The Impact of Poverty on African American Children in the Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice Systems

Poverty among individuals is an enduring condition in almost all societies. The responses by governments to poverty, however, have varied. In the United States, President Lyndon Johnson sought to address poverty through the creation of the Great Society programs in the 1960s. In effect, he declared a War on Poverty. Later, especially during the Republicans’ takeover of the government in the 1980s, another initiative used to address poverty was to use increasingly American social institutions—volunteer organizations and correctional institutions. President Reagan declared a War on Drugs. Simply, prisons, both adult and juvenile, became a primary tool for controlling people in poverty. America went from a War on Poverty to a War on Drugs, ensnaring many African Americans within the criminal justice system with an ensuing impact on African American children. While the child welfare system has long taken poor children out of their homes, the juvenile justice system has done so too. Often, family courts handle both neglected children and delinquent or unruly children, and often poor African American children are disproportionately affected in both the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. Black’s theory of law is provided to aid in the understanding of African American children in both systems. In sum, this paper discusses the impact of poverty on African American children in both the child welfare and juvenile justice systems.