How to End Family Policing
From Outrage to Action
Published on 4. November 2025
Book
Hardback
272 pages
979-8-88890-497-8 (ISBN)
Description
From leading abolitionist organizers, a much-needed intervention arguing that the systems that purport to protect children make them-and our communities-less safe.
Based on decades of shared organizing, study, and lived experience, the contributors to How to End Family Policing argue that the child welfare system cannot build genuine safety. Rather than the misleading language of "child welfare" and "child protective services," scholars and activists use the term "family policing" to name the fact that these institutions and practices are neither neutral nor benign. Black, Indigenous, and Latinx parents do not mistreat their children at higher rates than white parents. Yet 53 percent of all Black children in the United States will experience a child protective services investigation before the age of eighteen.
Offering first-person testimony and laying out visions for alternatives to family policing, this book is an urgent call to build flourishing communities.
With contributions from Corey B. Best, Annie Chambers, Noran Elzarka, Brianna Harvey, Shira Hassan, Shawn Koyano, jaboa lake, Elizabeth Ling, Leah Plasse, Margaret Prescod, zara raven, Ignacio G. Hutia Xeiti Rivera, Dorothy Roberts, Arneta Rogers, Lisa Sangoi, jasmine Sankofa, Kylee Sunderlin, Jasmine Wali, Amanda Wallace, Eleni Zimiles, and the editors.
Based on decades of shared organizing, study, and lived experience, the contributors to How to End Family Policing argue that the child welfare system cannot build genuine safety. Rather than the misleading language of "child welfare" and "child protective services," scholars and activists use the term "family policing" to name the fact that these institutions and practices are neither neutral nor benign. Black, Indigenous, and Latinx parents do not mistreat their children at higher rates than white parents. Yet 53 percent of all Black children in the United States will experience a child protective services investigation before the age of eighteen.
Offering first-person testimony and laying out visions for alternatives to family policing, this book is an urgent call to build flourishing communities.
With contributions from Corey B. Best, Annie Chambers, Noran Elzarka, Brianna Harvey, Shira Hassan, Shawn Koyano, jaboa lake, Elizabeth Ling, Leah Plasse, Margaret Prescod, zara raven, Ignacio G. Hutia Xeiti Rivera, Dorothy Roberts, Arneta Rogers, Lisa Sangoi, jasmine Sankofa, Kylee Sunderlin, Jasmine Wali, Amanda Wallace, Eleni Zimiles, and the editors.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Chicago
United States
Product notice
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
No
Dimensions
Height: 191 mm
Width: 133 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
417 gr
ISBN-13
979-8-88890-497-8 (9798888904978)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Erin Miles Cloud is a mama, civil rights attorney, cofounder of Movement for Family Power, and a former family defense public defender.
Erica R. Meiners is a writer, organizer, and educator in Chicago. They are the coauthor of Abolition. Feminism. Now. and The Feminist and the Sex Offender: Confronting Sexual Harm and Ending State Violence.
Shannon Perez-Darby is a queer, mixed-race Latina, founding member of the Accountable Communities Consortium, and a core member of the Mandatory Reporting Is Not Neutral project.
C. Hope Tolliver is a Black poet, abolitionist, parent, and Chicago native who has been organizing for more than two decades.
Erica R. Meiners is a writer, organizer, and educator in Chicago. They are the coauthor of Abolition. Feminism. Now. and The Feminist and the Sex Offender: Confronting Sexual Harm and Ending State Violence.
Shannon Perez-Darby is a queer, mixed-race Latina, founding member of the Accountable Communities Consortium, and a core member of the Mandatory Reporting Is Not Neutral project.
C. Hope Tolliver is a Black poet, abolitionist, parent, and Chicago native who has been organizing for more than two decades.
Content
Introduction: From Outrage to Action
1. It's Never Been about the Welfare of Children: The Origins of the Term Family Police by Brianna Harvey and Jasmine Wali
2. Who is Safe? Who is Protected? by Corey B. Best
3. Prevention, Reparations, and Reunification Black Families and Healing the Harms of Family Policing by jaboa lake
4. Young People Deserve Community Care by zara raven
5. Abolish the Family by Ignacio G. Hutia Xeiti Rivera
6. Who Do You Tell? by Shannon Perez-Darby
7. The Community Dimensions of State Child Protection by Dorothy Roberts
8. Beyond Mandated Reporting: Organizing from the Inside Out by Leah Plasse, LCSW, and E. Zimiles, LCSW
9. "I'm not an Organizer, I Just Organized" by Amanda Wallace, Annie Chambers, Charity Tolliver, Erin Cloud Miles, and Margaret Prescod
10. Change Everything? Notes on Abolitionist Strategies by Erica R. Meiners
11. What About Child Sexual Abuse? by Hope Tolliver
12. Bigger than Roe v. Wade by Arneta Rogers, jasmine Sankofa, Erin Miles Cloud, Noran Elzarka, Elizabeth Ling, and Kylee Sunderlin
13. Relationships not Reporting: The Transformative Justice Help Desk by Shira Hassan
14. Everyday People Build Extraordinary Possibilities: Parental Organizing as Key to Ending Family Policing by Shawn Koyano
15. Movement Building and the Experiment of Movement for Family Power by Erin Miles Cloud and Lisa Sangoi
Contributors
Acknowledgements
Appendix
Endnotes
1. It's Never Been about the Welfare of Children: The Origins of the Term Family Police by Brianna Harvey and Jasmine Wali
2. Who is Safe? Who is Protected? by Corey B. Best
3. Prevention, Reparations, and Reunification Black Families and Healing the Harms of Family Policing by jaboa lake
4. Young People Deserve Community Care by zara raven
5. Abolish the Family by Ignacio G. Hutia Xeiti Rivera
6. Who Do You Tell? by Shannon Perez-Darby
7. The Community Dimensions of State Child Protection by Dorothy Roberts
8. Beyond Mandated Reporting: Organizing from the Inside Out by Leah Plasse, LCSW, and E. Zimiles, LCSW
9. "I'm not an Organizer, I Just Organized" by Amanda Wallace, Annie Chambers, Charity Tolliver, Erin Cloud Miles, and Margaret Prescod
10. Change Everything? Notes on Abolitionist Strategies by Erica R. Meiners
11. What About Child Sexual Abuse? by Hope Tolliver
12. Bigger than Roe v. Wade by Arneta Rogers, jasmine Sankofa, Erin Miles Cloud, Noran Elzarka, Elizabeth Ling, and Kylee Sunderlin
13. Relationships not Reporting: The Transformative Justice Help Desk by Shira Hassan
14. Everyday People Build Extraordinary Possibilities: Parental Organizing as Key to Ending Family Policing by Shawn Koyano
15. Movement Building and the Experiment of Movement for Family Power by Erin Miles Cloud and Lisa Sangoi
Contributors
Acknowledgements
Appendix
Endnotes