From Race Matters: Examining the Overrepresentation of  African Americans in the Child Welfare System

Mark F. Testa & John Poertner

The following abstract is taken from the Child Welfare League of America.

This study aims to better understand, in a quantitative manner, the reunification of children in Illinois, with a particular focus on understanding why African American children reunify with their families more slowly than white children. This phenomenon has been a fact in Illinois for many years, and researchers have undertaken a significant effort to better understand the reasons for it. This chapter makes some suggestions about the causes of this disparity, but doesn’t definitively explain why this is the case.