral 
apparatus, understanding can guide practice by informing social 
workers of the legacy of resistance, confronting unjust practices, and 
activating the profession towards political advocacy.

The social work profession’s role in the carceral apparatus is apparent 
through the family policing system’s criminalization of poverty. The 
majority of family policing investigations and family separations are for 
charges of parental neglect, which include the inability to provide food, 
clothing, housing, medical care, and childcare (Burton & Montauban, 
2021). Instead of being met with basic needs assistance and other 
anti-poverty measures, social workers often report families to Child 
Protective Services (CPS). Implicit and explicit racial biases impact 
social service workers’ perceptions of families and contribute to the 
YHJPHS�KPZWHYP[PLZ�]PZPISL�H[�L]LY`�Z[HNL�VM�JOPSK�^LSMHYL�KLJPZPVU�THRPUN!�
reports, investigations, substantiations, family separation, court 
supervision, and termination of parental rights (Hill, 2006; Roberts & 
Sangoi, 2018).

0UKLLK��V]LY�ÄM[`�WLYJLU[�VM�)SHJR�JOPSKYLU�PU�[OL�<�:��^PSS�L_WLYPLUJL�
a child welfare investigation before their eighteenth birthday (Kim et 
al., 2017). In addition, Black families are disproportionately separated 
by the foster system and kept in the system for longer periods of time 
than their white counterparts (Roberts & Sangoi, 2018). Black parents 
also experience termination of parental rights at higher rates than white 
parents (Song, 2006). 



124  |  COLUMBIA SOCIAL WORK REVIEW, VOL. XXI 

Families interact with social workers throughout the entire family court 
process—through mandated reporters, caseworkers, family defense 
social workers, and court-mandated service providers. However, social 
work educators have largely ignored the profession’s complicity in 
JYLH[PUN�HUK�\WOVSKPUN�[OL�TVKLYU�MHTPS`�WVSPJPUN�Z`Z[LT��ZWLJPÄJHSS`�
ignoring the impact that anti-communism and McCarthyism have 
played in the profession’s shaping (Andrews & Reisch, 1997). The 
wave of McCarthyism in the mid-1900s, a period of fear-mongering 
in which individuals and communities who were accused of having 
ties or ideology sympathetic to communism or socialism were viewed 
as as treasonous and subversive, shaped social work research and 
scholarship for a generation, as the civil rights movement and backlash 
to it were in full swing. Moreover, the complicity of the profession helped 
to popularize and perpetuate notions of individual and family diagnoses 
as the root of societal ills. These themes resonated in public discourse, 
amidst backlash to the civil rights movement, and guided the creation of 
the family policing system.

In the decades of advocacy for the families and communities the family 
policing system has since impacted, social workers have grappled with 
the tension inherent in their roles as advocates and simultaneously 
participants in the larger carceral web of policing. This tension is visible 
PU�Z[HUKHYK�WYHJ[PJLZ�SPRL�THUKH[LK�YLWVY[PUN��^OPJO�SLNHSS`�YLX\PYLZ�
all social workers to report any suspicion of child abuse or neglect. 
Deepening the understanding of social work’s history, which includes 
forms of resistance employed by individual social workers, will further 
crystalize the profession’s obligations to advocate for families and will 
provide a roadmap for resisting harmful practices.

SHIFTING SOCIAL WORK BACK TOWARDS THE INDIVIDUAL

Although the early social work profession used charitable models that 
MVJ\ZLK�VU�¸Ä_PUN¹�WVVY�JVTT\UP[PLZ��PU�� ����-YHURSPU�+��9VVZL]LS[�
appointed several social workers to cabinet positions to help him shape 
and draft New Deal legislation, representing a shift in domestic policy 
and social work advocacy toward basic government support for its 

WHERE WERE THE SOCIAL WORKERS?



COLUMBIA SOCIAL WORK REVIEW, VOL. XXI  |   125   

citizens. The New Deal was actively supported by many social workers 
and professional social work organizations (Finn, 2016). A key piece of 
the New Deal was the Social Security Act of 1935, which created the Aid 
to Dependent Children program (ADC), later renamed Aid Families with 
+LWLUKLU[�*OPSKYLU��(-+*���^OPJO�WYV]PKLK�^LSMHYL�ILULÄ[Z�WYPTHYPS`�
to white widows who were not expected to work (Roberts, 2017). The 
Social Security Act also created a number of other social safety net 
programs to help elderly and unemployed citizens. This change within 
the social work profession paved the way for more robust debates and 
the rise of radical advocacy. Radical and progressive social workers 
typically regarded the political-economic, social, and ideological 
structures of society as the root causes of individual, family, and 
JVTT\UP[`�WYVISLTZ"�[OLPY�MVJ\Z�PUJS\KLK�JYP[PX\LZ�VM�JHWP[HSPZT�HZ�H�
social-economic system (Andrews & Reisch, 1997). 

