Despite its flaws, most Americans believe that child welfare is designed to protect youth from abuse, maltreatment, and neglect. However, Dorothy Roberts – endowed professor of Law and Sociology and the founding director of the Penn Program on Race, Science, and Society – argues that in reality the system does more to punish poverty, bolster racism, and tear apart families than it does to safeguard children. In this episode, we sat down with Dr. Roberts to discuss twenty years of research on family safety and social inequity. In order to truly support families and protect children, we need an entirely new approach to the problem.

A specialist on the interplay of gender, race, and class in legal issues concerning reproduction, bioethics, and child welfare, Dorothy Roberts is the author of more than 100 articles and five books, including her latest, Torn Apart: How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families--and How Abolition Can Build a Safer World. Roberts is an elected member of the American Philosophical Society, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the National Academy of Medicine.

Robert Perkinson (moderator) is Director of the Better Tomorrow Speaker Series and a historian at UH Manoa.  He is the author of Texas Tough: The Rise of America's Prison Empire. 

Sound editing and graphic by Amika Matteson.

The Better Tomorrow Speaker Series features incisive conversations on the most pressing issues of our time. The project is a joint venture of the University of Hawai‘i, Hawai‘i Community Foundation, and Kamehameha Schools.

BTSS website: http://manoa.hawaii.edu/speakers/ 

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