Protection as punishment: family policing and criminalization without conviction in child protection

This article examines how the child protection system (CPS) functions as a governing institution and whether its protective mandate conceals forms of surveillance, discipline, and coercion that parallel criminal justice. Drawing on critical social work, socio-legal, and criminological scholarship, it develops a theoretical analysis that compares the CPS with the criminal justice system to examine their shared reliance on discretionary decision-making, risk assessment, and preventive governance. The analysis argues that, despite its therapeutic framing, the CPS exercises punitive power through civil and administrative mechanisms while disavowing punishment altogether. Conceptualized as criminalization without conviction, this dynamic reveals how safeguarding discourse obscures structural inequality and legitimates expanded control over family life. Rather than minimizing children’s vulnerability or the need for intervention in situations of serious harm, the article argues that surveillance-oriented approaches often undermine the relational and material conditions necessary for children’s well-being. Meaningful transformation therefore requires decoupling protection from punishment and reimagining care collectively.