However, “progressive” soon became a coded term for individuals linked 
to or sympathetic to the Communist Party (Andrews & Reisch, 1997). 
0U�� ����:TP[O�*VSSLNL�:JOVVS�VM�:VJPHS�>VYR�ÄYLK�P[Z�(ZZVJPH[L�+LHU��
Bertha Capen Reynolds, a leading social work radical and the most 
published social work scholar of that decade, because of her Marxist 
political views. In her work, she reframed beliefs about the causes of 
WV]LY[`�MYVT�PUKP]PK\HS�MHPSPUNZ�[V�Z[Y\J[\YHS�KLÄJP[Z��HUK�JYP[PX\LK�5L^�
+LHS�ZVJPHS�YLMVYTZ�MVY�MHPSPUN�[V�HKKYLZZ�Z[Y\J[\YHS�PULX\HSP[PLZ��-PUU��
�������-VSSV^PUN�OLY�MVYJLK�YLZPNUH[PVU��9L`UVSKZ�^HZ�MYLX\LU[S`�[OL�
target of government investigation and intrusion and was unable to 
obtain a position at another school of social work (Reisch, 2018). 

By the 1950s, McCarthyism was at its peak. The infamous McCarthy 
“blacklists” of individuals and communities accused of holding 
“communist” beliefs, including Reynolds and other scholars, impacted 
the profession of social work (Abramovitz, 1998). Even books that 
simply articulated the connection between human behavior and 
the administration of social welfare programs by explaining how 
psychological needs were connected to social forces were attacked for 
promoting a socialist agenda (Finn, 2016). Labor unions were labeled 
as communist and social work unions were crushed (Abramovitz, 1998). 

JASMINE WALI



126  |  COLUMBIA SOCIAL WORK REVIEW, VOL. XXI 

Without the protection of unions and progressive leadership, social work 
faculty were dismissed at a number of universities, as well as public 
and private agencies (Reisch, 2018). To avoid accusations by anti-
communists, many white, liberal social workers distanced themselves 
from their radical colleagues. The profession as a whole experienced 
collective anxiety over its tenuous occupational status (Andrews & 
Reisch, 1997). 

)SHJR�HJ[P]PZ[Z��MYLLKVT�ÄNO[LYZ��HUK�ZVJPHS�^VYRLYZ��^OVZL�^VYR�PZ�
now acknowledged as foundational to the profession, were tied to 
JVTT\UPZT!�^OPSL�ZVTL�JOVZL�[V�W\ISPJS`�Z\WWVY[�[OL�*VTT\UPZ[�
7HY[ �̀�V[OLYZ�^LYL�SHILSLK�JVTT\UPZ[Z�I`�NV]LYUTLU[�VɉJPHSZ�ILJH\ZL�
they criticized racial capitalism, or because they were Black and 
advocated for community support and investment from the government 
(Shepherd & Pritzker, 2021). In the Cold War and Civil Rights Movement 
JSPTH[L�VM�[OL�� ��Z�HUK�� ��Z��NV]LYUTLU[�KLWHY[TLU[Z�HUK�VɉJPHSZ�
used these accusations against Black liberation movements, whether 
real or not, to criminalize and surveil Black social workers and activists 
(Stanford, 2020).

Thus, for a generation, the organized social work profession, which 
consisted primarily of white women, largely withdrew from its previous 
HK]VJHJ`�LɈVY[Z�MVY�THYNPUHSPaLK�NYV\WZ��;OL�ZVJPHS�^VYR�WYVMLZZPVU�
became increasingly passive on social issues, because “to propose a 
measure to relieve poverty or to combat racism was to risk being called 
‘communist’” (Ehrenreich, 1985, p. 142; Andrews & Reisch, 1997). 
Instead, the profession redirected its research to safe issues like family 
dynamics, and focused internally on professionalization (Reisch, 2018). 
Textbooks written during and after the McCarthy era, which shaped a 
NLULYH[PVU�VM�WYHJ[P[PVULYZ��LTWOHZPaLK�[OL�¸HJX\PZP[PVU�VM�L_WLY[PZL¹�
and omitted “discussions of the ideological bases of practice” (Andrews 
& Reisch, 1997). 

