In this article, the authors trace how government responsibility for the prevention of child maltreatment became centered within the U.S. child protection response.

This article examines existing knowledge on the scope, nature, and causes of child abuse and neglect in the U.S.

This article summarizes the causes of racial disproportionality, arguing that internal and external causes of disproportional involvement originate from a common underlying factor: structural and institutional racism that is both within child welfare systems and part of society at large.

This introduction sets a foundation for understanding the contents of this volume of The ANNALS, which aims to increase awareness among scholars, policy-makers, and practitioners of the size, scope, and functions of child welfare services in the United States.

This article provides an overview of the funding streams that finance the U.S. child welfare system, reviews the federal legislation since 1970 that has led to the current funding structure, and ends with a discussion of how the Family First Prevention Services Act of 2018 has the potential to create better outcomes for children and families by promoting prevention activities and program support with strong evidence of success.

This article considers how U.S. child welfare agencies can best leverage the opportunities presented by the Family First Prevention Services Act of 2018 while addressing potential barriers posed by the paucity of evidence-supported prevention programs and avoiding the unintended consequences of limiting reimbursement to only selective prevention services that meet rigorous evidence standards of effectiveness.

The author of this article analyzes young people’s experiences in foster care from a life course perspective, accounting for when foster care happens, how long it lasts, and what happens when foster care placements end.

Este mapeo inicial tiene dos objetivos: a) identificar temas e intereses comunes entre las encuestas implementadas en los diferentes países de la región; y b) analizar las fortalezas y desafíos enfrentados cuando se implementan este tipo de ejercicios de medición, en particular durante una situación de distanciamiento social como la que implica la Covid-19.

This commentary challenges the stereotypes created by hyper-attention to the struggles of child welfare-affected parents of color (CW-PaoC) and situates them, and their families, within the broader context of the American appetite for family separation, wherein specific types of families are targeted for scrutiny, intervention and regulation.

This research examines the intersection of cross-cultural practice and child maltreatment investigations.