The child welfare system as a social determinant of health

Abstract Research documents the ways that policing, incarceration, and deportation influence the health of racialized, poor families in the U.S. However, we lack empirical analysis of the ways that family policing through the child welfare system affects health. In this paper, I review the literature on intersectional harms in carceral institutions to argue that the child welfare system is a social determinant of health. First, I provide a review of the ways carceral institutions target women of color through settler‐colonial logic and the criminalization of race, poverty, and reproduction. Second, I share what is known about carceral effects on health and the mechanisms by which they function: 1. stigma, 2. maternal stressors, and 3. threat. Third, I delve into how these mechanisms manifest within the child welfare system and underscore the importance of examining their adverse health consequences. I conclude with a discussion where I call for more research on the child welfare system as a social determinant of health to understand abolitionist healthcare practices that contribute to dismantling the expanding carceral state. Collectively, these areas of literature illustrate the U.S. child welfare system's role in a broader criminalization process that detrimentally impacts the health of impoverished mothers of color.