This shift away from advocacy had a number of policy implications. The 
decline of social activism by the profession during the McCarthy period 
slowed the development of the welfare state, particularly regarding 

WHERE WERE THE SOCIAL WORKERS?



COLUMBIA SOCIAL WORK REVIEW, VOL. XXI  |   127   

public assistance and health insurance, and facilitated government 
LɈVY[Z�[V�[PNO[LU�YLZ[YPJ[PVUZ�HUK�LSPNPIPSP[`�YLX\PYLTLU[Z�VM�L_PZ[PUN�
programs (Andrews & Reisch, 1997). Throughout the 1950s, social 
^VYRLYZ�HUK�WVSPJ`THRLYZ�WSHJLK�SLZZ�LTWOHZPZ�VU�VɈLYPUN�TH[LYPHS�
support to low income families and increasingly emphasized individually 
targeted rehabilitation services designed to encourage “independence” 
(Kohler-Hausmann, 2017).

Even during the height of the civil rights movement, leading social 
^VYR�W\ISPJH[PVUZ�THKL�SP[[SL�YLMLYLUJL�[V�YHJPZT�VY�YHJPHS�PULX\HSP[`�
(Simon, 1994). In fact, most social work research and policy advocacy 
focused, explicitly or implicitly, on the supposed deviant features of 
communities of color, thus providing the intellectual foundation for 
WVSPJPLZ�[OH[�MVJ\ZLK�TVYL�VU�¸Ä_PUN¹�HSSLNLK�J\S[\YHS�KLÄJPLUJPLZ�[OHU�
on addressing the structural root of people’s problems (Reisch, 2018). 

THE “WELFARE CRISIS”
The social work profession’s shift from viewing the impacts of racism 
HUK�WV]LY[`�HZ�ZVJPHS�WOLUVTLUH�[V�]PL^PUN�[OLT�HZ�H�YLÅLJ[PVU�VM�
J\S[\YHS�KLÄJPLUJ`�YLZVUH[LK�PU�W\ISPJ�ZWOLYLZ�PU�[OL�LHYS`�� ��Z��:[H[LZ�
had largely restricted Black, Latine, and other immigrant families from 
accessing the anti-poverty programs established by The New Deal 
�2VOSLY�/H\ZTHUU���������;OL`�ZWLJPÄJHSS`�ISVJRLK�)SHJR�MHTPSPLZ�MYVT�
VI[HPUPUN�(+*�[OYV\NO�H�U\TILY�VM�H[[HJRZ�VU�MHTPS`�Z[Y\J[\YL!�JOPSKYLU�
born out-of-wedlock were deemed ineligible; in Mississippi, common 
law marriages, which many Black families obtained (Perry, 1999), 
were outlawed as illicit marriages, thus dropping over 8,000 mostly 
Black children from welfare rolls (Perry, 1999; Roberts, 2022). States 
HSZV�PTWSLTLU[LK�¸THU�PU�[OL�OV\ZL¹�Y\SLZ�[V�KLU`�ILULÄ[Z�[V�)SHJR�
mothers suspected of living with or having a sexual relationship with a 
THU�^OV�^V\SK�[OLU�IL�L_WLJ[LK�[V�ÄUHUJPHSS`�Z\WWVY[�[OL�MHTPS`�HZ�H�
“substitute father” (Roberts, 2022).

:VJPHS�^VYRLYZ�^LYL�\ZLK�[V�PTWSLTLU[�ZVTL�VM�[OLZL�WVSPJPLZ!�PU�� ����
Alameda County implemented “Operation Bedcheck,” deploying pairs 

JASMINE WALI



128  |  COLUMBIA SOCIAL WORK REVIEW, VOL. XXI 

of social workers and welfare investigators to search homes of families 
on welfare for men in the home (Kornbluh, 2007). The profession of 
social work, which had shifted to casework and professionalization in 
the 1950s, was so heavily associated with harming poor families on 
welfare that the National Welfare Rights Organization, a leading group 
advocating for the rights of public welfare clients, targeted some of 
their advocacy towards social workers in administrative positions in the 
public welfare bureaucracy (Marx, 2011).

