How Race Matters: The Parental and Neighborhood Determinants of Child Protective Services Involvement

This paper examines the determinants of child protective services involvement. Using the Illinois Family Study I examine layers of interacting demographic, economic, and locational factors that might increase the probability of child protective services intervention. While the effects of some of these are well established in the literature, the inclusion of racial interaction terms is unique. Using these interaction terms I find that the effects of a variety of circumstances, from domestic violence to homelessness to welfare receipt, differ for African American and non-African American families