Shuffle Out, Shuffle In: Child Protective Services Contact and Institutional Shuffling among Middle-Class Black Mothers

Abstract

Abstract Researchers have shown how punitive state contact shapes the lives of poor Black individuals but have paid less attention to the role of punitive state contact in the lives of the Black middle-class. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 29 middle-class Black mothers recently investigated by Child Protective Services (CPS)—a punitive state institution with the ability to remove children from their homes—this article asks how Black mothers who are not poor assess risk of future CPS contact and navigate the threats it poses. Armed with greater resources than poor mothers, middle-class Black mothers work to evade future CPS contact through institutional shuffling—a resource-intensive evasion strategy that involves shuffling children out of certain types of institutions and into others. I find that middle-class Black mothers shuffle their children out of formal institutions and into informal ones, out of predominantly white institutions and into predominantly Black ones, and out of institutions where they have weak ties and into institutions where they have strong ties. While shuffling may shield mothers and children from future CPS contact, it may also shrink mothers’ networks, isolate children from a broad array of institutional resources, and inadvertently expose middle-class Black families to greater surveillance and punishment.