+LZWP[L�Z[H[LZ»�LɈVY[Z�[V�ISVJR�)SHJR�MHTPSPLZ��(+*�NYL^�Z\IZ[HU[PHSS`�
over the 1960s, from 3.1 million in 1960 to 10.8 million in 1974 (Nadasen 
et al., 2009). This growth can be attributed to a multitude of factors, 
including federal oversight to ensure state compliance with racial 
protections, economic dislocations, increases in single-parent families, 
the mass migration of Black families to the North and West, and poverty 
SH^`LYZ»�HUK�HJ[P]PZ[Z»�LɈVY[Z�[V�OLSW�LSPNPISL�MHTPSPLZ�VI[HPU�[OLPY�
entitlements (Kohler-Hausmann, 2017). Indeed, in the early 1960s, about 
one-third of eligible families were enrolled in ADC; by 1971, about 90 
WLYJLU[�^LYL�YLJLP]PUN�ILULÄ[Z��9LLZL���������/V^L]LY��JYP[PJZ�HJYVZZ�
the political spectrum interpreted this growth as a “welfare crisis” 
symptomatic of the pathology and laziness of the parents it served. 
Barry Goldwater’s campaign for presidency in 1964 shaped the welfare 
debate on a national stage. Goldwater stated that the welfare state 
destroyed individualism and supported the growth of collectivism. Many 
of his themes would later form the multiple bases for the New Right’s 
attack on welfare. Right-wing publications attacked the welfare state 
for undermining rugged individualism and private property, fostering 
immorality and non-productivity, contributing to crime—pointing to 
urban protests and the civil rights movement—and ultimately leading to 
communism (Williams, 1997). 

ADC became a lightning rod for frustration as white populations were 
confronted with the visibility of racial injustices highlighted by the Civil 
Rights Movement, increased media attention to drugs and crime (and 
its racialized depictions), and a reckoning of women’s sexuality and role 
in the labor market (Kohler-Hausmann, 2017). Journalists in mainstream 

WHERE WERE THE SOCIAL WORKERS?



COLUMBIA SOCIAL WORK REVIEW, VOL. XXI  |   129   

news outlets such as The New York Times charged that Black and 
Puerto Rican families saw welfare as a “bank,” playing on deep-seated 
fears about a changing country (Horowitz, 1969). Debates about welfare 
dominated the media and political spheres.

Seeking to persuade the Johnson Administration to move swiftly to 
PTWYV]L�[OL�WSPNO[�VM�WVVY�)SHJR�MHTPSPLZ�[OYV\NO�MLKLYHSS`�ÄUHUJLK�HU[P�
WV]LY[`�WYVNYHTZ��+HUPLS�7H[YPJR�4V`UPOHU�^YV[L�;OL�5LNYV�-HTPS`!�(�
Case for National Action, commonly known as the Moynihan Report. 
While Moynihan discusses the role of systemic racism in creating and 
\WOVSKPUN�^LHS[O�PULX\HSP[ �̀�OL�HSZV�HYN\LZ�[OH[�[OL�PUJYLHZL�PU�^LSMHYL�
dependency can be “taken as a measure of the steady disintegration of 
[OL�5LNYV�MHTPS`�Z[Y\J[\YL�¹�/L�^YP[LZ�HIV\[�)SHJR�MHTPSPLZ!

[T]he family structure of lower class Negroes is highly unstable… 
The combined impact of poverty, failure, and isolation among 
Negro youth has had the predictable outcome in a disastrous 
KLSPUX\LUJ`�HUK�JYPTL�YH[L¯�B(D�UH[PVUHS�LɈVY[�[V^HYKZ�[OL�
problems of Negro Americans must be directed towards the 
X\LZ[PVU�VM�MHTPS`�Z[Y\J[\YL��4V`UPOHU��� ����

The Moynihan Report cemented the issue of race to welfare and single-
WHYLU[�MHTPSPLZ�PU�H�^H`�[OH[�THKL�P[�KPɉJ\S[�[V�[HSR�HIV\[�VUL�^P[OV\[�
[OL�V[OLYZ��HUK�PU�KVPUN�ZV�PUHK]LY[LU[S`�M\LSLK�WVW\SHY�Ä_H[PVU�VU�
Black women’s sexuality and welfare receipt (Nadasen, 2007). This 
YLWVY[�^HZ�HU�PUÅ\LU[PHS�YLZWVUZL�PU�H�JYP[PJHS�TVTLU[�[V�[OL�O`Z[LYPH�
around welfare and public demand for changes to ADC and shaped 
how politicians and media portrayed and understood Black children and 
Black parenting.

