Making kinship in the wake of history: Gendered violence and older child adoption

In the United States children enter the state‐run foster care system because of a range of conditions considered to be “abuse and neglect.” Children entering the system are vulnerable to additional bureaucratically ordained violence, some of which is generic and some of which is gendered. This paper situates the exposure of children in state care to gendered violence in a context of poverty, the scaling back of state social welfare programs, and the interaction of gender, family, and race ideologies. The consequences of early exposure to gendered violence are explored through narratives by parents of girls adopted over the age of two who had been subject to sexual and other forms of gendered violence in or before foster care. The need for intervention on the conditions leading to foster care, better monitoring of children's well‐being in foster care, and training and support of foster and adoptive parents regarding recovery from gendered violence is stressed, as is the need to address the ideological conditions leading to the differential exposure of girls and boys to violation.

Key words:

• Adoption
• Foster care
• Gendered violence
• Kinship
• United States