The Saturday Evening Post commented, “Today’s welfare child, raised 
in hopelessness and dependency, becomes tomorrow’s welfare adult, 
pauperized and helpless” (Nadasen, 2007). U.S. News and World Report 
declared in 1965 that the increasing number of “welfare babies” would 
“breed more criminals, more mental defectives, more unemployables of 
HSTVZ[�L]LY`�[`WL�¹�HUK�WYVÄSLK�H�[`WPJHS�(+*�YLJPWPLU[�PU�*OPJHNV�HZ�
¸(�WVVY�5LNYV�NPYS!���:OL�PZ�PUZLJ\YL��\ULK\JH[LK��\UZVWOPZ[PJH[LK��HUK�

JASMINE WALI



130  |  COLUMBIA SOCIAL WORK REVIEW, VOL. XXI 

frightened” (Nadasen, 2007). The concerns about ADC were shaped and 
portrayed to the public by racial ideology and existing racial stereotypes 
about Black parents and children, and raised concerns around the 
alleged impact that Black children would have on white America.

THE PATHOLOGY OF CHILD ABUSE

Amidst the unfounded charges of an inherent pathology in the Black 
family structure, concerns about child abuse were taking shape in the 
public. In 1962, pediatrician C. Henry Kempe and several colleagues 
published The Battered Child Syndrome report.

Similar terms were used to describe Black parents in the Moynihan 
Report as parents who physically abuse their children in the Battered 
Child Syndrome. Children in the reports were characterized as 
“illegitimate” or “unwanted.” Substance abuse in the reports was 
described as “drunkenness” or “alcoholism.” Parents were diagnosed as 
“pathologic” or “psychopathic and sociopathic.” Dysfunctional families 
were characterized by “divorce, separation, and desertion, female 
family head, children in broken homes…family disorganization, juvenile 
KLSPUX\LUJ �̀¹�VY�¸ZL_\HS�WYVTPZJ\P[ �̀�\UZ[HISL�THYYPHNLZ��HUK�Q\]LUPSL�
KLSPUX\LUJ`¹��>HSP��������

The authors of the Battered Child Syndrome stated that there were no 
reports of successful psychotherapy, and thus the only safe remedy at 
the time of publication was the separation of children from their parents 
(Kempe et al., 1962). They did, however, introduce the empirically 
unsupported idea of parental violence against children as a diagnosable 
and treatable medical condition or mental illness (Burton & Montauban, 
2021). The individual-centered psychological and medical construction 
of the problem turned policymakers away from considering its structural 
causes and allowed for physicians to maintain ownership and guide 
interventions for child abuse (Nelson, 1984; Hacking, 1991). 

Following the publication of The Battered Child Syndrome, academics 
and popular media rushed to popularize the issue of child abuse. In 

WHERE WERE THE SOCIAL WORKERS?



COLUMBIA SOCIAL WORK REVIEW, VOL. XXI  |   131   

the decade prior to the article’s appearance, doctors, lawyers, social 
workers, educators, and other researchers and practitioners published 
VUS`�H�JVTIPULK�UPUL�HY[PJSLZ�ZWLJPÄJHSS`�MVJ\ZPUN�VU�JY\LS[`�[V�JOPSKYLU"�
in the decade after its publication, the professions produced 260 articles 
(Nelson, 1984). Mass-circulation magazines carried twenty-eight articles 
in the decade after Kempe’s article, compared to only three in the 
KLJHKL�ILMVYL��;LSL]PZPVU�ZH^�H�ZPTPSHY�[YLUK!�JOPSK�HI\ZL�^HZ�]PY[\HSS`�
absent from early television scripts, whereas after BCS, soap operas 
and prime-time series alike created dramas based on the problem 
(Nelson, 1984).

The public embraced the individualized idea of the pathological and 
psychopathic parent who physically abused their children, as opposed 
to the parent whose capacity to nurture was limited by social factors 
(Newberger, 1983). Most seasoned professionals tasked with working 
with these families, who had experienced the anti-communist era’s 
push towards family dynamics and psychotherapy and away from social 
justice, embraced these individualized views (Finn, 2016). 

For nearly a decade, lawmakers and the public had been inundated 
with messages about the supposed looming impacts of welfare babies, 
[OL�)SHJR�MHTPS`�Z[Y\J[\YL��HUK�WO`ZPJHS�JOPSK�HI\ZL��ZWLJPÄJHSS`�[OLZL�
children’s supposed propensity to commit crimes and drain government 
resources. Racist depictions of the War on Drugs and crime, attributed 
to drugs and civil rights protests, found its way to white Americans’ 
dinner table discussions (Kohler-Hausmann, 2017). All of this helped to 
place a public outcry for child wellbeing interventions on the mainstream 
agenda as the 1970s approached.

REMOVING BLACK CHILDREN

In 1961, the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare issued a 
directive that states could not deny ADC based on suitable-home tests 
unless they took steps to rehabilitate the family. For families that could 
not be rehabilitated, federal funds were allocated to put the child in 
foster care. That year, Congress amended Title IV of the Social Security 

JASMINE WALI



132  |  COLUMBIA SOCIAL WORK REVIEW, VOL. XXI 

Act to provide federal funding to maintain these children apart from 
[OLPY�MHTPSPLZ��0UZ[LHK�VM�KLU`PUN�MHTPSPLZ�ILULÄ[Z��Z[H[L�(+*�LSPNPIPSP[`�
workers began taking Black children away from mothers deemed 
\UZ\P[HISL!�PU�� ������������JOPSKYLU�^LYL�WSHJLK�PU�V\[�VM�OVTL�JHYL�
(Roberts, 2022). 

)L`VUK�[OL�MLKLYHS�ÄUHUJPHS�PUJLU[P]L�MVY�MHTPS`�ZLWHYH[PVU��WVSPJPLZ�
around child well-being and welfare were also shifting. For example, in 
response to the increase in Black and Latina women receiving welfare 
ILULÄ[Z��WVSPJ`THRLYZ�PUZ[P[\[LK�^VYR�YLX\PYLTLU[Z��5HKHZLU�������!�
H�[HZR�KPɉJ\S[�MVY�ZPUNSL�TV[OLYZ�^P[O�UV�JOPSKJHYL�VW[PVUZ��)\[�H�� ���
bipartisan childcare bill was vetoed by President Nixon, who called it 
“the most radical piece of legislation” to have ever crossed his desk, 
and charged that the bill represented a “communal approach to child-
rearing” and had “family-weakening implications” (Rosenberg, 1992), 
echoing anti-communist terms and themes to describe and demonize 
a social welfare program. This intentional defunding of meso- and 
community-level support represented the prevailing conservative 
themes of the previous decades, and placed the onus for overcoming 
poverty and obtaining stability on the nuclear family, thereby detaching 
[OL�Z[H[L�MYVT�ÄUHUJPHS�YLZWVUZPIPSP[`�MVY�JOPSKYLU�HUK�MHTPSPLZ��579��
2016; The Economist, 2021; Rosenberg, 1992).

The bill’s sponsor, Senator Mondale, understood that child well-being 
could not be tied to anti-poverty programs, but still felt the public 
demand for interventions for children. In response, Mondale pursued 
the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, or CAPTA (Wexler, 2018), 
which passed in 1974. Narratives of parental responsibility and treating 
social issues as individual pathologic concerns had been promoted 
by the medical and social work communities over the previous few 
decades. This resonated in the 1970s. CAPTA’s initial scope was 
broad and vague, and combined intentional acts and acts of omission 
PU[V�H�ZPUN\SHY�WOLUVTLUVU!�JOPSK�HI\ZL�HUK�ULNSLJ[��;OPZ�JYLH[LK�
H�MHSZL�LX\P]HSLUJL�IL[^LLU�PU[LU[PVUHS�WO`ZPJHS�OHYT�[V�JOPSKYLU�
I`�[OLPY�WHYLU[Z�HUK�JVUKP[PVUZ�VM�WV]LY[ �̀�LɈLJ[P]LS`�[YHUZMVYTPUN�

WHERE WERE THE SOCIAL WORKERS?



COLUMBIA SOCIAL WORK REVIEW, VOL. XXI  |   133   

child poverty from a social, economic, and racial justice issue into a 
problem of individual parental pathology and deviant behavior. Thus, the 
government was absolved from addressing structural, economic, and 
YHJPHS�PULX\P[PLZ�[OH[�ZOHWLK�JOPSKYLU»Z�^LSSILPUN��)\Y[VU�
�4VU[H\IHU��
2021).

CAPTA: A FOUNDATION

CAPTA is the foundation of the modern family policing system. CAPTA 
YLX\PYLZ�LHJO�Z[H[L�[V�OH]L�THUKH[VY`�YLWVY[PUN�WYV]PZPVUZ��^OPJO�
train social workers and other medical, educational, and childcare 
WYVMLZZPVUHSZ�[V�YLWVY[�HU`�Z\ZWPJPVU�VM�]HN\L�KLÄUP[PVUZ�VM�JOPSK�HI\ZL�
VY�ULNSLJ[�HUK�PUZ[P[\[LZ�SLNHS�HUK�WYVMLZZPVUHS�JVUZLX\LUJLZ�MVY�
failure to report. The practice is wrought with implicit and racial biases, 
resulting in disproportionate reporting of  Black families (Inguanta & 
Sciolla, 2021). The “Prevention and Treatment” of child abuse and 
ULNSLJ[�I\PSKZ�VU�[OL�[OLVYL[PJHS�MYHTL^VYR�VɈLYLK�I`�[OL�ZVJPHS�
work and medical communities from the 1950s through the 1970s 
by identifying risk factors in personalities and developing a treatment 
plan. Mental health evaluations are used to this day when a family is 
investigated by CPS, even though “searches for distinctive behavioral 
syndromes have proven elusive” (Melton, 2005) after decades of 
government and foundation-funded research (Burton & Montauban, 
2021). These mental health evaluations continue to be used in court 
proceedings and as grounds to separate families and terminate parental 
rights. Instead of providing families with more resources, CAPTA funds 
investigations into families and “treatment” services administered by 
ZVJPHS�^VYRLYZ��HUK�ZL[Z�[OL�Z[H[\Z�X\V�MVY�[OL�^H`�^L�HKKYLZZ�MHTPSPLZ�
ensnared in the family policing system.

IMPLICATIONS FOR TODAY’S SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE

An appreciation of history has been largely marginalized in U.S. social 
work (Finn, 2016). Social work scholar Michael Reisch claims that we 
are an ahistorical culture that has become accustomed to fragments of 
information, instead of the connective tissue (Reisch, 1988). Our current 

JASMINE WALI



134  |  COLUMBIA SOCIAL WORK REVIEW, VOL. XXI 

cultural and political institutions, including the social work profession, 
perpetuate ignorance of the past in order to sustain the perception 
of the present as a given; this limits the range of societal choices for 
the future (Reisch, 1993). The Council on Social Work Education must 
HKKYLZZ�ZVJPHS�^VYR�OPZ[VY �̀�MVY�^OPJO�[OLYL�PZ�J\YYLU[S`�UV�YLX\PYLTLU[�
for competency (Finn, 2016).

There is an inherent tension in the social work profession. The majority 
of the labor sector is still middle-class white women, while the clientele 
is largely Black, Indigenous, people of color, and low-income; these 
racial and class dynamics inform the implicit and explicit biases that 
impact communities. There is tension in the social worker’s power over 
families because of social workers’ participation in the family policing 
Z`Z[LT�[OYV\NO�YLX\PYLTLU[Z�Z\JO�HZ�THUKH[LK�YLWVY[PUN�Z\JO�HZ�
mandated reporting, case notes that impact court proceedings, and 
visitation supervision between parents and children.

Nevertheless, there are examples of resistance in the history of social 
work that show individual social workers refusing to participate in 
harmful practices and using their positionality to end them, and of 
students changing the path and the education of the profession. For 
example, “Operation Bedcheck” was deemed unconstitutional after 
a social worker refused to participate in a mass morning raid on the 
homes of Alameda County’s welfare recipients and was dismissed 
from his job. In Parrish v. Civil Service Commission��[OL�WSHPU[PɈ�HYN\LK�
that such participation would have involved him in multiple violations 
of rights secured by the federal and state Constitutions and that his 
superiors could not properly direct him to participate in illegal activity. 
Following the lawsuit initiated by an individual social worker, the county 
Z\IZLX\LU[S`�HIHUKVULK�THZZ�TVYUPUN�YHPKZ�[V�KL[LYTPUL�^LSMHYL�
eligibility and determined that such operations were forbidden by the 
applicable state and federal regulations. This raises room for envisioning 
other ways that social workers can push back against daily practices 
encouraged by their superiors and licensing boards and challenge their 
constitutionality and legality.

WHERE WERE THE SOCIAL WORKERS?



COLUMBIA SOCIAL WORK REVIEW, VOL. XXI  |   135   

-VY�L_HTWSL��[OL������WYV[LZ[Z�MVY�YHJPHS�LX\P[`�WYVTW[LK�[OL�JYLH[PVU�
of a group called Mandated Reporters Against Mandated Reporting. 
They work to end the practice of mandated reporting that families have 
called the “stop-and-frisk of caretaking” (Meiners & Schenwar, 2017) 
by providing case processing spaces for peer feedback and informal 
supervision that they do not receive from their agencies. In addition, 
calls to abolish mandated reporting have strengthened within the social 
work profession (Inguanta & Sciolla, 2021; upEND, n.d.).

Following 2020, CPS caseworkers also saw the way that they were 
trained to coerce their way into homes without a court order, thus 
Z\IQLJ[PUN�[OL�MHTPS`�[V�HU�PU]HZP]L�WYVJLZZ�[OH[�^HZ�OLH]PS`�PUÅ\LUJLK�
by bias, and recommended that “Miranda warning” practices be 
PUZ[P[\[LK�[V�YLX\PYL�[OH[�WHYLU[Z�IL�PTTLKPH[LS`�UV[PÄLK�VM�[OLPY�
constitutional rights (Newman, 2022). Social workers must fearlessly 
advocate from within the profession to challenge long-standing and 
harmful standards.

Student activism is crucial to the social work profession. After decades 
of social workers’ movement away from activism, the 1960s and the 
civil rights movement reinvigorated the profession’s social action—not 
of seasoned, white professionals, but of students and Black social 
workers. Students and Black social workers organized for change 
I`�JYP[PX\PUN�[OLPY�VYNHUPaH[PVUZ��^LSMHYL�I\YLH\JYHJPLZ��HUK�ZJOVVS�
curricula, and protested social work’s lack of response to Black 
liberation movements (Abramovitz, 1998). This led to the emergence 
of a systems perspective, which is now the foundation of a generalist 
approach to social work (Finn, 2016). In the present day, students are 
continuing the legacy of activism. Social work students rewrote and 
replaced the mandated reporting training with a “Mandated Supporting” 
curriculum that Columbia School of Social Work students now receive 
(JMACforFamilies, 2022). Students at UIC Jane Addams College of 
Social Work developed an “Alternatives to Calling DCFS” guide for 
Illinois social workers (Shriver, 2021). 

JASMINE WALI



136  |  COLUMBIA SOCIAL WORK REVIEW, VOL. XXI 

Social workers have also increased their academic advocacy around 
robust anti-poverty programs through peer-reviewed research that 
countered narratives of personal responsibility and promoted the idea 
that governments should support families. These studies have found 
that the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit, childcare 
subsidies, medicaid expansion, and an increased minimum wage all 
reduce reports of child maltreatment (Biehl & Hill, 2018; Kovski et al., 
2022; Yang et al., 2019; Brown et al., 2019; Raissian & Bullinger, 2017). 

Most importantly, what social workers can do to end harmful practices 
in the profession is to listen and follow the lead of communities who 
have been most impacted by the profession and overlapping systems, 
using positionality to ensure their experiences and leadership are 
JLU[LYLK��ÄUKPUN�YLZV\YJLZ�[V�LUZ\YL�[OH[�JVTT\UP[PLZ�HYL�PU]LZ[LK�PU�
and compensated for their labor, and being active in the community, not 
just working in it.

The anti-communist movements impacted generations of social work 
practice and training and shaped the conditions under which the 
modern family policing system was formed. Much of the profession 
was complicit in promoting ideas of personal responsibility and 
individual pathology, positing the profession as a solution to rectify 
deviant individuals, families, and communities amidst intentional policy 
choices that defunded family and community support. As social work 
continues to evolve, particularly in this crucial time period of the post-
�����YHJPHS�YLJRVUPUN��ZVJPHS�^VYRLYZ�T\Z[�YLZPZ[�HNLUJ`�Z[H[\Z�X\V�
when it is damaging and engage with macro-level advocacy to promote 
anti-poverty programs that strengthen community well-being and keep 
families safe and together.

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